Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1899-08-26
1ERGILLoN,s MIGHTY TASK,
Bompas.1c expert Amuses the List
encrs at the Dr. yfus ,rrtnl

BomDast1c Expert Amuses the List.
encrs at the Dlsyfus Trial.
Rennes, Aug. 26-After NJ. Bertillon
the handwriting expert who is at ths
head of the anthropometric department
lof the prefecture of police of Paris. had
concluded the first installment of his
4 so-called demonstrations of the guilt ot
Capt. Dreyfus, prominent Dreyfusard
referred to him as the fin de steele
ICagliostro.
The Dreyfusards refused to regard
him as anything but the prince of
quacks. They cover his remarks with
ridlcule and protest that the admission
of his fantastic theories as evidence be-
fore the court martial is disgrace to
France.
'C"este une honte" was the remark
lheard on all sides when the session
closed and the audience, mainly made
up of Dreyfusards. was being pressed
outside of the gendarmes. who clear the
court room as soon as the court adj
journs
| Nevertheless even the Dreyfusards do
not deceive themselves as to the effect
Nj. Bertillon's testimony or "demonstra-
ton may have upon the judges. who,
they fear, will be gulled by what the
| lDreyfusards consider spurious. All the
| judges have passed through the Ecole
Polytechnique, the highest school of
science in France. and they are thus
particularly interested in such "evi-
ldence' as Nj. Bertillon's. Moreover,
with the aid of the innumerable dia-
grams and specimens of writing which
| he submits to them they may be able
| to follow his reasoning intelligibly,
which is more than any member of the
audience could do
| If the judges accept Bertillons prem
lises-that Dreyfus. as an expert spy,
did not write ordinary handwriting. but
| in close imitation. even contriving to
| give the letters the appearance of hav-
| ing been traced, in order to be able to
lrepudiate them as forgery if de-
ltected-then the structure built upon
this ground work may be scientifically
correct.
Even Dreyfus. when shown Bertillon's s
demonstrations, admitted the ingenuity
and plausibility of the system, though
he naturally declared that it was built
upon false basis.
A remarkable feature of NJ. Bertillon's
deposition was the heat and excitement
he put into what was expected to be a
|calm and dispassionate exposition of his
theory. He numbered, shouted and
waved his arms, as though engaged in
some terrible dispute Once he literally
shrieked, and numbers of the usual au-
dience, who had been unable to follow
him and We're taking the air in the
court yard, rushed back into the hall,
breathlessly inquiring what had hap
pened and imagining that he was full
minating some dreadful denunciation of
the accused. Their excitement was
turned into hilarity when they found
that he was momentarly impressing
upon the judges the significance of the
exact space, measures in centimeters,
between the words in the bordereau
The military witnesses, all of whom
sit in bunch. leaving Col. Picquart
and NJ. Bertullus severely isolated. fol-
lowed NJ. Bertillon's statements with a
grave and wise expression of counte-
nance, upon which never suspicion of
a smile appeared, as though they un-
derstood every word. Evidently they
had received mot d'ordre to preserve
this attitude, for without seeing the
diagrams they coulo not have under
stood any better than did the general
public.