The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-17
Courageous Spirit Revealed in
His Correspondence.
APPALLED, BY THE CHARGE
Moments OF Furious Madness From Be-
ing Accused of Crime So Mon
strous - Is Always
Fighter.


of publication the firm has permitted
| representatives of the press to make
! extracts from the letters.
Hitherto the actors in the tragedy
| have been the lesser characteristic
central figure has been kept in the
background. These letters bring the
prisoner of Devils island into the light,
giving the world his thoughts in detail
for the first time.
Arrested Oct. 10. 1894, Dreyfus was
not allowed to write to his wife until
Dec. 5 of that year. Thereafter he
wrote to her daily, sometimes two or
| three times day, until he was sent to
the island prison
In the second letter he wrote Dec. S,
| 1894 he said:
II am waiting with Impotence for
| letter from you. You are my hope, you
| are my consolation; were it not for you
| life would be burden. AT the bare
| thought that they could accuse me of
| a crime so frightful, so monstrous, my
| whole being trembles; my body revolts
| against it. To have worked all my life
| for one thing alone, to avenge my
| country, to struggle for her against the
| Infamous ravisher who has snatched
| from us our dear Alsace, and then to
be accused of treason against that
country-no, my loved one, my mind
refuses to comprehend it! Do you re-
member my telling you how, when /
was in Mulhouse, 10 years ago, in Sep
tember 1 heard a German band under
our windows celebrat ting the anniver-
sary of Sedan? My grief was such that
l wept; | bit the sheets of my bed with
rage, and l swore an oath to consecrate
all my strength, all my intelligence, to
those who thus offered insult to the
grief of Alsace.
NO. no. / will not speak of it, for I
shall go mad, and l must preserve all
my reason. Moreover, my life has
henceforth but one aim; to find the
wretch who has betrayed his country;
to find the traitor for whom no punish
ment could be too severe. Oh, dear
France. thou that l love with all my
soul, with all my heart! thou to whom
l have consecrated all my strength, all
| my intelligence, how could one accuse.
me of crime 50 horrblet 4 will not
write upon this subject. my darling,
for spasms take me by the throat. No
man has ever borne the martyriom
that l endure. No physical suffering
can be compared to the mental agony
that l feel when my thoughts turn to
this accusation. If l had not my honor
| to defend, / assure you that should
prefer death; at least death would be
| forgetfulness Write to me soon. My
| love to ALL ALFRED
| His confidence of acquittal in the
| days preceding his trial is testified in
the following missive:s
| AT last / am coming to the end of
! my suffering, to the end of my agony.
| Tomorrow | shall appear before my
| judges, my brow high, my soul tran
| quill. The trial l have undergone, ter
| rible as it has been, has purified my
soul. l shall return to you better than
1 was before. / want to consecrate to
| you, to my children, to our dear famiI-
| les, all the time l have yet to live.
LAS l have told you, l have passed
| through awful crises. Il have had mo-
ments of furious, actual madness at
the thought of being accused of crime
| so monstrous.
II am ready to appear before the
| soldiers as a soldier who has nothing
| for which to reproach himself. They
| will see 1t my face; they will read it in
| my soul; they will be convinced chat
l am innocent, as all will who know
me-"
After the trial. when his hopes were
| for the moment cast down, he wrote:
II suffer much but I pity you still
more than myself. / know how much
you love me. Your heart must bleed.
| On my side. my adored one, my
| thought has always been of you night
and day
''To be innocent. to have lived a life
without a stain, and to see ones self
condemned for the most monstrous
crime that a soldier can commit! What
| could be more terrible! 1t seems to me
| at times that l am the victim OF an
awful nightmare.
| 1T is for you alone that / have re-
sisted until to-day; it is for you alone,
my adored one. that I have borne my
| long agony. Will my strength hold out
| to the end? l cannot tell. No one but
! you can give me courage 1t is only
| from your love that l can draw it.
Above all else, no matter what may
| become of me, search for the truth;
move earth and heaven to discover it;
sink in the effort, If need be, all our
| fortune to rehabilitate my name
which now is dragged through the mud.
| No matter what may be the cost we
must wash out the unmerited stain"
The following is taken from a letter
| in the same strain written a few days
later:
| II do not sleep, and it is to you that
! return. Am I then marked by a fatal
seal, that I must drink this cup of bit
terness? At this moment I am calm.
My soul is strong. and 1t rises in the
! silence of the night. How happy we
We're, my darling! Life smiled on US;
! fortune. love, adorable children, unit
| ed 1ainlly-eNeIytnlilS! linen came TINS
| thunderbolt, fearful, terrible. Buy, /
pray you, playthings for the children,
| for their New Years day; tell them
that their father sends them. 1t must
not be that their poor souls, just enter
| ing upon life, should suffer through our
| pain.
"Oh. my darling, had not I you how
| gladly would I die! Your love holds
| me back, it is your love only that
makes me strong enough to bear the
| hatred of a nation.
And the people are right to hate me;
| they have been told that ] am a trait
| or. All, traitor, the horrible word! 1t
breaks my heart.
II . traitor! Is 1t possible that
they could accuse me and condemn me
for crime so monstrous!
"Cry aloud my innocence; cry it with
all the strength of your lungs: cry it
upon the housetops, till the very walls
fall.
ha ~ &c