The evening times., 1899-08-28
MONDAY, AUGUST rs, 1899.
Gloomy Prospects i'm France.

Sunday nights cable letters from Paris
and Rennes quite corroborated the view We
took this morning in regard to the present
position of the Dreyfus case. The situation
in France is painfully acute, and the storm
of passion and revolution is gathering
darkly like a West Indian hurricane. 1t
may not break for days; possibly not for
several weeks, or il may be dissipated al
together; but there is intense gloom and
anxiety throughout the country. Nobody
knows what viii happen next, or where to
turn for safety from things feared without
positive knowledge Of what they are. or
are TO be.
1t is generally believed that the Sunday
cabinet council called by President Loubet
was for no other purpose than to discuss
the advisability of arresting General Mer-
cier, on account of the discriminating de-
velopments at Rennes. If the present gov
ernment retains office long enough there
is little doubt that this distinguished liar.
perjurer, and procurer Of forgery, as well
us his co-conspirators, who include Cav
aignac, Roget, Gonse, and Boisdeffre will
be entertained at public expense in the
Cherche-Mide prison, and allowed to taste
the pleasures OF trial by court-martial.
just now it seems that the ministry is
afraid, or unprepared. to adopt extreme
measures. Emperor Wilhelm is quoted as
saying that revolution is running riot in
Paris, and His Majesty is probably not far
wrong.
Ii is not as yet open and bloody revolu-
tion, but the final step between existing
and threatened conditions is short and
might be taken on the slightest incitement
At is for this reason. no doubt. that the
pitiful Guerin farce is allowed to blockade
the Rue Chabrol and ruin the shopkeepers
for blocks adjacent. II is because of the
danger Of an outbreak, the end of which
no man could foretell, that the headquar-
ters perjurers and forgers are permitted to
meet daily in Cavaignac's hiding place in
Rennes, and rehearse the y:llainy they de-
sign TO perpetrate at the next sitting in
the Lycee!
Poor France seems to have run mad. and
the combined anti-Dreyfusard press is
working desperately to increase the mad
ness. 1t is about inconceiyable to hmeri-
cans that the complete overthrow of the
prosecution on Saturday, and the open and
hopeless disgrace of Mercier and Maurel,
which resulted from Captain Freystaeter's
startling evidence, should be so represent
ed in the national anti-Semite, monarchi-
eal, and imperialist newspapers, as TO make
II appear TO perhaps majority of French
people that Mercier and Maurel were vim
nicated and Freystaeter shown 70 be a liar.
Yet that is what happened and the facts
Of the episode which cut the throat of the
ease against Dreyfus, is known only 10 the
minority who read the journals favorable
10 the prisoner.
This is one of the most serious of the
many sinister phenomena presented in the
situation. Ii means that the Jew-baiting
and the Orleanist and Bonapartist press,
deliberately intends to keep the truth from
the masses, so that the latter may have no
chance 10 change their opinion, or moder-
ate their rage against the innocent victim
of the general staff; but continue in a state
OF senseless passion, and be ready for riot
and gore should a verdict Of acquittal
come, in the interests OF the epauletted
conspirators and traitors.
1t is miserable and ugly task that Lou
bet, Waldeck- Rousseau, and Gallifet have
on their hands, and, while every friend of
decency and justice will hope they may
be equal TO it, there are many reasons for
fearing that it will prove too much for
them, and that the sun of the republic
will soon go down in the sea of another
French revolution