Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-02-26
MAE. DREYFUs ASA HON

The world is ringing with the name
Of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, and char
acter sketch of his heroic wife will
therefore be read with special interest
just now. Few instances of womanly
devotion and sacrifice equal and none
surpass in tragic nobility the example
of this French wife and mother.
1t was at the end of 1889 that Nile.
Lucie Hadamard, daughter of NJ. Hada-
mard, Paris diamond merchant, met
Captain Alfred Dreyfus for the first
time. The two young people became en-
gagged and were married some two or
three months later, April 81, 1890. Their
early married life was not without its
troubles. Nine Dreyfus was delicate,
and the health of her little son was
constant source of anxiety. There
came in due time period of many
months of happiness, which was I'M
broken until October Is, 1894, when
Captain Dreyfus received letter order
ing him to call at the ministry Of war.
The arrest and what followed are now
matters of history. Account books and
private correspondence were seized be-
meath the eyes of the young wife of "a.
Not even the letters written by her to
her husband before marriage were re-
spected. After three months torture
Nine. Dreyfus received permission to
see her husband. Soon afterward he
wrote to her, THAT which did me most
good was to feel that you were so cour-
ageous and so valiant, so full of affec-
ton for me-
The wives of French political prison
ers are usually accorded the privilege
of joining their husbands in exile if
they so wish. and there was time
when Nine Dreyfus hoped to be grant
ed that privilege on the full under
standing that she would submit to the
same rigorous discipline as that i'm
posed upon her husband at the lie du
Diable. But her request was refused.
Since that time she has realized that
she could best serve her husbands in
terests at home in those ceaselesS ef-
forts to obtain revision with which we
are all acquainted. Deserted by many
of her old friends, she has lived alone
with her two children, from whom she
has succeeded up to the present in hid
ing the true nature of their fathers de-
parture from France, alternately pass
ing her time in the suburbs of Paris
and at her fathers house.
Nine. Dreyfus has all along retained
the hope of eventually proving the in
iquity of her husbands condemnation,
and never has she let an opportunity
slip of applying to the minister of JUS
tice for a revision of the 1894 trial
whenever a reasonable plea could be
brought forward. She has never lost
hope-not even when Esterhazy was
acquitted-or neglected to demand more
light.
During the early part of Captain
Dreyfus' captivity there was fairly free
communication between husband and
wife, and Nine. Dreyfus obtained con-
, ISOLATION from the thought that books
which she had read would be handled
by her husband, that the passages in
them which she had marked would be
read over and over again by him But
about year ago the government in
formed her that she would not be al
lowed to send any more books to the
lie du Diable in future A short time
afterward she received another com
munication to the effect that only
copies of her husbands letters would
in future be handed to her Captain
| Dreyfus telegraphed to his wife on one
occasion that all was we'll with him in
reply to letter in which she anxiously
inquired after his welfare. 1t will hard
ly be believed that the telegram was
kept for several months by the govern
ment before it was delivered to her.
One who saw Nine. Dreyfus shortly
after the court of cessation had given
| judgment in favor of revision of the
trial of 1894 describes the impression
made upon her by the decision. A lit
tie of the sorrow in her sweet, distin-
guished face had fed at the good news
and for the first time for years a look
of JOY appeared in her frank, intelligent
eyes. She spoke of the long. weary
waiting for the judges to return into
court. my very life and the lives of
my children" she said, "were in the bal
ance at that moment. Now, however,
every hope is given US. From all sides
have received sympathetic congratu-
| lations. / am extremely moved at the
manifestations of interest which have
| been shown toward me-" Having every
reason to believe that Captain Dreyfus
| is innocent of the crime of being a trail
tor to his country, his wife would none
1 the less have acted the part of noble
and devoted woman if he were really
proved TO be guilty.