The San Francisco call., 1899-08-29
FIELD DAY FOR EXPERTS
ON HANDWRITING
Bertillon's Testimony Punctured by
Witnesses Called by the
Defense.

RENNES. Aug. 2s.-When the fourth
week Of the second trial by court-martial
Of Captain Alfred Dreyfus of the artil-
lery charged with treason, opened in
the Lycee building this morning General
Mercier. who was Minister of War when
Dreyfus was first tried. in 1894, was pres
ent as usual in the front row Of the wit
ness seats, thus definitely setting al rest
the reports that he had fled to the ISL
and of Jersey and as to his arrest.
The first witness to-day was VI. Paray-
laval. the draughtsman, whose evidence
was interrupted on Saturday by the ad-
iournment of the court. NJ. Paray-Javal
was called by the defense to refute the
system by which NJ. Bertillon, chief of
the anthropometric department of the
Paris Prefecture of Police, last week at
tempted to prove that the prisoner wrote
the famous bordereau in q disguised
hand and by means Of the key-word
interest" and that it could not have
been written by Esterhazy. although the
document was in a handwriting resemb-
ling that of EsterhaZy. With the aid of
a blackboard NJ. Paray-Javal demonstrat-
ed the fallacy Of NJ. Bertillon's calcula-
tions and criticized the latter's unfairness
in not subjecting Esterhazy's handwrit-
ing to the same tests as the prisoner s
writing. At the same time the draughts-
man declared that even if NJ. Bertillon
had done SO. the results would not have
proved anything.
In brief, the morning session may be
said TO have been a field day TOT the
handwriting experts. who devoted them
selves 10 demolishing one another's evi-
dence The public followed the deposit
tons listessly, but the judges ana coun-
sci listened with the greatest attention.
General Mercier did not seem to be very
cheerful to-day. He hardly said word
y General Gonse during the whole morn
ing, nut during the brief suspension of
the court sitting he and Generals Gonse
dhd Roget walked up and down the court
!dLu q the LEcee engaged in conYerSa-
non General de Roisdeffre was not pres
en- III court to-day. He has been absent
ION lte past few sessions, and II is
Iumored mere that he is desirous of leav-
INK me sinking ship Of the general staff.
~ liT -Httef SeHtef 81 interest in the courtyard
was captain Freystmctter of the Marine
infantry, who testified so fayora bly TO
DreyIus on Saturday. and who seemingly
gaItdaa's gas tne ne ne TO Colonel Maurel, who was
Pi SslutAI l+ OF tne court-martial of 1894, in
d HIost important feature of the latter 8
tIIuEgHCe. Ne captain, dressed in a blue
black tunic' Indigo blue trousers and
.epi rsceIifiI, M 'e &c eae!corations held veri-
around him and shook his hand. These
IIIeluS, noWeNtr, We're all civilians. not
single uniformed officer spoke to him.
which Is the first fruit of his franlness
and clear indication of the determina-
tion OF the military clique to ostracise
after two witnesses had +as+ieea .nd
argued against NJ. Bertillon's system II
was the opinion of the sympathjzers of
Dreyfus that IL the statements OF the
witnesses were correct they had simnly
pulverized NJ. Bertillon The Ia Ter
wished TO reply. but the court, Colonel
Jouaust, declined TO allow the Specialist
TO go over MS evidence again, taking the
end If every expert did the same.
An amusing scene followed. NJ. Bertil-
Ion pleaded that he had personal state