Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1899-08-09
HIS GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT
THOUGHT HE WAS TO BE RELEASED
AFTER YESTERDAYS HEARING.
Had Been Allowed to Believe That
Proceedings Were Only n For
maiity-Trial May Be EnIiv-
ened by Some Decided
Sensations.
fcopyr.sht. 1899, by the Associated rr.u.l

10 Copyright 1899, by the Associated Prea)
. RENNES, Aug. S.-Maitre Demange, the
principal counsel for Captain Dreyfus, ex-
pressed himself as well satisfied with yes
terday's proceedings. Colonel Jouaust had
10 play the part of a severe judge but if his
voice was rude and his manner rough to-
ward the prisoner his eye was kind and
there were no attempts to press home the
points raised by the indictment.
NJ. Chanoine. the custodian of the famous
secret dossier. said IT would take four days
be behind closed doors, and most of the
witnesses have gone TO the seaside, Gen.
eral De Boisdeffre to Dinard and General
Dionne to Param. General Mercier remains
here. the guest Of General Saint Germain,
who tells his friends to be prepared for
fus and many others with him.
Cnvaignnc Predicts Two Coups.
M. Cayaignac talked at LIE Mars on his
way here. He said he expected two coups
de theater. We now hear that one will be
an avowal by General Billot that he said
on his soul and conscience Dreyfus was a
traitor because he was misled. The other
will be Mercier driven to bay. The latter
will issue from this trial ruined If Dreyfus
IS acquitted. hear he intends to throw a
searchlight on the secret councils of the
Dupuy government, of which he was a
member in 1894. and to show what diplo-
matte wires were pulled between the arrest
of Dreyfus and his embarkation for
Cayenne. Mercier refuses to be interview
ed. He looks bowed down from care.
General Billot. on the other hand, seems
TO have taken out a new lease of life. He
also is extremely reticent, as. indeed. are
all the witnesses of hote.
An HI-Scented Correspondence.
NJ. Jaures arrived last night. He claims
20 know much that is in the secret dossier.
An intercepted correspondence between two
military attaches, who were mixed up in
the affair, is said by Jaures to be shame
TO human nature. These two officers wrote
under feminine names and in a strain that
might not have shocked the young courtiers
of Nero or the ribald crowd that gathered
Possibly, nay, probably, the attaches in
question never wrote these scented anac-
reontic billets, for such they are. LIE
Mercier Pickard was equal to the task of
forging them, and he possibly did forge
them for a pecuniary consideration. Hence,
perhaps, the mystery in which his suicide
is shrouded.
The counsel for Dreyfus met to-day, at
his wife's residence, the heads Of the Drey-
fusite party, and consulted on the present
aspect of the affair. They went there after
they had examined the documents of the
secret dossier in the judges room. They
do not see any possibility of repeating the
judgment of 1894
Opinion Favorable to Dreyfus.
Dreyfus was greatly fatigued after yes
terday's ordeal. He asked anxiously to-
day what the press and public thought.
and was led to think that opinion is gen.
orally favorable. This is true. The repre-
sentatives of nationalist journals here who
judge harshly in print express open ad-
Iniration for the unflinching constancy he
has displayed.
Leading persons here for the trial have
much to say about the late General An
nenkoff and Baron Frederick in connection
with Dreyfus. but General Mercier and
affairs. refuse to speak on the subject. NJ.
Hanotaux looks detected. It will be curious
10 see whether he and Mercier contradict
each other.
There seems danger that all evidence re-
lating to foreign diplomatists will be given
with closed doors. The public trial will
be resumed on Saturday.
Thought He Was as Good as Free.
Dreyfus, a member OF his family tells
me, has not yet got over his Rip Van
Wrinkle feeling. He was lost, as he put It
lie remarked TO his wife that he was as
tonished to find himself watched by the
whole world, or its proxies, though he
showed no sign of astonishment. He was
thrown in a heap by the searching and
as he thought, unfriendly examination by
the president Of the court-martial. He had
expected mere formal proceedings.
MN. Demange and Labori did not pre-
pare him for a hostile tribunal and a
scrutinizing public. He felt as if X-rays
were being cast on him all the time he
was under public gaze. 1t was as if the
innost thoughts of his heart were being
peered into. He imagined the proceedings
would be only formal, and that, perhaps,
he might leave the court house to walk
10 his wife's temporary home.
Threatened With Bright's Disease.
His counsel was quite right not to dis
courage him beforehand as his stranptb
is low and he is condemned to a diet of
rapidly to recover his lost strength. Ague
has caused lesion of the renal organs and
a full diet just now could not fail to
bring on Bright's disease
He was at first greatly depressed to learn
that he would be confronted with a crowd
of hostile witnesses and that the trial
would last fortnight or three weeks, or
even longer. Then, steeling himself he
cried: You must prove yourself a man,
Dreyfus. You must struggle for your hon
or and not give in until you have cleared
IT, once and forever. But what have you
done, Dreyfus, to make people thus rend
you? Were you born under a malignant
star? If so, fight against fate and wrestle
until yon have thrown the evil angel"
From long habit he speaks to himself
%nen intending to converse with visitors
EMILY CRAWFORD.
Dramatic Coup Predicted.
PARIS. Aug. S.-The Jour to-day saws
there are grave contradictions in the evil
dence of General Mercier and former Pres
tdent Casimir-Perier before the court of
cessation and It understands counsel for
Dreyfus are preparing a dramatic coup.