Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1899-09-07

"oiu that expresses the feelings of the
D~reyfusards after Saturdays proceed.
ings. The tide has turned at least thev
say, and Dreyfus cannot be condemned
AFTER the evidence given Saturday
morning.
Maj. Hartman, of the artillery. occu-
pied half the session with the conclus-
ion of his expert testimony 70 the Of
rect that Dreyfus, as an artillery Off
Ger. would not have displayed such ig-
norance regarding guns and brakes as
was shown in the bordereau, while the
other subjects of the bordereau were
matters upon which any officer could
inform himself. The majors testi-
mony practically stood uncontested as
neither Gen. Deloye nor Gen. MERCER
who replied, refuted any material
point therein.
Nj. HaVel, a member of the institute,
then entered upon the grammatical as
pect OF the bordereau and in vigorous
but eloquent language devoted himself
to showing that the construction of the
Dordereau bristled with strong, and in
his opinion, conclusive marks of Ester
hays handiwork, while the phraseol-
ogy bore no resemblance to Dreyfus'
style.
Then came the leading witness of the
day, NJ. De Gond-Lamotte, a probation
or contemporaneously with Dreyfus,
who Is now a civil engineer, and so has
no reason to fear the wrath of the mill
tary clique. The witness opened by
declaring that, despite the fact he had
a brother in the garrison at Rennes, he
came to tell what he knew in favor
of Dreyfus, and he proceeded to make
a statement, which, according to the
Dreyfusards, practically decides the
case. First he recalled the fact that
a circular was sent to the probationers
on May IA, 1894, informing them that
they must not 60 to the maneuvers,
thus showing that the man who wrote
the bordereau in August, and said: II
am going to the maneuvers," could not
be Dreyfus. The witness then pointed
out that lone Of the ministers, who, he
believed, acted in good faith, were in
formed of the existence of this circu-
lar, which, he declared, II consider a
vital point in the case. This circular"
he continued, skaters the prosecution
because, after May IL, Dreyfus could
not say Il am going to the ~naneuvers,'
for then he knew he would not go,
while prior to May II he could not
have known the five documents COM
prised in the b~ordereau."
NJ. De Gond-Lamotte then brought
out another strong point. Abiding to
the notifications of the disposition
concerning the troops. he said the
writer used the term New plan"
Now said the witness, sit has been
impressed upon you that on Oct. 10 a
circular was sent out from the war
ministry containing those very words,
and that, therefore, the writer Of the
bOrdereau must have been an officer OF
the ministry. But one thing has struck
me - who sent out that circular? 1t
was the third bureau, the chief Of
which was Lieut.. Col. Du Patty de
Clam, who had had the bordereau in
his hands for the previous twenty
days"
NJ. De Gond-Lamotte by this In
tended to show that Du Patty de Clam
purposely used the words new PLAN
in the circular ordered by what the
witness described as arguing In a
circular to back up his contention that
an officer of the ministry wrote the
bordereau and that that officer was
Dreyfus."
Gen. Roget then rose to reply to M.
De Gond-Lamotte, but found he a
caught q tartar. He did not succeed in
shaking the witness testimony, while
NJ. De Gond-Lamotte took the unprece-
denied course Of actually questioning
Gen. Roget and getting the better or
him once or twice. Finally, on Roget
declaring that Dreyfus might have
written IL am going to the m~aneuvers'
because he could have asked special
permission. which is invariably grant
ed. M. Demange asked him IL there
was any proof that Dreyfus did ask
such permission. To this Roget replied,
az don't know; no trace has beer found
of his application" This answer
brought q chorus of "Ohs" from the au-
dience. because had Dreyfus asked,
traces would have been forthcoming.
Roget then said that Dreyfus might
have asked verbally, in which case no
trace of his application could be found.
"Ouite So" rejoined NJ. Demange, "but
the head of the bureau could be asked
whether any such request was made.
This practically ended the session,
which was one of the most Interesting
and ~undeniably the most favorable 10
Droyfus vet held.