The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-06-05
came to such an untimely end. and Colonel
Tn, patu de clam

factory AT Muln0uSe. lie pursued MS
studies first at the Capital College and then
at Sainte Barbe. after which he entered
the Ecole Polytechnique. which in France
corresponds TO our Military Academy at
West Point. Having attained there tn.
rank Of under lieutenant, he entered the
School of Applied Gunnery. where he got
in thirty-eighth and left thirty-second on
the list. He then received the appoint
ment of second lieutenant in the Thirty
first Regiment of Artillery. stationed at
Mans, and he served there till the end of
1883. when he received a commission to the
Fourth Mounted Battery, detached at Paris.
MORE PROMOTIONS.
In 1889 he was appointed captain of the
Twenty-first Regiment of Artillery, and
few months later he was admitted to the
Ecole de. Guerre. where his record was so
favorable that when he left 1t. in 1892. the
words very good were written opposite
his name. During 1893 and 1894 he served
as a member of the general staff of the
army and lived in Paris with his wife and
two children
Great was the surprise of this young off,
Ger when, on Oct. Is, 1894, he was ar
rested in the office Of Colonel Du Patty de
Clam after very singular interview. Du
the preliminary inquiry in regard TO the
bordereau, summoned Dreyfus to his office
that morning, and on his arrival began to
dictate a letter, the words of which were
identical with those in the bordereau. Drey-
fus, it is claimed, became extremely nerv-
Gus and embarrassed. and finally said 1T was
impossible for him to write, as his fingers
were cold. On the other hand, Dreyfus's
friends insist that his nervousness existed
only in Du Paty's imagination. and that
not the slightest evidence of his guilt was
obtained at this interview. Nevertheless.
Dreyfus was arrested. ana on Dec. 1e, 1894.
he was placed on trial.
The main charge against him was that
he had Intrigued with or communicated
information to one or more agents of for
eign powers, with the aim of supplying to
them means of committing acts of hostility
or waging against France by handing
over to them secret documents" and this
charge was based on the bordereau, which
was described in court as a ''lettre missive,
written on thin paper and neither signed
nor dited.''
Dreyfus was tried In camera by a mill
tary court-martial and adjudged
guilty, the sentence Of the court being life
Imprisonment and military degradation. On
appeal to the Military Council the verdict
Of the court-martial was sustained, and on
Jan. 5. 1895. Dreyfus was publicly expelled
from the French army.
HIS DEGRADATION.
The ceremony was brief. AT 9 o'clock
General Darras gave the command,
Shoulder arms!" to the troops gathered
around the square of the military school,
and a few minutes later Dreyfus appeared
in company with four artillerymen, lieu
tenant of the Republican Guard and a petty
officer He was in full uniform. He was con-
Quoted to a vacant space in front of the
general, and then, amid a dead silence, the
sentence of the court was read to him. He
heard it apparently. without emotion, but
when General Darras exclaimed:
"Dreyfus. you are unworthy to bear arms.
In the name Of the French people, we de-
grade you," he raised his arms and cried:
~ = Innocent; / s~ear that am -nno-
cent. Vive la France" So
AT these words many in the crowd
shouted, death to him." but almost imme-
diately there was silence again. the eyes of
all being concentrated on the adjutant
whose duty 1t was to deprive the degraded
man of his military insignia. Swiftly he did
this duty. In a minute or two he had torn
off the galleons of the cap, the trefoils of
the sleeves, the buttons of the pelisse, the
numbers on the neck and the red stripes
which the condemned man had worn on his
trousers ever since he left the Ecole Poly
technique.
Nothing remained now but the sword, and
this the adjutant drew out and broke across
his knee. Then the sword belt was unfas-
tened, and the scabbard In its turn fell to
the ground.
An officer no longer, but a thing all shreds
and tatters. Dreyfus nevertheless at this
supreme moment found the voice to cry
aloud:
You degrade an innocent man."
His torture, however, was not yet over.
He was obliged to pass along before his
comrades in arms and the men who had
been under his command. And as he
marched the crowd shouted execrations at
him, and his repeated cry, 81 am innocent"
seemed to make their wrath only the more
intense.
SENT TO DEVILS ISLAND.
Under ordinary circumstances the prisoner
would have been deported to New Gale
donia, in the Pacific, but the French govern
ment did not think it wise to send him there,
and, therefore, a new law, sanctioning the
use for convicts of Devils island, just off
the coast of French Guiana, was made re-
Prospective. and he was sent there.
OF the subsequent efforts to vindicate
Dreyfus readers have been kept well in
formed. Late in 1896 strong sentiment in
favor of the accused officer manifested itself
in Paris. Col Sandherr had been succeed
ed as chief of the intelligence department
by Lieutenant Col Picquart, and the latter
soon became convinced that a grave judic-
ial error had been made. He told under
oath how he arrived at this conviction, and
here are extracts from his testimony:
AT the beginning of May. 1896, the frag-
ments of a telegram card fell into my
hands. Everything in this card, which was
addressed to Commandant Esterhazy,
seemed to indicate that between the person
who had written 1t and the commandant
Esterhazy there existed some relations.
rather suspicious than not. I was obliged
to get some information about Commandant
Esterhazy, and it led me to continue my
Investigations. / asked the colonel Of Es-
terhazys regiment to give me specimens of
his (Esterhazys) writing, and the moment
got the letters 1 was remarkably struck
by the resemblance of their writing to that
of the famous bordereau.
IT had photographs prepared of these let
ters, and i showed the photographs to two
persons perfectly qualified to give an opin-
ion about the matter. One was M. Bertil-
Ion and the other was Commandant Du
Dat a. Il