The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-31
IS PREPARING A COUP
Mercier's Attitude Mystif1es His
Followers.
DIVIDED INTO FACTIONS
A Difference of Opinion Causes Troubls
in the General Staff Boisdeffre to
Be Made the Scapegoat.
A Dreyfus Day.

| Rennes, Aug. 30.-The air of Rennes
| this evening is filled with rumors of
conspiracies and predictions of a coup
de theatre, but nothing precise can be
! ascertained. General Mercier's atti-
tude during the last few days has mysti-
| fled his followers in the case He is
| clever, and the general feeling is that
ne is preparing something, the exist
ence of which will be revealed in a few
| days.
1t Is now accepted as beyond ques-
ton that there is serious division of
| opinion on the part Of the generals
followers. While the case was running
smoothly against Captain Dreyfus they
| al pulled together, but since the tide
| OF evidence began to turn in his favor,
| as was notably the case during the
testimony of Captain Freystmetter
ana colonel Cordier, which proved
much more damaging to the genera!
staff than the latter anticipated, GER
tain dividing lines have become mani
rest between the various cliques Cen
eral Roget, Major Lauth, Captain Cuig-
net and M. Gribelin, the principal
Keeper of the archives of the war Of
nee, form one coterie. General Mercier
and General Gonse form another, and
General Billot and General Boisdeffre
third. According to one report, the
first two coteries intend to throw over
General Boisdefre, whom they feel
to be faltering, and declare that he Is
| responsible for all the errors and lille
salities of the court martial of 1894.
thus making him the scapegoat
According to another report General
Roget. who was not implicated in 1894.
ana who even fought against Dreyfus
because he inherited from his prede-
cessors the responsibility for so doing
and placed overconfidence in the ac-
counts of the matter furnished him by
the general staff, has cut himself loose
from Generals Mercer and Gonse and
Boisdeffre.
This is a plausible hypothesis since
Roget has assumed throughout the role
Of the defender of the army, thus maxi
ing himself popular with the army and
with large section of the country
and he probably would not lose by sep
arating himself from the wrongdoers
of 1894 and declaring that his opinion
had been changed by the evidence
given during the present trial.
Yet another story is that the gen
erals are going to give way to the au-
thorship of the bordereau in view of
the strong expert evidence and will adj
nit that Esterhazy wrote it. alleging.
however, that Dreyfus furnished the
information, not direct to Esterhazy
but to third person who acted as in
termediary without Dreyfus knowing
EsterhaZy. In this connection it was
asserted this afternoon that Madam
Rastian, who was housekeeper for Col
onel Schwartzkoppen, the German mill
tary attache in 1894, and who is under |
stood to have acted as a French spy,
has been seen in Rennes and will be |
summoned as a witness concerning |
Schwartzkoppen's espionage. These |
rumors may be without foundation. but |
in any event they are symptomatic of |
the feeling in Rennes that something is |
going on under the surface and that |
the complexion of the trial may be al |
tered by some coup at any moment. |
In the matter of evidence to-day, it |
was quite a Dreyfus day, only the de- |
position of the last witness, General de |
Loye, being unfaVorable. The testi- |
mony of NJ Picot, a member of the in |
stitute, is little likely, however, to serve |
the cause of the accused materially, if |
at all because his introduction of Col
onel Schneider, the Australian military
attache. as a champion of Dreyfus was
rather calculated to arouse resentment !
and adversely to influence the judges
especially as 1t was followed by Gen
eral Rogets protest against Colonel |
Schneider's uncomplimentary illusions
to French officers,
To-morroWS proceedings behind
tion whether Captain Dreyfus was in
position to divulge the informa ton
regarding the artillery which was
promised in the bordereau. The session
will be very important, and Is bound
to have a tremendous influence upon
the judges one way or the other, be-
cause they are all artillery officers and
will be able to appreciate such evidence
better than the cryptographic intrica-
ces that have been laid before them by
the handwriting experts.
The Dreyfusards express confidence
that their artillery witnesses, Major
Hartman and Major Ducros, will eff
fectively satisfy the judges that Drey-
fus was ignorant of the matters men
toned in the bordereau, or as an artil-
lery officer would not have been guilty
of stating the errors which 1t contain
ed The court room continues crowded
and quite number of ladies now sue
ceed in obtaining admission. Town
loafers are making a regular business
of forming queue outside the en-
trance to the public park and court
room as early as or 8 o'clock in the
and selling places at from to
8 francs, according to the position. The
public arrives at or in the
and must purchase the places
because only a limited number can Sc
cure standing room.
The local papers publish the state
ment that NJ. Charles de F'reycinet, on
leaving the court room yesterday after
making his deposition, remarked to a
friend:
II am leaving an atmosphere of ac-
quittal"