Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1899-09-01
TO PROVE DREYFUS GUILTY
Bertillon System Introduced
by the Prosecution,
THE PERFORMANCE FELL FLAT
A.. last Resort, the Prisoners COun-
sci Will Call on Germany 1or tho
Documents-Bertillo Excited.

Rennes, Aug. 2S.-After M. Bertil-
lon, the handwriting expert, who is at
the head of the anthropometrlc depart.
ment of the prefecture of police OF
Paris, had concluded the first install
ment of his socalled demonstration OF
the guilt of Captain Dreyfus, a prom
inent Dreyfusard referred to him as
the fin de steele Cagliostro. The Drey-
fusards refuse to regard him as any
thing but the prince of quacks They
cover his remarks with Iidicule and
protest that the admission of his fam
tastic theories as evidence before the
courtmartial is disgrace to France.
&C est une honte." was the remark
heard on all sides when the session
closed, and the audience, mainly made
up OF Drey iusards, was being pressed
outside by the gendarmes, who clear
the courtroom as soon as the court adj
journs.
Nevertheless, even the Dreyfusards
do not deceive themselves as to the
effect of NJ. Bertillon'a testimony or
demonstration" may have upon the
judges. who, they fear, will be gulled
by what the Dreyfusards consider spur
ious. All the judges have passed
through the Bcole Polytechnique. the
highest school of science in France,
and they are thus percularly interest
ed in such evidence" as that of Ber-
tillon. Moreover, with the aid of the
innumerable diagrams and specimens
of writing which he submits to them,
they may be able to follow his reason
ing lntelligently, which is more than
any member of the audience could do
today. If the judges accept Bertillon's
premises that Dreyfus, as an expert
spy, did not write in ordinary hand
writing, but in close imitation, even
contriving to give letters the appear
ance of having been traced, in order to
be able to repudiate them as forgery
if detected-then the structure built
upon this groundwork may be scien-
tifically correct. Even Dreyfus, when
shown BeItillon's demonstration, adj
mitted the ingenuity and plausibiity
of the system, though he naturally de-
clared that it was built on false basis.
A remarkable feature of Bertillon's
| deposition was the heat and excitement
he put into what was expected TO be
a calm, dispassionate exposition of his
| theory. He thundered, shouted and
waved his arms as though engaged in
some terrible dispute. Once he literal
ly shrieked. and numbers of the usua
audience who had been unable to fol
low him and were taking air in the
courtyard, rushed back into the hall,
breathelssly inquiring what had hap
pened, imagining that he was fulminat-
ing some dreadful denunciation OF the
accused. Their excitement WAS turned
into hilality when they found that he
was momentarily impressing upon the
judges the significance of the exact
space, measured in centimetres, be
tween two words in the bon derau.
The Echo de Paris announced today
that the counsel of Dreyfus had OBJ.
tanned possession Of certain documents
mentioned in the borderau, in Ester.
hazy's writing, which they would pro.
duce in court next week as coup 6t
theatre. The press correspondent in.
quired as to this in competent Drey
fusard quarters this afternoon. lie
was assured that the statement wa.
ERRONEOUS. but was also told that the
defense intended, in the event of Cap
tain Dreyfus being Ie.condemnod, t.
ask the German government to com
muniCate these documents proving hit
innocence, and that they had reason tC
believe such request would be granted