Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1899-08-10
THE DOSSIER
CONTINUED.
Explanation Of the Instru-
ment Will Not be Com
pleted Before Friday.
SESSION OF YESTERDAY.
Opinions OF Prominent French Writers
ON the Trial-kIow Dreyfns Hears
Up Under the Strain-The
Proceedings Today.

Proceedings Today.
Rennes, Aug. 9.-By Assoclared
Press.)-The secret session of the
Dreyfus court-martial today lasted
from $3.50 till 11:45. General Cha
noine nearly completed his part of the
explanation of the secret dossier. He
will be heard tomorrow for couple
of hours; then Paleologue, of the for
eign Office, will take up the task
which, it is understood, will be COM
pleted Friday. The public session
will, therefore, take place Saturday.
The dossier consists of about 400 doc
uments, of which fifty We're disposed
of yesterday.
Several OF the documents were writ
ten in German. During the proceed
ings today German dictionary was
sent for. The correspondent of the
Associated Press learns from a sure
source that, when certain words and
expressions could not be exactly un-
derstood, even with the aid of the die
tionary, Dreyfus, who is a perfect Ger
man scholar, volunteered TRANSACTIONS
and was allowed to give explanations,
which were of valuable assistance to
the court. Police measures today are
much more stringent than yesterday.
Strong detachments of infantry in
stead of gendarmes cordoned the
street leading to the Lycee, and the
crowd, which barely numbered 300, was
pressed still farther back. The author
tiles explain the rigor of these meas
ures on the ground that yesterday a
few cries against the prisoner were
raised while he was crossing the av-
enue. Not a discordant note is heard
today.
No Guarantee Demanded.
Paris, Aug. 9.-(By Associated
officially deny that the German ambas-
sador demanded guarantee against
indiscreet disclosures prejudicial to
Germany at the Rennes court-martial.
Nlaitre Demange Satisfied.
Rennes, Aug. e.-(Copyright. 1899,
by the Associated Press. Maitre De-
mango, the principal counsel for Cap
tain Dreyfus, expresses himself as well
satisfied with yesterdays proceedings.
Colonel Jouast had to play the part OF
q severe judge, but If his voice was
crude and his manner rough toward the
prisoner, his eye was kind, and there
were no efforts to press home the
points raised by the Indictment.
NJ. Chanoine, the custodian of the
famous secret dossier, said it would
take four days to examine it, as the
examination would be behind closed
doors, and most of the witnesses have
gone to the seaside, General de Bois-
deffre to Dinard and General Dionne
o. -
here, the guest of General Saint Ger
man, who tells his friends to be pre-
pared for sensational evidence that
must crush Dreyfns and many Others
with him.
NJ. Cavaignac talked at lie Mans on
his way here. He said he expected
two coups de theatre. We now hear
that one will be an avowal by General
Billot that he said on his soul and
conscience Dreyfus was traitor be-
cause he was misled. The other will
be MERCER 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 gov
eminent, of which he was member
in 1894, and to show that diplomatic
wires were pulled between the arrest
of Dreyfus and his enbarkation for
Cayenne.
MERCER refuses to be interviewed.
. He looks bowed down from care. Gen
eral Billot, on the other hand, seems
to have taken new lease of life. He al
20 is extremely reticent, as, indeed,are5
all the witnesses of note.
NJ. Jaures arrived Monday night.
He claims to know much that is in the
secret dossier. An Intercepted cores
pondence between two military at
taches, who were mixed up in the af-
fair is said by Jaures to be shame to
human nature. These two officers
wrote under feminine names and in u
strain that might have shocked the
young courtiers of Nero or the ribald
crowd that gathered around Lots
house in the doomed city. Possibly,
nay probably, the attaches in question
never wrote these scented Anaereontic
billets, for such they are. Lemercier
Picard was equal to the task of forg-
ing 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 yester-
day at his wife's residence the heads
of the Dreyfusite party and consulted
on the present aspect of the affair.
They went there after they had exam
ined the documents of the secret dos
sier in the judges room. They do not
see any possibility of repeating the
judgment of 1891.
Dreyfus was greatly fatigued after
Mondays ordeal. He asked anXiously
yesterday what the press and public
thought, and was led to think that
opinion is generally favorable. This
is true. The representatives of nations,
alist journals here who judge harshly
imprint express admiration for the nm
flinching consistency he has displayed.
Leading personages here for the
trial have much to say about the late
General AnnenlSoff and Baron Freder-