The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-06-11

perfdy OF General Mercier who resorted
TO an infamous eXpedient to condemn
Dreyfus and to save the honor" of the
French army.
1t so happened that the secret service
had intercepted letters between Colonel
Schwar,2koppen and Colonel Panizzarli.
tho italian military attache, These let
tiers were photographed, resealed and sent
by The post to the addressed. In one Of
them was a reference to ID" %" was
the husband Of a certain Frenchwomnn
who was intriguing with the TWO foreign
diplomats. One sentence read This
rascal Of a D. can not be too much d.
spised."
General MERCER, when he saw that the
bordereau alone would never convict Drey-
fus, informed the court that he had other
evld nee, and then read the sentence
quoted. holding back the context. But
instead Of showing the script to the ad q
vccates he repeated the sentence orally
and used tho word "Dreyfus" in full. In
stead Of the bare initial In the l.Siar.
That reading left no doubt in the minds
of the members of the court, and Drcyfus
was declared guilty OF the crime charged.
Dreyfus, the convicted traitor, was
given the severest punishment under
death. In fact, what he has suffered has
been worse than death. On January s.
1885, no was marched through the streets
OF Paris and his insignia of office was
publicly torn from his uniform This was
only the preliminary punishment The re-
mainder of his sentence condemned h,m tC
spend his life in a cage on the lie du plablt
"a bare rock off the coast OF French
| Guiana. There, Gagged up like a wild
animal, under the burning sun of the
/ tropics, never seeing the face of a human
/ being but his guard the once brilliant
| officer has lived a life suggestive OF thai
hell for whose master the prison isle was
well named.
Seven miles out in the ocean. twenty
seven miles northwest OF Cayenne. lie Tia.
! three Salvation islands, side by side ant
separated only by two narrow channels
The lie Royale, almost mile long, con.
tains little colony OF convicts The II,
st Joseph contains some stores and a
small station. Between them lies the II,
du Diable, inhabited only by Dreyfus an,
his guards II IS a sun hlistered little Is
land, bare of trees except for one smal
grove Down on its lonest, barest shore
far from the grove OF trees, there Is
wooden tower Upon its top there is
Hotchkss gun. Beside the wooden towe
there Is a wooden house, surrounded by ,
high broad porch This Is the lrabitatioI
of the guards. Then there is seen hesld,
1t high pallsade, as high as the first
story Of house Within the palisade there
Is hut. II Is within the palisade tha
preyfus lives. The nut ~ his prison. ant
the ground within the palisade the rsitor
I yard. He sees only the sky
The palisado, the hut, the house the
porch and tower have all been photo
/ gTtl he'd and a traveller who got his infor.
nation ut the lie Royale itself has tcld the
daAy lie that Dreyfus leads
Al a. m. one OF the guards unlocks The
hut door, and the prisoner may walk int,
his yard He takes the air. He looks NJ
at the sky. And then he walks From II
n. m. until noon he Is locked up again. Ii
Is his lunch hour From noon until ; p
m he may walk in his yard again. II,
takes the air. He looks up at the slSy
And then he walks. And then he is locked
Nm the hut again until next morning.
Within the hut he has his room to clean.
his bed TO make, his dishes to keen clean
his daily cooking TO be done his books ID
read, his writing paper and his pencils
/ occupied hour after hour in ahgtruse ar,
ch!tectural calculations -~ architecture Is
his Iayorite study Dreyfus is hears now
ana then to murmur his two favorit,
phrases That goes well," and Now I;
viii not he long"
The guards never speak to him. He
never speaks TO them He has refused ia
have any word with the penitentiary ad-
I mlnistrator Nor would he reply to the
governor OF Guiana when he came to ser
( him
1t was now that Dreyfus became rebel
lious and was put in irons. He ragged
against the new regime OF solitary con
hnement IN a tiny prison yard without a
view OF sea or land. Then they cut of