The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-08-28
BATTLE OF
EXPERTS.
Handwriting Sharps Prove
the Fallacy Of Bertil-
Ions Fabrications.
DREYFUs VS.. ESTERHAzY
Authorship of the Famous
Bordereau the Point
at Issue.
MERcIER NOT ARRESTED
Many Rumors About the Dis
graoed GeneraI--Laughter,
as Usual, in Court.
MERCER NOT ARRESTED
rBv cable to the Associated Press.l

rBy Gable to The Associated Press-l
RENNEs, Aug 2s. 1sss.-When sne
fourth week of the second trial by coure
martial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, OF ene
artillery, charged with treason, opened ~
The Isycee Building this morning, General
Mercier. who was Minister of war "nen
Dreyfus was first tried, in 1884, was pres
ent. as usual, in the front row q uhe
witness seats, thus definitely setting at
rest the reports as to his having neo 10
the Island of Jersey and as to his arrest.
The first witness called today was NJ
Paraf-Javal the draughtsman, whose evil
dence was interrupted on Saturday py
the adjournment of the court M. Para1-
laval was called by the defense to refute
the system by which NJ. Alphonse Ber-
tillon. Chief of the Anthropometric De
partment of the Paris Prefecture OF
Police last week, attempted to prove rnat
the prisoner wrote the famous bordereau
in a disguised hand and by means OF
keyword. Interest" !" and that il could mol
have been written by Esterhazy although
the document was in handwriting re
sembling that of Esterhazy.
With the aid of a blackboard, NJ. Paraf-
laval, at about $40 A. NJ. demonstrated
the fallacy of NJ. Bertillon's calculations
and criticized the latters unfairness in
not submitting Esterhazy's handwriting
to the same tests as the prisoners writ
ing
At the same time, the draughtsman de-
clared even if NJ. Bertillon had done so,
the results would not have proved any
thing.
IN brief, the mornings session may be
said to have been a field day for the hand
writing experts, who devoted themselves
to demolishing one another's evidence.
The public followed the dispositions list
lessly. but the Judges and counsel list
ened with the greatest attention.
General Mercier did not seem to be
very cheerful this morning. He hardly
said word to General Gonse the whole
morning. but, during the brief suspension
OF the court 8 sitting, he and and Generals
Gonse and Roget walked up and down
the court yard of the Lycee greatly en-
gagged in conversation.
General de Boisdeffre was not present
in court today. He has been absent from
the past few sessions and it is rumored
here that he is desirous of leaving the
sinking ship of the General Staff.
The centre of interest in the court yard
was Captain F'reystaetter of the marine
infantry, who testified so favorablv to
Dreyfus on Saturday and who seemingly
gave the lie to Colonel Maurel, who was
president of the. court martial of 1884, in
most important feature of the latter's S
evidence. The Captain, dressed in a
blue-black tunic, indigo blue trousers and
wearing his five decorations, held veri-
table reception of his friends, who pressed
around him and shook his hand. These
friends, however. were all civilians Not
single uniformed officer spoke to him
which is the first fruit of his frankness
and a clear indication of the determine
ton of the military clique to ostracise
him.
When the two first witnesses had tes-
titled and argued against NJ Bertillon's
system, it was the opinion of the SYM
pathizers Of Dreyfus that if the state-
ments of the witnesses were correct they
had simply pulverized NJ. Bertillon The
latter wished to reply but the President
of the Court, Colonel Jouaust, declined to
allow the specialist togo over his evil
dence again, taking the ground that the
trial would never end if every expert did
the same.
An amusing scene followed. NJ Ber-
tillon pleaded that he had a personal
statement to make and mounted the plat
form. But he had hardly uttered half a
dozen words when Colonel Jouaust saw
he was merely regrinding his evidence
and, to the great satisfaction of the.au-
dfenee. the President curtly told the spe-
cialist to leave the platform, which he
did. discounted.
M. Tessoniere's testimony against Drey-
fus followed, and then NJ Charavay. the
expert who had previously declared Drey-
fus was the author of the bordereau. was
called to the witness bar His testimony
proved to be of the greatest interest as
he came to confess he had made an err
ror and said he was now convinced that
Esterhazy, and not Dreyfus, wrote the
bordereau. This announcement made a
deep impression on the Court and was
greeted with general murmur of satis-
faction The next expert, M PeIletier.
also testified favoral'ly to Dreyfus.
M Couard, another expert, then deposed
that as thes result Of his examination he
had acquired the conviction that the bor-
dereau was not written by Esterhazy
But he could not say it was written by
Dreyfus, because he had not seen the
prisoners handwriting
This witness kept the Court in con-
tinual roar Of laughter by the extraordi-
nary modulations of his voice, misplaced
emphasis and gestures.
The final witness, NJ yarinaud, MAIN
tanned the declaration he had made be-
fore The Court OF Cessation. that the bor-
dereau was not written by Esterhazy.
Colonel Jouaust then announced that M
de Freycinet who resigned as Minister
Of War May Of the present year, and
who vas succeeded BY A. Kraftz who