The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-09-03
MUST ACQU|T DREYFUS
There Is No Longer Any Doubt
of His Innocence.
HIS FRIENDS ARE ELATED
Major Hartman's Evidence Stands Unre.
futed-No Artillery Officer Wrote
the Bordereau-Shattering
the Prosecution.

word that expresses the feelings of the
Dreyfusards after to-day's proceedings.
The tide has turned at last, they say,
and Dreyfus cannot be condemned
after the evidence given this morning.
The spirits of the Dreyfusards are
quite mercurial. Every day since the
opening of the trial has seen them rise
or fall Recently they have been fall
ing heavily, the close of morning ses-
sions generally finding them in anxious
conversation, accompanied by ominous
shaking of their heads Today's buoy
ancy, therefore, Is all the more note
worthy. Yesterday was a fairly good
day, but to-day's session, they claim
put the verdict out of doubt, and the
judges must acquit Dreyfus.
Major Hartmann of the artillery oc-
cupied nearly half the session with the
conclusion of his expert evidence to
the effect that Dreyfus. as an artillery
officer, would not have displayed such
ignorance regarding guns and brakes
as was shown in the bordereau, while
the other subjects of the bordereau
We're matters on which any officer could
inform himself Major Hartmann's tes-
timony practically stood uncontested,
as neither General de Loye nor General
Mercier, who replied, refuted any ma
terial point therein.
M. Havet, a member of the institu-
tion, then entered upon the grammat-
ical aspect of the bordereau, and in
vigorous and elegant language de-
voted himself to showing that the con-
struction of the bordereau bristled
with strong and, in his opinion, con-
elusive marks of EsterhaZy's handi-
work.
The next stage of the proceedings was
the reading of the Gonse-Picquart cor
respondence exchanged at the time
Colonel Picquart suspected EsterhaZy
and wanted General Come to probe
the matter to the bottom. This brought
NJ. Labori to the front, and in a series
of questions he brought out sharply
before the court the Vaccinations of
which Colonel Picauart was the vic
tim at the hands of the major from the
moment he showed desire to thor
oughly sift the matter.
NJ. Labori, for the first time, got Cen
eral Gonse to admit that he ordered
the tampering with Picquart's letters
in order, as he said, to ascertain Pic
quarts doings while he was chief of
the intelligence bureau. A little later
M. Labori evidently disconnected Cen
eral Gonse, for the latter blurted out
that Lieutenant Colonel Henry COM
mitted his forgery in order to have
fresh proofs against Dreyfus. The
audience smiled audibly at this expla-
nation. General Gonse then added:
But it was unnecessary, since the
diplomatic dossier containing incrimi-
mating documents, with 'Dreyfus writ
ten in full"
General Gonse apparently meant the
Pannizardi dispatch which already
has been ruled out of court M. La
bori protested Indignantly, exclaiming:
There are no such documents" and
then asked General Gonse to enumer-
ate the documents to which he al
luded.
Colonel Jousaust, president of the
court, however declined to put the
question, whereupon NJ. Labori said he
reserved to himself the right to sub
NIT a formal application for these doc
uments.
Then came the leading witness of the
day, M. De Fond Lamotte, a proba-
toner contemporaneously with Drey-
fus, who is now a civil engineer, and
has no reason to fear the wrath of the
military clique. The witness opened by
declaring that despite the fact that he
had a brother in the garrison at
Rennes, he came to tell what he knew
in favor of Dreyfus and he preferred
to make a statement, which, according
to the Dreyfusards, practically decides
the case. First he recalled the fact
that a circular was sent to the proba-
tioners on May IA, 1894, informing them
that they must not go to the maneuv-
ers, thus showing that the man who
wrote the bordereau in August, and
said: Il am going to the maneuvers,"
could not be Dreyfus.
The witness then pointed QUIT hat none
or the ministers, who he believed act
ed in good faith, were informed of the
existence of this circular, which he
said II consider a vital point in the
case"
This circular" he continued, Shat
ters the prosecution, because after May
II Dreyfus could not say, L am going to
the maneuvers,' for he knew he would
not go, while prior to May II he could
not have known the five documents
comprised in the bordereau."
NJ. Lamotte then brought out an
other strong point. Abiding to the
notifications of the disposition con-
cerning the troops, he said the writer
of the bordereau used the term new
plan.'
Now" he said, at has been i'm
pressed upon you that on Oct Is
circular was sent out from the war
ministry containing those very words
and that, therefore, the writer of the
bordereau must have been another Of
ficer of the ministry. But one thing
has struck me-who sent that circu-
lar?
"Who sent that circular? It was the
Lieutenant Colonel Du Patty de Clam,
who had had the bordereau in his hands
for the previous 20 days"
M. de Fond Lamotte. by this, intend
ed to show that Du Patty de Clam pur-
posely used the words new PLAN in
the circular order. by what the witness
described as arguing in vicious cir
Gle to back up his contention that an
officer of the ministry wrote the bor-
dereau, and that officer was Drey-
fus"
General Roget then rose to reply to
NJ. de Fond Lamotte, but found he had
caught a tartar. He did not succeed In
shaking the witness testimony, while
NJ. de Fond Lamotte took the unprece-
dented course of actually questioning
General Roget and getting the better
of him once or twice. The two men
stood exchanging arguments, totally
ignoring Colonel Jousaust, who was
twice obliged to ask them not to sneak