The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-08-19

evidence His manner was victorious as
he handled the alleged letter of General
Schneider to President Jouaust.
These generals ar Rennes have no
standing counsel to advise them. They
show forensic ability In making speeches
when they ought to be giving evidence,
but they lack lawyerlike prudence and
legal practice.
Any advocate would have known how
risky it was TO dwell on such document
as an intercepted letter from a military
attache especially in view of the forgeries
with which the secret dossier teemed.
After all that had transpired about the
letters from military attaches to each
other in 1894 the attaches in self-defense
We're bound TO disoredit everything in che
secret dossier. These letters We're sup
ported by police reports. Were they pub
lished the world would read them aghast.
At least 127 persons in all must have seen
them.
But these considerations never presented
themselves to Merciers mind. That he
believed in the authenticity of his docu-
ment and pinned his faith to 1t. is now
laughed at everywhere. His best friends
call him a donkey and his enemies rejoice.
Colonel Panizardi trumps Colonel
Schneider's denial of his alleged letter by
writing and branding as "A forgery the
report that General Roget said he (Pani-
zaIdl) wrote to the late Signor Rcesmal,
the Italian ambassador. regarding the re-
lations of Colonel Schwarzkoppen with
Dreyfus
Colonel Schneider sends his contraaic-
ton to the Figaro from Ems, and Colonel
Panzardi makes use of that paper in
telegraphing from Rome to give the lie
to the whole of Roget's statement so far
as 1t dealt with the alleged report 10
Rossman.
The Figaro at once telegraphed both
communications to Renres. where they
were posted in the hotels for the edifca-
ton of the patrons.
The Austrian and Italian embassies at
test the genuincness of the Schneider and
Panizardi dispatches.
MERCER feels that he has thrown the
fat into the fire and he locked depressed
and out of countenance today. So did
Roget, who IS q stronger man. notwith-
standing the tears he shed at the close OF
his deposition yesterday. Beth were tired
and pale throughout the tiresome humlla-
ton
Colonel Picquart WAS again 4 witness.
His voice is pleasant. His direction is
good, the emphasis never too emphatic and
the gesticnlatlon seldom overjone. He
gives the impression of one who goes in
for the sober and unadorned His arrange
ment OF arguments is cumulative
The presiding judge rubbed him often
I against tho grain and often begged him
not to diffuse, not to speak SO much about
his own conscience. but to keep to the
Dreyfus affair. Picquart accepnd these
reproofs. saying he only spoke of his own
concerns in order TO vindIcate his char
acter and to prove himself creditable
witness. He spent two hours yesterday
and four today in giving evidence and re-
naming guardian angel over Dreyfus,
standing between him and the implacable
enemies, who sit on the front seats of the
witness stand.
How bitterly and hatingly the generals
received Picquart today. The Dreyfnsitos
greatly feared for Picquart's life. The
stalwarts among them now guard him.
He looks man with an unpropitlous star
and he has always been unlucky. unless
having that peace OF sou! that passeth all
understanding Emily Crawford.