Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-22
FRANCE is IN A FERMENT
Correspondent at Rennes Predicts Religious
War,
Declares the Verdict In Dreyfus' Case
Will Start It-PrisOner
Breaking Down.

A special correspondent Of the Philadel-
phia Press at Rennes, sends the following
under date Of yesterday: Professor Basch,
at whose house Labori is living, told me to-
day that Dreyfus Is breaking down.
I'VE were afraid" said he, that he
would not be able to be present today. He
is living entirely on milk and eggs. The
least bit of solid food produces great alb
dominal derengement. When the verdict
comes, whatever 1t may be am convinced
the man will collapse completely. He will
not have a doctor. He says he has had ex-
perieace enough to take care Of himself bet
ter than anybody else. He Is afraid the
doctor would give him medicine and put
him to bed or otherwise, with best inten-
lions, break him down.
In case there is any chance of Dreyfus
being acquitted or any fear that the de-
Tense will produce seriously damaging reve-
lations, all parties interested should be on
the lookout for another outside interrupt
ton.
Widespread Plot is Laid.
For some reason hidden to the eye, some
great invisible movement depends upon
Dreyfus' conviction. 1t was admirably
planned and perfectly carried out. 1t only
failed because the assassin did not know
how difficult it is to kill a man with pis-
toll. particularly if you propose to save
yourself.
Some other move of the same character
is confidently expected. Great forces are
in action: individual lives do not count. No
one here yet knows what plot the govern
ment has discovered. Even those who could
tell do not yet know how far the plot
reaches. 1t is a significant fact, however.
that the government announced today that
future arrests would be made on the charge
of rebellion instead of riot, and the differ
ence between rebels and prisoners of war
Is only matter of words and usually a
matter of days.
1.-THE winds of madness are blowing says
the Petit Bleu newspaper this morning,
and this is perfectly true.
Gusts Before the Storm.
The shooting of Labor and the little out
break in Paris yesterday are, however, only
gusts which prccede the tornado. Unless
we are all blind the Dreyfus case is the
pivotal center of social cyclone, in which
all France will soon be whrling merrily, as
merrily as the anarchists were whirling
yesterday when they sang the "Carmag-
MOLE" and danced in mad delight while the
flames from the burning confessionals of
the Church of st. Joseph scared toward the
heaven they defied.
one would think continued the Petit
Bleu. that we had reverted to the terri
BILE epoch of the religious wars"
And this, also, is perfectly true.
Religious War Threatened.
1t will be religious war just as the
Dreyfus trial is a religious trial | was
Informed by telephone from Paris today
by a friend in a prominent position that
Gallifet, who was away in the country
yesterday, was simply furious at the ca bi-
net council this morning He would have
stopped the rioting in fifteen minutes he
said. But few days hence Gallifet may
be called upon to shoot anti-Semites who
han 70. -h.,y,
anarchists, socialists and republicans until
all parties evince a strong desire to shoot
Gallifet, and will not be satisfied until they
do.
1t is a religious trial and nothing else
By an extremely clever bit of diplomacy
but no cleverer than much that had pre-
coded 1t, this trial was allotted to Rennes
perhaps the hottest and most fervently
Catholic center in France. Every other
building almost is a convent church, chap
ell or religious institution, and in this town
Jew is being tried for honor, and prob
ably life.
Spanish Inquisition Recalled.
The strange picture which the trial pre-
sented this morning was one of the most
remarkable in all history 1t recalled half
dozen similar scenes of judicial intoler-
ance from the Spanish inquisition to the
New England Puritans' tribunal when
they burned the Salem witches In his
speech today Dreyfus honest, eloquent
and pathetic, but what he said seemed to
matter nothing.
Captain Junck, a tall, dark man, with a
shifting, evasive manner. had been telling
lies about the accused for three-quarterS of
an hour. When he finished Dreyfus, in a
mastery speech, demolished Junck entirely.
There were four points in this remarkable
speech. In the first place. Dreyfus had
never gambled at the club in Maus named
by Junck, and he demanded that inquiry
be made of the club members TO prove it.
hn hoy "a hoo ylrn N at
the technical conference described by
Junck, because he was absent at the time
in Germany. Third, he could not have re-
ceived information from his cousin in the
department of foreign affairs, as Junck
charged because he had no cousin or other
relative in the department of foreign affairs
Fourth, he could not have said he was go
ing TO the maneuvers on June q because
he had been officially commanded to attend
another military function elsewhere.
He made the longest speech he has yet
uttered at the trial. He was clear, in
cisive and straightforward, and did not
waste a word. He would make a better
lawyer for himself than Demange. He was
also weary. pathetic and pitifu, struggling
against infinite odds, but the bored, stony,
almost contemptuous faces of the seven
judges did not change. You felt he might
as well talk to the winds. moment later
Picquart asked to be heard regarding
Junck.
what. again?" said Jouaust contempt
uousy. A murmur of surprise ran through
the court 1t was the most extraordinary
remark ever uttered by judge in court
of Justice Picquart explained that if the
court would take the trouble to compare
Junck's testimony with his evidence in the
three preceding trials they would find his
gifts in the matter of untruthfulness rare
among men.
This was detail, however, which might
as we'll have been unsaid Fearing my
own imagination, or perhaps own SYM
pathies, were at work in the matter I
turned to Professor Basch, at whose house
Labor is.
mo" said Basch. Their faces simply
reflect the convictions which l should inn
agine they had already reached"
MERCER said triumphantly in an inter-
view yesterday that Dreyfus would be
. unanimously convicted, as he ought to
be-"
AIarcior nrohahI, Irnnu.s u,horoof ho