Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-08-06
DR[YFUS COURT MARITAL.
Continued from First Page.

| IlceS, Or TO connect MIN IN any manner
with it, beyond an alleged similarity
between the handwriting of Dreyfus
and that Of the author of the bordereau
The court of cessation has decided that
the bordereau was written by Ester
hazy and not by Dreyfus.
The court of cessation has already
passed Judgment upon all the other ev-
idence adduced against Dreyfus in 1894,
including the confession of guilt falsely
alleged to have been made by Dreyfus
in January, 1885. to Capt. Lebrun-
Renaud and to Sergt. Depert, as well
as the famous secret dossier, with its
| forgeries and criminally manipulated
documents. All that is legally left
standing after the elimination by the
court of cessation of the irregularities
that Initiated the conviction of 1894, is
the bordereau, which the court of cas-
sation on June declared was not writ
ten by Dreyfus. The functions of the
Rennes courtmartial i, are now limited
to hearing evidence and deciding upon
| the subject of the alleged communica
tion by Capt Dreyfus to a foreign pow
er Of the document enumerated in the
bordereau, now known to have been
written by Esterhazy, as he himself has
confessed. Dreyfus was unacquainted
with Esterhazy when the bordereau
written, and it may be safe to predict
that it will be practically impossible
for the prosecution to prove at the
forthcoming trial at Rennes that Capt
Dreyfus handed over to foreign power
the documents in question.
These documents are five in number
First-A description of the hydraulic
brake Of the field gun known in the
French service as the ''120 court" and
notes upon the construction of its car
riage. The ''120 court" is the heaviest
gun used by the French field artillery.
It's gun carriage IS ingeniously con-
trived, so as to travel over plowed fields
and across country" The projectiles
were formerly loaded with melinite,
but dynamite is now used for this pur-
pose, and recent experiments made near
Mention with dynamite shells fired from
the '120 court guns are said to have
pulverized several thousand cubic me-
tres of solid rock. Second-A memo
randum concerning the 'troupeS de
couveteure troops in case of mobiliZa-
ton to be thrown toward the frontier
so as to cover the actual mObilizatiOn)
with notifications according to the
latest plan. Third-A note describing
the changes adopted in the artillery
formation. Fourth-A paper on the
Madagascar campaign. Fifth-A draft
of the manual of field artillery fire,
rfh In hn 0lf
President Ballot-Beaupre, the conclu-
sions of which were adopted by the
court of cessation. portion of the
record of the c0Mtmartial Of 1894 is
cited, from which it appears that on
November q, 1894, Commandant dor
meschville (the officer who framed the
indictment upon which Dreyfus was
convicted) showed Dreyfus the original
of the bordereau. Dreyfus resolutely
denied ever having seen the document
before, and explained in detail why it
was materially impossible that he could
have written it. When questioned about
each of the five documents enumerated
in the bordereau, the answers of Drey-
fus were as follows: First: Never at
any period of my career have | had in
my possession any document relating
to the hydraulic brake of the carriage
of the 1870. The last time that | saw
the 1920 gun was while l was at the
Ecole de Guerre; / saw it en- repos;
| have never seen the piece fired.
Second-"Since January l, 1894, until
July of the same year, was employed
at the second bureau. During that en-
tire period | never had any work to do
in relation to the 'couverteure. / have
never had in my possession any docu-
ment upon this question" Third-Qn
regard to the note relating to a modifi-
cation in the artillery formation I'm
the month of June | only knew but one
thing in this connection, and that was
the suppression of two regiments of ar
tillery pontoneers and the creation Of
20 new batteries. AS to the campaign
formations of the artillery l was igno-
rant Of them, and | am still ignorant of
them to-day. Moreover, according TO
one Of the questions in an interroga-
tory, these campaign formations for ar
tillery did not reach the staff until the
month of June" Fourth Never at
any time haves l read or had in my
hands any document about the NADIA
gascar campaign" Fifth--"Never at
any time have l had this manual of
field artillery fire in my possession. l
was not even aware of its publication"
Maitre Moirnard, at the hearing be-
fore the court of cessation on June /,
1899, submitted evidence showing that
any one of some 500 officers of the
French army might, had he felt so in
clined, have obtained the information
contained in the five documents men,
toned in the bordereau. Capt. Drey-
fus was an artillery officer, and it was
highly improbable that he could have
made such technical blunder as to re-
fer to the hy6ro-pneumatic brake of
the "120 court" as the pneumatic
brake as stated in the bordereau.
Moreover, it has been conclusively
shown by Maitre Moirnard that as long
ago as August, 1894, circulars had been
issued at Chalons and elsewhere for
the use of officers during the maneu-
vres, giving descriptions, with litho-
graphs of four of the five subjects re-
ferred to in the bordereau; and as to
the note about the Madagascar cam
paign it is notorious that the plans Of
that campaign were discussed in eoun-
ell at no less than four different min
istries and that over 500 different indi-
viduals in Paris were fully cognizant
Of its details.
If the prosecution succeeds in prov
inp that Cant DrevfuS handed over to