The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-08-26
WRITING TESTIMONY.
An Expert Who Attempted to Prove
Dreyfus' Guilt.
REGARDED AS PRINCE oFQUACKs.

| Court That DreyfIs Wrote the Bor-
dereau Looked Upon. Except by tho
| Judges, as a Farce. i
Rennes, Aug. 26.-After M. BertilIon,
the handwriting expert who is at the
head Of the anthropometric department
had concluded the first instalment Of
his so-called demonstration of the guilt
Of Captain Dreyfus, prominent Drey-
fllsard referred to him as "the fin de
riecle Cagliostro'
The Dreyfusards refuse to regard
him as anything but the prince Of
quacks. They cover his remarks with
ridicule and protest that the admission
of his fantastic theories as evidences
before the court martial is disgrace
to France. "C'est une honte" was the
remarks heard on all sides when the
session closed and the audience, main
ly made up of Dreyfusards, was being
pressed outside by the gendarmes, who
clear the court room as soon as the
court adiourns.
Nevertheless, even the Dreyfusards
do not deceive themselves as to the eff
feet M. Bertillon's testimony, or dem
onstration," may have upon the judges,
who, they fear, will be gulled by what
the Dreyfusards consider spurious. All
the judges have passed through the
Ecole Polytechnique, the highest
school of science in France. and they
are thus particularly interested In such
evidence" as NJ Bertillon's. More
over, with the aid of the innumerable
diagrams and specimens of writing
which he submits to them. they may
be able to follow his reasoning intelli-
gibly, which is more than any member
of the audience could do yesterday. II
the judges accept Bertilon's premises
that Dreyfus, as an expert spy, did
not write ordinary handwriting, but in
close immitation, even contriving to
give the letters the appearance of hav-
ing been traced in order to be able to
repudiate them as forgery If detect
ed-then the structure built upon this
groundwork may be scientifically cor
rect.
Even Dreyfus. when shown Bertil-
Inns demonstrations, admitted the in
genuity and plausibility of the sys-
TEN, though he naturally declared that
it was built upon false basis.
remarkable feature of NJ. Bertfl-
Ions deposition was the heat and ex-
citement he put into what was ex-
pected to be a calm, dispassionate ex-
position of his theories. He thundered.
shouted and waved his arms as though
engaged in some terrible dispute. Once
he literally shrieked, and numbers of :
the usual audience who had been un-
able to follow him and were taking the
air in the court yard ruched back into
the hall, breathlessly inquiring what
had happened and imagining that he
was Illuminating some dreadful denun-
citation Of the accused.
Their excitement was turned into
hilarity when they found that he was
merely impressing upon the judges the
significance OF the exact space, meas.
ured in centimeters, between two
words in the bordereau. The military I
witnesses, all of whom sit in bunch.
leaving Colonel Picquart and M. Bertu-
lus severely isolated, followed M. Ber-
tillon's statements with grave and
wise expression Of countenance, upon
which never suspicion of a. smile
appeared, as though they understood
every word. Evidently they had re-
ceived a mot d'ordre to preserve this
attitude, for without seeing the dia-
grams, they could not have UNDER
stood any better than did the general
public.
The Echo De Paris announced that
the counsel of Dreyfus had obtained
possession of certain documents men,
toned in the bordereau in Esterhazy's
writing, which they would produce In
court next week as coup de theater.
A correspondent inquired as to this in
competent Dreyfusard quarters. He
was assured that the statement was
erroneous but was also told that the
defense In the event of Captain Drey-
fus being recondemned to ask the Ger
man government to communicate these
documents proving his innocence, and
that they had reason to believe such
a request would be granted.
The minister of war, General de
Marquis of Gallifet. has transmitted
the dossier of the Tavemier inquiry
into the conduct of Colonel Du Patty de
Clam to the court martial at Rennes.
as requested by Maitre Labori, leading
counsel for the defense, on Wednesday
last