Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-09-08

letter from the captain to a friend in
which he declared his mind was made
up in 1894 before he saw the secret
dossier, and another letter from an off,
Ger who was in company with Frey
staetter in Madagascar, wherein the
writer asserted that Capt Freystaetter
talked of the courtmartial of 1894, but
never mentioned the Panizzardi dis
patch.
After this Gen. Mercier brought up
two bad points in Capt. Freystaetter's
career. While in Madagascar he was
guilty of an act of disobedience to his
chief, and he also executed thirty ma
tives. This assertion caused certain
impression in the audience and Col.
Jouaust asked Gen. MERCER to abstain
from giving any further particulars.
The general added that he firmly be-
lieved Freystaettr was a brave man,
but he thought the two acts referred to
showed he could not be entirely trusted.
He asked the judges not to allow the
captains evidence to shake their conf
dence in his own dispositions, but to
lend him the same credence as though
the Freys taetter incident had never oc-
Cured.
The court then retired to deliberate
on NJ. Labori't application and its prob
able decision was eagerly discussed.
Every one in court stood up when the
judges returned. Col. Jouaust gave the
order, Present arms" to the guard of
soldiers at the bottom of the hall,
while he standing, and with the other
judges standing on either side of him,
read the announcement that the judges
had unanimously decided that the pres
ident, Col. Jouaust, was incompetent
to order a rogatoTy commission, and
that the judges as body, according
to the military code, were not compe-
tent to do so.
NJ. Labori thereupon asked Col. Jou-
aust if he still maintained his refusal
to appoint commission, the colonel
having, when M. Labori submitted his
conclusions, said he was opposed to the
application. Col. Jouaust replied Eyes,
and the evidence of Col. Schwartz
koppen and Maj. Panizzardi, with re-
gard to their relations with Dreyfus,
was then excluded The refusal of
Col. Jouaust seemed inexphcable, be-
cause it appeared to be his duty to re-
ceive all evidence directly bearing on
the case and more especially the evil
dence of the two attaches, the refusal
of whose evidence is equivalent to a
slight on their respective countries.
That Col Jouaust's decision means
the condemnation of Dreyfus was the
unanimous opinion of the anti-Dreyfus-
ards, and it was also the impression of
majority of the Dreyfusards, whose
late hope is that Col. Jouaust only dar-
ed to refuse to take evidence of Col.
Schwartzkoppen and Maj. Penizzardi
because the court had already made up
it's mind to acquit the prisoner.
After the decision of the court re-
fusing to examine the attaches by
commission had been delivered, re-
ports relating to the experts examina
ton of the paper of the bordereau
were read.
Then M. Labori complained of the
absence of Cernuschi, who sent let
ter to Col. Jouaust saying he was in
disposed and confined to the house.
Counsel said he wished to question this
witness and asked that certain letters
be submitted to the court, showing
Cernuschi was the subject of mental
arrangement and setting forth other
facts unfavorable to him.
Maj Jocarrie was called upon to
deliver the final speech for the prose-
cution, which only lasted an hour and
quarter and which was generally
characterized as one of the weakest or
ations ever heard in a court.
He said ne considered it to be estab-
lished that Dreyfus wrote the border
eau though the phrase concerning the
covering of troops was very significant
He pointed out that Dreyfus could have
obtained the firing manual with little
difficulty. Moreover, the Major argued,
Esterhazy could not say in August that
he was going 10 the manoeuvres, while
DreyflIs could have thought so up to
August 18th.
The government commissary affirmed
that he, himself. noticed the alteration
in Dreyfus' handwriting since 1894, in
letters which he had written from De-
wills Island.
Abiding to the secret dossier the
Major said Esterhazy was not in po-
sition to furnish the interesting infor-
nation.
Discussing the correspondence OF "a
(Col. Sehwartzkoppen) Major Carriere
declared emphatically his belief that
Dreyfus had relations with the power
of which IA was the agent. He ad-
mitted Esterhazy was not nice per-
son, but said there was nothing to