The age-herald., 1899-09-14
CAPT. DREYFUS AS
 HE REALLY IS

Correspondence of the Philadelphia Press,
 London, Aug. 31.--And now for 8 word about Captain Dreyfus personally. Let us, for once, be frank about him and look fairs ly 1t him. rid of the covering of sentiment and pity with which It has been natural that he should nave been shroude1 all this time.
 When the world first saw him. through the eyes of the many able correspondents as he walked to the platform of the Ly- cee at Rennes his appearance shocked the eyes and minds of every one.
 1'aat a man at the age of g should look older than many men of 70, with his chalky face wasted frame and thin white hair, was so pitiful proof of all that he had suffered that nothing but sheer com passion controlled every pen which wrote about him.
 His voice, when he first used i:. was so nearly the shriek of a bird or tfe outcry of wounded animal that it tore the hearts of all who heard it.
 But remember that days and weeks have gone by and we have seen Captain Drey- sIs six or seven hours a day and have heard him speak score of times. so that we flave become accustomed to his face and voice and manner, ard ara able to look upon him as a man of hesh rather than as, at first, a symbol of suife,ins such as Cit seems to nany) has cpire to but one heroic figure ia the past, and that enc not wholly human.
 Now, when we hear newcomer after new conner declare that they are sorry they have seen him and that they have destroy ed the ecstacy of their pity for him by studying his appearance, we can calmly consider the criticism they pass upon him.
 He is not and never can have been a good-looking man. His face is sharp one. It comes, hatchet-like, to point at the nose. It has little bead-like eyes that arc far too close together for what we would call a frank and open countenance.
 In a word it Is shrewd face and seems to belong to a man who should have been able to keep himself out of such a mess as he has fallen into Perhaps, since he has had this misfortune, his face may belle his character.
 The note or tone of his voice has greatly changed, and we are able now to say that he speaks with a full, round, manly tone, such as a strong charactered vigorous person should always sound. That first note of his was the rendng of years of silence, the overcoming of years of dsuse, or rust, so to speak, in his throat.
 Out of the trial has come the patent proof that Captain Dreyfus was never the arch angel of sweetness and light which the popular imagination has made him.
 There has not been said against him a single word which affects his moral charac- ter or entities him to so much as sip of the cup of bitterness which he has been made to drain.
 He is simply shown to have been unpopu- lar and, for the first time, we begin to see why it was that, if circumstances required a victim among the men on the general staff, where Captain Dreyfus was serving it should have been he who was led to the altar.
 He was exceedingly vain and boastful, and curious to find out what everybody else was doing and what was in every cup board and envelope that it is easy to see how unpopularity first fastened on him, and then suspicion strangled him.
 He was forever bragging of how easy it was for him to learn what the others toeo and struggled to master; he ceaselessly boasted of his wealth to poor devils who had nothing but the meagre pay which the French dole out to their soldiers; he dnned into their ears descriptions of his luxuri- ous surroundings at home and of his ar- fairs with class of women with whom his poor colleagues had not means to associ- ate, thoueh>they may have had the wish
 FRENCH MANIA FOR AUTOMOBILES.