The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-06-06


tain Alfred Dreyfus. an Alsatian Jew
prominent in the intelligence depart
ment of the army, and an officer OF
established ability and character, was
! arrested ON suspicion.
He was shrewdly selected by the
conspirators who counted not in vain
upon the anti-Semitic bigotry of pub
lie opinion to help them fasten the
crime upon his head and drive him
forth a scapegoat to satisfy the clamor
and screen themselves.
On the 18th of December the star
chamber proceedings, enormously cali
ed trial, began. The public never
knew what happened there. The
French people have just learned that
the criminals conducted that court,
that the real traitors convicted an in
nocent man. 1t has leaked out but
recently that three out of the five ex-
perts who examined the letters upon
which Dreyfus was found guilty, pro-
nounced them unquestionable and
clumsy forgeries- And three of the
forgers themselves have since confessed
such serious significance to France,
from beginning to end, fairly reeked
with intrigue, fraud, bigotry, vanity
and a palpable desire to shield the So
called honor of the French army at the
expense of justice and the real honor
of the republic.
One of the most active agents in the
prosecution of Dreyfus was Boisdeffre
and an officer whose wife's name was
unpleasantly linked with that OF the
general.
No wonder Dreyfus was convicted.
The scoundrels who sold the military
secrets of their country to rival gov
ernments, scrupled not to prostitute the
highest tribunal of the army and to
debauch the civil courts.
What was Dreyfus to men who had
betrayed France?
On the 5th of January. 1895, Dreyfus
was publicly degraded in the parade
ground of the Ecole Militaire and sent
TO DEVILS island, desolate spot on the
coast of French Guiana, to explate
crime which had been committed by
the Judges who sentenced him. What a
travesty upon justice! What mock
cry of civilization.
Colonel Henry put himself forward as
the special accuser of Dreyfus, ana Is
sned wholesale challenge to all who
insisted upon a retrial of the case. IN
tbe prosecution he was the lion OF the
conspirators, the especial pet of the
chief of staff, and the rising man OF
French miIitarism. But he could not
stifie his conscience. The stil' Small
voice was whispering in his ear. Every
where he turned the nemesis OF retrlpu-
tion confronted him. And then, at last,
on the 3Oth of August, 1898, this jealous
prosecutor, this dashing colonel OF the
army whose honor he had claimed TO
save by plunging it deeper in dishonor,
this valiant champion of persecution,
who was so ready to fight a duel with
anyone who even limited that Dreytus
might, after all, be innocent, confessed
that he himself deliberately forged
letter upon which the government based
its refusal to reopen the case. and then
he was found dead next day, but wheth-
err he committed suicide from shame
or was murdered by his co-conspirators,
will never be known, perhaps, until
some of the others are stricken in the
same way.
Esterhazy. whose confession has just
been announced, was tried last year,
but the court which had sentenced
Dreyfus and the influence which OPP
posed him, was bound to acquit Ester
hazy. and it did so in one week from
the date of his arrest. And yet 1t was
proven that the bordereau was in Es-
terhazy's handwriting, a fact that the
court rejected in January, 1898, but that
Esterhazy confessed last week in Lon
don. And Patty du Clam, a major in
the French army, has confessed to the
infamy of the prosecution and the
trickery of the court, ending his dra-
matte declaration with the usual
French tableau of attempted suicide.
Colonel Picquert, the only prominent
officer of the army who has shown
disposition to be fair or reasonable, was
dismissed from the service on the 10th
of November, 1896, and exiled to Tri-
poll At Esterhazy's trial he was
brought back to Paris. After the trial
he was thrown into prison, where he
has since remained.
All this time the religious fanaticism
of the masses was kept infiamed and
prejudice against Dreyfus and all who
espoused his cause manifested itself in
mob violence, duels and public insults.
lola appeared upon the scene lit
tie more than a year ago. He pub
lished his letter of accusation on the
18th of January, 1898. But this heroic
attempt to secure justice where the
machinery was in the power of its
violators provoked another paroxysm
of popular frenzy, and five days after
Zola's letter appeared he was mobbed
three times, narrowly escaping with his
life once, spat upon in court, Missed in
the witness box, insulted and stoned in
the street, convicted and expatriated.
Then followed a disgraceful period of
elimination, appeals to passion and the
army hiding behind the mob. DueIs
were fought, lola was denounced in
every cafe, the Jews were prosecuted
and cursed with demoniacal vehe-
mence, women We're slandered, and the
gentle, faithful, noble wife of the VIC
tim of militarism was Inundated and
rendered wretched by the fury of the
mob and the cruelty of army influence.
But, thank heaven, she has triumphed.
The mob has turned. The army is in
disgrace. The court is Missed. The