The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1899-09-21
DREYFUS PARDONED.
Decision of French Cabinet
Creates Little Exciten ent.
PRESS VIOLENTLY ATTACKS LOUBET.
The Liberation From the Rcnnes
Prison VIII lie Kept secret UntiI
the Captain Is Safe In Eng
Iand, His Future Home.

PARIS. Sept. 20.-Ex- Captain Alfred
Dreyfus has been pardoncd.
The announcement of Dreyfus' liberia
ton from prison will not be made until
after his departure for England.
The story of Nine. Drcyfus' visit to
Folkstone, England, with Maitrc Labori
Is contradicted. Nine. Dreyfus is still
at Rennes.
ExCaptain Dreyfus has withdrawn his
appeal to the military cocrt of revision.
The pardon will not be signed for several
days. as numerous formalites remain to
be carried out.
The decision of the cabinet to pardon
Dreyfus created less interest in Paris
than would the result of big horse
race. In fact, il may be said that it caus-
ed no excitement whatever. There was
no rioting on the boulevards. In frorH
of the offices OF the Libre Parole, where
a crowd usually assemblies in the evening
to gaze upon the huge colbred transpar-
encies outside the windows of the lead
ing anti-Semite organ. there was not the
slightest gathering or the faintest sign
Of demonstration either for or against
Dreyfus.
One would think that the fire of ths
Dreyfus agitation had burned itself out.
The anti-Dreyfusard evening papers
tried to infuse interest into the govern
ment's action by rabid attack upon
President Loubet, but their effoIts were
futile. The peaceful crowds that filled
the tables in front Of the cafes, slipping
their after dinner coffee and cognac,
looked at the pewsboys who displayed
the front pages of these sheets with their
violent headlines, but utterly refused to
Al VI.
discuss the matter or only made the pass
ing remark that the decision was Just
what had been expected and predicted by
every Parisan newspaper since the
Rennes court martial
The anti-Dreyfusard newspaper Soir
had the most sensational caption, two
lines Of enormous letters extending across
the entire front page, announcing THE
Traitor Dreyfus Pardoned-Outrage on
the Army" Then in the course of an
article violently attacking President
Loubet it said:
"Loubet has given himself coup dt
grace in pardoning Dreyfus. He should
be prosecuted for committing an out
rage upon the army, for his decision
amounts to this. BY stroke of the pen
he has destroyed the effect of the sen
tence of two courts martial and has de-
clared that two military courts have
lied"
The Soir adds: "The affair has become
grave when the chief of state assumes
the leadership of the anti-military move
ment and pardons confessed traitor
under the pretext that he has been con-
demned twice instead of once"
The Aurore, the leading organ Of the
Dreyfusard body, today publishes an ar
ticle by M. Francis de Pressense, the
distinguished journalist, who from the
first was leader in the revision move
ment. The writer says:
"If the president by pardoning Drey-
fus wished to spare France the inefface
able shame of judicial crime, this exer-
else of his prerogative, called mercy, so
far from impairing the necessary work Of
justice, will only prepare and facilitate
it, for we must speak straight out
"1f it was imagined that impunity for
criminals could be purchased by pardon
ing an innocent man, if it was thought
that the friends of law would barter am
nesty to the scoundrels who perpetrated
those crimes upon the bruised body of the
man from whom they have torn out the
soul, then we throw from us this degrad-
ing and deceitful offer. Dreyfus would
be the first to reject as an infamy such
traffic with his honor"