The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-08-18
THE R[NNfS TRAGEDY
A Letter ON the Exciting
Event
The OPPOSING FACTIONS
In the Contest over the DreyBu> Case
FferceIy Arrayed-The Attack ON VI.
Labor the Answer TO the ppeaI to
Fanaucism- Sketch of Labor and
His Wffe-The Former's Serious Con-
dfuon-How the News Was Received
In Court.

| dftfon-How the News Was Received
| In Court.
copyright by Associated Press.)
Rennes, August 14.-The drama at
! Rennes grows tragical. That long be-
| Gained town is being stirred into a
| more violent passion than Paris. The
| Parisians are laborious. The Bretons
| are silent and possessed by their be-
| lief or idea whatever it may be.
This morning at 6 o'clock a we'll nigh
NJ. Labor, who defended NJ. lola last
year and who came here TO defend
Dreyfus with NJ. Lamange. The would
be ASSASSIN was evidently a crank and
| looked a workman. His weapon was
a revolver, the theatre of the crime the
| Quay Richemont. 1t was while Labor
was going to the court with Colonel
Picquart and his cousin, NJ. Cast.
When Madame Labor came up she
was SEM to fetch a doctor, but not
knowing the town, h lost a good deal
Of time. At last she thought of going
to the court and asking there for a
military surgeon. Drs. Vidaland and
Reclus were at hand and at once ac-
companied her. They had the presence
of mind to send a gendarme to the bar
racks for an ambulance with a stretch
er and bearers.
With deep thankfulness they found
that M. Labor could move his limbs
at will. The spine, therefore, vas not
injured. The ball had entered at the
sixth vertebra behind the thorax. 1t
might be embedded in the muscle of
the back or have penetrated deeper,
injuring the lungs.
However, the thing was to bear the
wounded advocate to the pretty ard
gay looking villa he had hired for use
during the trial, a villa adorned with
green slabs Of faience, bright with
flowers and in the airy part of Rennes
But why go further into details? The
lesson of the event was foreshadowed
in my cable last evening. The two OPP
posite forces are in line of battle. Fa-
naticism has been appealed to and has
answered the call.
Colonel Picquart describes the would
be as sWarthy and thick-set,
resOlute and intelligent looking. He
thinks the man might be a southron.
If so, he must lave known the coun-
try around Rennes. 1t is a country of
small, pathy fields, separated by
hedges, which he was evidently famil-
lar with.
Apparently he knew places in the
thickets into which he could dive, and
in doing so remained concealed for
some time from a pursuer. The gen
darmes that Colonel Picquart met
joined in the pursuit, but without rum
ming, and knowledge of the locality en-
abled the would-be murderer t. es-
cape.
M. Labor is young fair, handsome
and full of lusty life and high spirits.
His talents as a speaker are not of the
highest order, but no other member
Of the Paris bar knows better how to
use law to defeat it's object. He can
drive a motor car through the code.
Until he pleaded for lola his luck was
uninterrupted. He then mad an at
tack of typhoid fever, which greatly
weakened him and forced him to neg
lect business. The lola affair was a
great advertisement, but it brought
him no direct profit and created for
him endless enemies. He refused the
handsome free the novelist offered, nor
does he accept %pecuniaIy reward from
Dreyfus.
Labor is proud of his wife's beauty.
She is equally proud of his good looks
and talents, and loses no opportunity
to hear him plead. She is an Austria
liam, received as a pianist ner musical
education in London, became a player
at concerts, made the acquaintance of
the deformed but highly gifteo Rus
sian pianist, Pachmann, married him,
had two children, and then fell in love
with Labor. h passion was mutual.
She and Pachmann were divorced and
then h married Labori. The children
live with her and find a devoted step
father in him.
Mde. Labor had attended all the pub
1sa t+,~- - H. D0--~-
tial. Her beauty is beyond dispute.
She is a striking blonde, and though
her path has not been always strewn
with roses, she expresses the JOY of life
in splendid health and a satisfied
heart.
What a bolt from the blue sky the
morning event has been to her, She
the ~happiest woman aliv when
she set out this morning. IN less than
ten minutes her life vas blighted.
Labori, not long cOnvalescent from
typhoid fever, is in a bad state to re-
ceive a ball entering the thoraX
through the back. He is now in a hisn
fever, and there may be dangerous
complications later.
The court room, when the news Of
shooting anne was crowded as the
sitting was about to commence.
The president of the association #
legal journals. NJ. Taunay, we'll known
as the organizer Of the International
press congress, jumped upon a table /
and exclaimed: M. Labori has been
at and was wounded"
The nnouncement caused a hush
Solemn silence reigned for perhaps
three or -four minutes. Possibly it was
the silence of stupor, for all seemed I!
stunned. At length the nationalist
and Dreyfusites declared their horror +.
of h crime and their sympathy witlt
the victim.
Labor has always been
tional, largely because he is the son Of
useful folk. The father is an
n a station master at
Chalons. He is in the secret of the
steps TO be taken in regard TO railway
transport of rooDs were France at
tackled from Germany. He and his
wife were staying 1t NJ. Labori's Paris
when the crime was committed.
Madame Labor t~elegraphed for them
to come at once n they are now
here.
The sitting was adjourned for a short
this morning TO enable NJ. De-
mango TO inquire Of Labori's condition.
D1,rinp tho n~rncaodinoc Da-5-