The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-08-18
LABORYs CAREER.


Handled Witnesses in ZOla's Case.
People who have Rad the papera Of
Tuesday, February s. ISIS. containing
an account Of the frst session Of the
Seine assizes. assembled to try Emile
ZoIa, were profoundly struck By the
thorough manner In which the defend
ants senior counsel handled the gov
eminent witnesses, In spite Of great OBJ
stReleB thrust In his way. The eoun-
sells name was Maitre Fernand Gus
tave- CASTOR Labor.
As the trial proceeded President Del
egorgue ordered one witness afler an
other not 10 speak OF The chose tugee-
the Dreyfug case-and the legal proies-
sion OF the world nlarveled at the Wy
in which AiaitFe Labor drew from the
Witnesses against their desire. and IN
spite Of repeated warnings Of the pres
Idant, important fncts concerning the
actual circumstances Of Dreyfuss con-
Viction. He caused Plcquart 20 re-
peat his testimony given at the Ester
hazv cOuFtmartiaL He forced Gen DE
Pelileaux 10 acknowledge the existence
Of a secret doSsIeF. Soon he became
known not only us the bravest lawyer
in France. but a. one Of the greatest
crOss-examlBers in the world.
Maitre Labori was thirty-eight years
Of age when he undertook to defend IL
Zola, who had been charged with Grim
inal libel by the minister Of war. oE-
ing to the accusations contained In the
noveIists famous letter "Jaccuse;
published In LAurore Of January ~
1855, Maitre Labor was admitted 10
the Paris bar In NiYember, 1854. ana
soon made considerable mark as
criminal lawyer and author OF works
on law. He was at one time editor OK
the La GaZetta du PalaiA. Some OK MS
cases have figured among the criminal
sensations OF the day. He defended the
anarchist Duval the Nioort bEotheIs,
and was the leading counsel ior tns
defense OF the notorious Valiant in 1874.
He also made the briefs In the Numa-
Gilley case, the suit Of II. Prieu against
the minister of foreign AFFAIRS. MaiTe
Labor il also an expert on copyright
law and on the law Of libel. In poll
tics he Is u Moderate Republican. he
once decided to enter Q political career
and ran for q seat in the chamber In
1898. He was defeated by a narrow
vote, N. 1Ilrman being elected.
Maitre LaDoH has never been con-
sidered an eloquent speaker. BIS aa-
dresses to the jury are stepped IN 100
in long harangues. II ls, however, as a
cross-examiner par excellence that he
has won fame, not even second TO MS
SKIN in working up q case. It has been
said thar his manner before witness
Is more like an Englishman or an
American than q Frenchman This
may be accounted for by the fact that
tust before he received his honors from
the faculty of Paris, in 1881 and 1853,
he had spent two years In London,
where ne first met the woman whom
he was TO marry. 1t is said that ne
also took special course at the UNI
Verslty Of Bonn.
10 show Maitre LaborI's method in
court. It might be well to take few ex-
tracts from the lola trial, which also
have direct bearing upon the tesemo-
ny delivered before the Renne0 COURT
on February IL, 1893. Lieut.. Col.
Georges PicQuart was placed on the
witness stand. He described his mis-
sion to Tunls.
Labori-was the mission important?
PicQuart-It was not Indispensable.
/ think As a matter Of TACT,
don't think 1t was necessary to send
IaborI-Anyhow. Col. Picquart him.
self has always understood quite well
the subject OF his mission?
Plcquart-No, though did my best to
Iabori@Why does Col. P1cquart think
that his presence In Paris was not de-
sired?
Labori-If l rightly understand the
deposition OF Col. Picquart, he told US
that nj a given moment his mission
was to end at Gabes?
Picuuart-What said was that Just
at the time when the Dreytus business
began afresh, received orders to place
myself on the frontier at TripoL 1t was
Gen, Leclerc who told nc that he would
not allow me to 80 any further than
Here is the climax Of his interroga-
ton OF Gen. Pellleux, who had been
charged with drawing up the complaint
against Esterhazy. but who left the
bordereau out Of the Indictment:
Labori-Yes or no. When Cen oe
Pellieux said There Is no proof. had
the bordereau been laid before eXpertsT
De Pellieux-No.
LabOri-Thank you.
When the president OF the assizes
refused to order du Patty de Clam to
testify, Labor remarked: Here Is a
trial Mt the aSsizes such as have never
witnessed before. They use all means
in 1t to prevent light being thrown on
any single point"
nesses.
ADMINISTRATION me. They are sim
My witnesses in the case. NJ. du Patty
de Clam ls calIbl because we wished
for q discussion both open and complete
and no. matter what the question we
ask, the witnesses, In default Of one
good reason for not answering, are al.
lowed to give two bad ones. First,
they Invoke the professional secret.
When that fails them they invoke the
reason Of state. : And then, when they
have neither professional secret nor Sc
crnt OF state nor huis clos CLOSED
doors) to Invoke, they invoke the 'prt-
vate' secret"