Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1899-08-25

The Dreyfus Case.
The Essential Facts Clearly Told by
One Of the Leading Newspaper Writers
of the Time.

The Essential Facts Clearly Told by
One Of the Leading Newspaper Writers
OF the Time.
The intricacies of the Dreyfus case are
perplexlng, IL not positively unintelligible to
the general reader, but the essential facts
are rescued and made clear in an article
contributed by M. de Blowitz, the celebrat-
ed newspaper correspondent, TO the cur
rent number of Harper's Weekly. Alfred
Dreyfus, de Blowitz says, was one of the
most remarkable pupils In the war-school,
entrance to which he secured with great diff
Guilty after making good record in the Poly
technic school, Entrance once gained he
lost the "bloom of soulr and the "single-eyed
sincerity of his youth, and became instead
ostentatiously proud of his victory, exhibit
ing great disdain for those who had failed,
and an overweening ambition for his own
success. He created about him such an
atmosphere of ill-will that his grade in the
war-school was lowered and he graduated
ninth in the list though he had aspired to
first place. Then followed the proposal to
put the young man, whose brilliancy aud
ability were conceded, on the general staff.
"But he is a Jewn' was theanswer, and
on this ground his advancement was stout
| ly opposed. In spite of it, however, he
| got the appointment, and then his real
troubles began. To his companions he
was always ''the jew" and on him was
cast the suspicion or the responsibility for
every wrong or mean thing that happened
| in the Office.
So ran the current of events until the
day came when, through purchase and in
trigue, the French and German war offices
had each contrived to establish a system
of espionage over the work and affairs of
the other. From each papers were alb
stracted and carried to the other, but none
were OF much Importance. But
One day man in the pay of the second bureau
| stole out of the concerges lodge at the German
embassy psper package which had been put
into Colonel Schwarzsoppen's pigeon hole. rms
| message was not handed over directly 10 Colonel
! Henry. The latter found IL torn up in the paper
| cornet which habitually contained the small bits
| Of paper brought from the waste paper basket OF
the German embassy. The contents Of these
papers were merely statement or list, sort OF
bill, of the documents given by Major Esterhazy
seller like any experienced dealer exaggerated
the value vaunting his goods. This was the
now famous "bordereau
When this paper fell into the hands of Col.
Henry 1t was too late to destroy 1t, and TO make
way with it But great ignorance was teigned as
| to the handwriting. Everybody would seem TO
have bent over this paper TO try to recognize the
| handwriting. Any number OF persons, suoalterns
| or not, could have recognized it, no one did SO.
| There were grave reasons for not revealing the
| existence Of Esterhazy for he might have told
| tales 10 his turn, as now for some months he has
been threatening to do IL was necessary at all
| costs that EsterhaZy's name should not be pro.
| nounced; and, in fact. IL was not breathed, and
the f'dire vas about 20 be "classed az is 10
| saw The document was to be docketed and put
aside as an insouble problem-and thus there
| would have been no Dreyfus case.when Colonel
| d'Abovle unexpectedly returned from his leave
| of absence. Esterhazy, knowing the bordereau mad
been discovered although certain the matter
would be suppressed, was In an anxious frame OF
mind, and had asked schwerzkoppen to come to
| his rescue Colonel d'Aboville saved him.
On beholding the bordereAu bill he exclaimed
| "why, it's Dreyfus's handwritingW
| And the e eAclam alton resounded across the sec
ond bureau and went forth throughout the war
| Office corridors Its the Jew. It's the Jew
And they who knew better than anyone else that
IL was not he cried the loudtst, ITS the Jew''
And thereupon there grew up among
the enemies of Dreyfus "an ardent silent
conspiracy" leach with spontaneous zeal
contributing to thicken the obscurity of
the error" The result, in the arrest, con-
viction, transportation and incarceration
of Dreyfus, with the accompanying sicken-
ing story of forgery and fraud, all the
world knows.
Because of its illumination of the pres
ent situation it may be added that de
Blowitz affirms that ever since the trial OF
Zola, which let daylight into the whole
shameful business, and diseredited the
government and the army so far as the Drey'
fus affair is concerned, Dreyfus and hi:
, cause have been used as pretext by al
the enemies of the republic, and it is moi
! now simply an individual but regime
which is ON trial before the French court
, In case of the acquittal of Dreyfus, which
Justice so surely demands, "the republic
must show itself strong enough to represi
rebellion, for this acquittal will be th'
signal of a supreme effort, final uprising
and the government of the republic will
t totter and fall at the very moment when
v shows itself incapable of imposing upoi
t all Frenchmen respect for such a verdict