The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-08-06
DREYFUs ARRIVES AT RENNEs.
a Very Picturesque Bit of Special
Reporting.

Reporting.
G.. w. Stevens Letter to the London Mail.
Ugh! 1t began to grow cold now with
the keen wind of dawn. Everybody was
growing silent; the wet was soaking
through their boots; their feet were CALLED
on the cobbies Hardly anybody was walk
ing now, hardly anybody talking, The
blueblack sky was tinged with violet now,
and the scent of hay stole on to the air
Turn one way and you were in the light
ening, freshening, ehaste-colored dawn; the
other and you saw a silent clump of black
people motionless in an island of yellow
glare from one gas lamp. There is al
ways something of miracle in daybreak -
the new life and light creeping in on you
so impereeptibly till suddenly you are as
tonished that the night mas vanished with
out warning. Here the sensat ion was
underlined; it was almost indecent, almost
a monstrosity, that this black group in the
garish light remained just as they were
last night and refused to be TRANSPORTED
with the rest of the world.
But that for another season; meanwhile
what on earth has become of Dreyfus? The
change from night to day woke everybody
up to the truth that they had waited and
he had not come. What does il mean?
Where are the leading journalists? Per-
haps at the telegraph, perhaps at the sta
and lighter; they would never bring him in
by daylight. A cab drives up from the
station, stops; a head is put out to speak,
end instantly the whole crowd is about it.
The officials at the station are bowled
over; they cannot understand it, The spe-
cial train was 10 come-has not. The pre-
fects secretary has gone home, And as
the cab, perpexed and frantic, clatters off
toward the telegraph, there stamp along
the pavement the clogs of the first work
ingman.
Another disappointment. The merely
curious had begun to drain away with the
first breath of day; now the crowd melted
quicker and quicker till hardly more than
a score were left. 1.-TWO nights without
sleep" grumbles a white-faced correspond
ent: five" corrects him one who can hard
ly keep his eyes open. Well, we must re-
sign ourselves. And yet, and yet, there
seems no doubt ne started. The streets are
filing up fast now with work people and
carts, yet the prison gate is quite solitary.
| viii take this end, you that; give MIN
another hour.
As | stood alone-the one left of hum
dreds-and watched the gate, it stealthily
haIf-opened. A gendarme put his head out.
then put 1t back. Then ii opened again;
an officer put his head out and put il
back. After ALL what was there in that?
A gendarme appeared around the street
out again in a moment, and went away.
After all why should not a gendarme have
business in a prison? Quarter to 6, nearly 6,
and oh Lord I'm sleepy. This really is
getting too-Hi A yell from the watcher
at the other end of the street and ne
whips out of sight round the corner AS
| am getting started after him he whips
back again. a tearing crowd at his heels.
Heavens, they are coming to my cornerl
1 tear back and round-and he is comet
Two carriages are driving rapidly toward
me. And the dead-walled street. ten sec
onds ago so empty that you would say
nobody had passed down II since ID was
made, Is swarming full Of gendarmes. Out
Of doors down from windows, over walls,
out OF the ground II seems, they spring
and scamper A frantic cry from one OF
the carriages. and both check to let the
gendarmes get in front. The first dashes
past me- screaming, Move on! Move on"
hardly articulate In his excitement. His
fellows rush up from the other way. They
form a line across the street. and make a
barrier OF carbiues held athwart their
bodies Back Move ont Back, back! A lit
tie man in a sweater appears behind them,
i'm command, he, too, screaming Back.
backg The carriages now appear again
round the corner; the gate in this street is
suddenly seen to be open. The first car
rage rolls in; men jump from the second
and rush in after It. Gendarmes still on
your toes, public still on your heels, Back
backw SIN bawled down your throat-and
the door Is shut and Dreyfus is Inside. THe
gendarmes halt and are silent; their cor
don bars the street The crowd resumes
its old occupation OF looking intenly at
nothing.
Nine hours OF watching, two minutes OF
seeing. But two minutes OF seeing almost
worth watching for-the best conceived
nestest quickest bit Of stage management
in the history Of government. You rubbed
your eyes and wondered II Il was real: at
a word you would almost have resumed
watching again.
Bravo, Messieurs the authorities!