The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-08-19
ductions had great effect on the audience
and ELECTED general admiration.
stolen From His Desk.

first portion of the secret dossler by say
ing; May I be allowed to express deep
regret at the absence of Mai. Du Patty
de Clam. Ii seems to me Indispensable
that this officer, who wrote the commen-
taries on the secret dosser. should be sum
mOned to give evidence here. He would
give us his "reminiscences and would help
him" daughter.
But" Col. Picquart added, "slnce l
am dealing with this question Of the COM
mentaries of Maj. Du Patty de Clam, per-
nit me to point out 20 YOU, gentlemen,
that this document was not the property
of any particular minister 1t was class
ited as belonging 10 the ntelHgence de-
partment. and, as you see, it formed part
Of well defined dossier-a dossier which
was shut up in one of the drawers of my
desk, and which was abstracted from il.
This commentary therefore. is upon
secret dossier document which was inn
properly removed from my department"
(Sensation).
Continuing the witness said "Mention
was made yesterday of the disappearance
of documents. That is the case in point"
Turning to the second portion Of the dos
sier, Picquart described number Of doc
uments in il as forgeries and said the po-
lice reports therein showed nothing serious
against Dreyfus. He explained that they
embodied the theme mostly utilized BY 10
lice spies in order to dupe the intellig ance
department and asserted that their infor-
nation was mostly worthless. embroidered
or false, and prepared in order to make in
teresting reading.
Dreyfus displayed the keenest interest
in Picquarfs protracted analysis of the
dossor TO which the whoe audience lis
teued with profound attention. The mem
bers of the cOurtmartial and the former
ministers Of war were equally Interested
Concluding his examination Of the secret
dosser Col. Picquart explained how he
had acquired the conviction that the borde-
reau was written by Esterhazy and how
he ascertained that the anti-Dreyfus
proofs were worthless He began by de
failing how he first learned Of the exist
ence of Esterhazy and his efforts TO dis
cover something about him
The witness earnestly asserted that the
first occasion on which he saw Esterhazy's
name was when he read the address OF
the Petit Bleu He said he was not ac-
quainted with Esterhazy, and never had
Esterhazy watched. Previous TO this the
utmost efforts had been made to prove
the contrary, and TO show Pcquart knew
Esierhazy before the discovery Of the
Petit Bieu.
Turning to the leakage at headquarters
the witness described the negotiations of
Mai Lauth with the spy Richard Cuers
at 3asle, showing how the spy promised
Information about the leakage and how
he Picquart was Induced to allow Lieut.
Col. Henry to accompany Maj. Lauth to
| Base. Picquart also described the vague
| replies of Henry when questioned on the
| subject of Esterhazy before his depart
ure and the fuulity of the visit TO Basle,
| because of Cuers' refusal, when he saw
| Henry to impart the promised informa-
| ton. This incident caused the witness
to wonder whether, instead of trying to
make Cuers speak, Henry and Lauth had
not done everything possible to impose
silence upon him.
Takes Up Esterhazy.
After referring to Esterhazys reputa-
ton for gambling and debauchery. Col.
Picquart said Il knew Esterhazy was
anxious to enter the war office, and / dill
not regard his desire favoraby. ! com
municated my impressions to my chiefs,
who approved all my steps, and the ap-
| plication of Esterhazy was rejected.
His inslstence, however, only increased
| my uneasiness regarding him, and I re-
| solved to obtain a specimen of his hand
| writing. / was Immediately struck with
| the similarity of his handwriting and that
| of the bordereau, and forthwith / had the
| letters of Esterhazy, which were IN my
| possession, photographed and showed the
| photographs to Mai Du Patty de Clam and
| NJ. Bertillon, the handwriting expert, be-
tween Aug. % and Sept. s.
NJ. BertiTlon said That is the writing Of
the bordereau.' lie tried to discover where
| had obtained The handwriting, but the
! only Information l impaired was that il
| was current and recent handwriting.
m. Bertillon then suggested that it was
| a tracing and ended by saying that If fl
| was current handwriting, il could only
| have emanated from some one whom the
Jews had been exercising for a year In
initiating the writing Of The bordereau.
when I saw beyond doubt that the
| handwriting of the b0rdereau was Ester
| hays, and, seeing that the documents
mentioned therein might have been sup
| piled by Esterhazy, that the words II am
| going 10 the maueuvers," could perfectly
| well apply TO EsteIhaZy. and that Ester
| hazy had secretaries at his disposal to copy
a document so vo.uminous as the firing
manual, ! resolved 10 consult the secret
| dossier and see WI az part Of the treachery
might be ascribed 10 Dreyfus ana 10 as
sure myself whether the dossier conta ne1
anything indicating Eslerhazy.
| II frankly admit ] was stupefied on read
| ing the secret dossier. | expected to find
matters of gravity therein, and found
nothing but a document which might apply
just as much to Estcrhazy as to Dreyfus.
an unimportant document mentioning
D'Avignon, and document which It ssem.
ed absurd to apply TO Dreyfus, namely, the
'Cette canaille de d. Lastly I recos-
nized a report appended in the handweit-
ing of Guenee. which appeared 10 BE- at
least as worthless as the second document.
IT was then evening. | had stayed
late. alone, a the office, IN order TO ex-
anime the documents thoroughly. / taouglt
il over during the night and the next day
/ took the documents and explained the
whole situation TO Gen. de Boisdefre.
Gen. Deboisdenre examined the secret
dossier with me. but stopped before me
reached the end and told me to go into
the country, give an account Of the affair
20 Gen. Gonse and ask his advice. Before
starting to see Gen. Gonse ] copied a uote
four pages in length, which l made Sept.
l, containing my resume OF the EsterhaZy
| affair When / informed Cen Gonse OF
all which had occurred he remarked: so
a mistake has been made
After my interview with Gen. Gonse ]
did not work any longer on my own initia-
tive. l said nothing more until the re-
turn Of Cen Gonse. Sept. Is. Al that
time Esterhazy was the grand maneu-
vers."
GOnse Said Keep Quiet.
81 "a sflaaa