The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-09-17
Zola Hgalfl
Cells Wbat llcw
Cbreafens France.

printed in part IN the Eagle Of Tuesday
morning:
81 am in mortal fear! II is not anger.
avenging indignation. the need 30 pro-
claim the crime and demand It's punish
men in the name OF truth and justice that
1 feel now. 1t is terror-rhe sacred ter
ror OF the man who sees the impossible
being realized and rivers flowing back to
thweir sources. the earth turning with
out the sun-and in my fear I cry the
distress Of our generous and noble
France. My dread is the abyss into
which she is falling.
I'VE had fondly imagined that the
Rennes court-marJiaI was the fifth act
Of the terrible tragedy which we had
been living for close up TO two years past
All the dangerous stages seemed 10 US
to have been passed. We thought we
were approaching a announcement Of paci-
fication and concord After the dread
full battle the victory OF right became in
evitable; the play must end happily. with
the classic triumph Of the innocent
And We had been deceived. A new
unexpected and the most terrifying Of ALL
still further darkening the drama, pro-
longing il and urging it toward an I'M
known termination, before which our rea-
son treTnbles and grows weak
THE Rennes triai was only the fourth
act, and, great God! what will the fifth
act be? What new tortures and sufferings
will it bring? To what supreme expiatson
will it force our people? For is It not GER
tain that the innocent cannot be twice
condemned, and that such an ending
would blot out the sun and arouse the
nations?
All! That fourth act, that trial at
Rennes! In what mortal agony did I
live through it in that solitude where 7
had taken refuge in order to disappear
from the scene like a good citizen desir-
Gus OF giving no cause for passion and
disorder With what a Tightening OF the
heart did I not await the kilograms and
papers! And what revolt and what pain
did their perusaI not cause me, The days
Of that splendid month of appeal were
blackened, and never have 1 felt the
gloom and chill Of mourning under skies
so glorious.
'Assuredly for two years past have
had my share of suffering. I have heard
the mob shouting death at my heels
have seen at my feet an ignoble mire Of
insult and menace. For eighteen months
I tasted the despair of exile Then there
were my two trials-lamentable spectacles
Of villainy and iniquity. But what are
my trials in comparison with the trial
at Rennes? Idyls, refreshing scenes
where hopes flowers.
I'VE have been witnesses OF monstrous
things-the prosecution of Colonel Pic
quart. the inquiry into the criminal cham
Der Of the Court Of Cessation. the loi de
dessaisjssement which resulted from It.
But all that seems childish now. The in
evitable progression has followed Its
course The Rennes trial stands out
above all like the abominable flower Of all
these heaped up dunghills.
1--WE have seen the most extraordinary
collection of attempts against truth and
justice-a hand of witnesses directing the
course Of the trial. making their plans
every night for the cowardly ambush of
the morrow; pressing the charge IN
place Of the public prosecutor. with lies;
terrorizing and insulting those who con-
tradicted them; Imposing. with the inso-
lence Of their stripes and their plurnes
upon 4 tribunal knuckling down to this
invasion Of their chiefs. vislby annoyed
at seeing them at a criminal posture act
ing in obedience to a peculiar mental pro-
cess.
"A grotesque public prosecutor. who
enlarges the bounds Of imbecifty and
leaves to future historians a charge
whose stupid and murderous emptiness
will be an eternal cause Of wonder; a
man Of such senile and obstinate cruelty
that he seems 10 be irresponsible. born of
a human animal not yet Chased a de-
Tense which It was ar first endeavored to
assassinate. which was made 10 sit down
every time II became troublesome. ard
which finally was refused permission to
produce the decisive proof which It de-
nanded. the only witnesses who know.
And this aboT-ination lasted for a
whole month IN face Of the innocent-that
piteous Dreyfus. the poor shreds Of whose
humanity would make the stones weep.
And his former. comrades came and kick
ed him. and his former chiefs came and
crushed him with their rank so as TO save
themselves from the gaIleys. And there
was never a cry OF pity. never a throb 81
generosity in those shameful souls, And
1t is our sweet France that has given this
spectacle to the world,
when the complete report or the
Rennes trial IS published there Siil exist
no more eEecrabie monument q human
infauv. This * beyond all. Never before
has document Of such wickedness been
furnished 20 history. Ignorance. folly.
cruelty. faIsshood. crime. are displayed
there with an irapudence that vii lunske
future generations shudder. There are IN
that collection avowals q our baroness
al which human nature viii blush
And Il Is that which makes ne tren-
be. for in order that such a trial should
have been possible in a nation. that a
nation should lay HseIf o7sn n the World
Tor such a consultation upon SIS social
and intellectual condition. It must under
60 a terrible crisis
rs IL death that IS approaching7 Ard
what ba.h = t-ith. Or purity q equity
vii save Us from che poisonous mud IL
which We are aeo1lziHE7
AS wrote tr ms ietter % the Presi-
5e7t e the re1s1plGc after tire s-ean6aIous
acquittzl - Es,erhazy. e. e iTsposzsbas for
A e5urt-na-tisl 20 gndo what court
martial has deue- This g. CONTRARY - DIS
oapHne. and che 5a8z-e-1t - RE Reauss
court -aarrlal-that sz5gnent N-h3 ? r. lts