Union gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1899-1900, 1899-09-01
70 PROVE DREYFUS GUILTY
Bertillon System introduced
by the Prosecution.
THE PERFORMANCE FELL FLAT
AS Last Resort, the Prisoners Coun-
sol viii Call on Germany for the
Documents-Bertillon Excited

Rennes, Aug. 2S.-After M. Bertll-
Ion, the handwriting expert, who is at
the head of the anthropometric depart
nient of the prefecture of police OF
Paris, had concluded the first INSTALL
ment of-his 'so.called demonstration of
the guilt of Captain Dreyius. prom
inent Drey fusard referred to him as
the fin de steele Cagliostro. The Drey-
fusards refuse to regard him as any
thing but the prince of quacks. They
cover his remarks with ridieule and
protest that the admission OF his fam
tastic theories as evidence before the
courtmartiai is disgrace to France.
&c est une honte," was tho remark
heard on all sides when the session
closed, and the audience, mainly made
up of Dreyfusards, was being pressed
outside by the gendarmes, who clear
the courtl DOM as soon as the court ad-
journs.
Nevertheless, even the Drey
do not deceive themselves as to the
effect of M. Bortillon's testimony or
demonstration may have upon the
judges. who. they fear, will be gulled
by what the 0reyfusards consider spur
lOuS. All lilo uafO pddScu
through the Ecole Polytechnique. the
highest school of science in France,
and they are thus perculiarly interest
ed in such ''evidence" as that of Ber-
tillon. Moreover, with the aid of the
innumerable diagrams and specimens
of writing which he submits to them,
they may be able to follow his reason
ing Intelligently, which is moro than
any member of the audience could do
today. If the judges accept Bertillon's
premises that Dreyfus, as. an expert
spy, did not write in ordinary hand
writing, but in close imitation. even
contriying to give letters the appear
alpe of having been traced, in order to
be able to repudiate them as forgery
if detected the structure built
upon this groundwork may be scien-
tifcally correct. Even Dreyfus, when
shown Bertillon's demonstration, adj
mitted the ingenuity and plausibility
of the system, though he naturally de-
clared that it was built on false basis.
A remarkable feature of Bertillon's
deposition was the heat and excitement
he put into what was expected to be
a,calm, dispassionate exposition of his
theory. He thundered. shouted and
waved his arms as though engaged in
some terrible dispute. Once he literal
ly shrieked. and numbers of the usua
audience who had been unable to fol.
low him and were taking air in the
courtyard, rushed back into the hall,
breathelssly inquiring what had hap
pened, imagining that lie was fulminat-
ing some d1 1eadful denunciation of the
accused. Their excitement was turned
into hilaiity when they found that he
vas momentarily impressing upon the
judges the significance of the exact
space, measured in centimetres. be-
tween two words in the borderau.
The Echo de Paris announced today
that the counsel of Dreyfus had OBJ
tanned possession of certain documents
mentioned in the borderau, in Ester
hazy's writing, which they would pro-
duce in court next week as coup de
theatre. The press correspondent in
quired as to this in competent Drey-
fusaTd quarters this afternoon. He
was assured that the statement was
ERRONEOUS, but was also told that the
defense intended, in the event of Cap
tain Dreyfus being Ie-condemned, to
ask the German government to COM
,municate these documents proving his
Innocence, and that they had reason to
believe such request would be granted.