The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-08-24
Demange and Labori Tear the
Evidence to Pieces.
GoNz THOROUGHLY DISCOUNTED
Put Through Severe Cross-Examina-
ton By the Lawyers, and Loses
His Swagger of Confidence
Before Leaving Stand

Rennes August 23.-The session of the
Dreyfus courtmartial today was compara-
lively uneventful. The dispositions were
not productive of any really thrilling in
cidents. The systematic production of the
bmsest trash which the prosecution
deems profitable to inhct on the judges
and which the latter accept as evidence,
was proceeded With. Much of the ridicu-
lous testimony of the morning was devot-
cd to an attempt to blast Dreyfus' pri-
vate character though when Maitres La
bori and Dcmange had finished with the
witnesses their bubbles of tittle-tattle were
badly pricked.
Much of the time was occupied in read
ing the testimony of Esterhazy and Mile
Paris before the court of cessation, during
which may of the audience left the court
M. Labori again distinguished himself in
laying bare the weak points of the evil
dence He was less serious, however, than
yesterday, though quite aggressive enough
to arouse the latent hostility of the judges,
which showed itself in various little ways
Labori No Favorlte
NJ. Labori is no favorite either with Ma
jor Carrierie, the governments commits
sary and the latter made no serious effort
to conceal his feelings toward the lawyer.
M. I.abori bore little traces OF the effects
of the outrage upon him. He rose, sat
down and moved his body apparently with
out much difficulty. Only occasionally, he
put his hands to his back as though suffer-
ing pain. His wife followed his every move
ment through gold lognctte. Nine. Re-
Jane, the actress, was again In court to-
day, interested In Labor when his voice
vlbreted through the hall. Her eyes
watched his mobile feature, across which
fitted ever-changing expressions of indig-
nation, anger, or satisfaction with the keen
interest which spectators in a theatre fol-
low her own acting. During some of the
dispositions, M. Labori appeared very
nervous. He was unable to remain still
an instant, twitching his fingers and shak-
ing the papers in his hand. Counsel was
almost too impatient to wait for the time
when the witnesses concluded their testi-
mony.
Gonz On the Stand
The only dangerous opponent of Dreyfus
today was General Gonz, who mounted the
stage with quick step and apparently
light heart. But he left It badly mauled
By NJ Labori.
General Gonz began by declaring that he
came to defend his honor against those
"drvelling'' against him. But when his
cross-eXamination was finished he re-
turned to his seat thoroughly discomfted,
for NJ Labori had driven him into corner
ON the attempts of the general staff to
shield Esterhazy and had shown that the
general staff, for which Gonz was respon-
slble, had engineered Esterhazy's escape
from the hands of justice. The confident
tones of the general had by then dwndled
into the proverbal still, small voice, and
his defiant bearing had changed into the
air of school boy caught telling lie.
The day proved a poor one for the gen.
eral staff. Two good samples of the men
put up to sully Dreyfus' private character
were the third and fourth witnesses.
First Major Duchatalet repeated an al
legged conversation with Dreyfus regarding
a lady OF whose house Dreyfus is alleged
to have gambled and lost money. But
when cross-examined Duchatalet's memory
failed him entirely, especially when asked
the name of the lady and the street she re-
sided on and the sum Dreyfus lost.
Du BruiPs Forgetfulness
Next M. DuBreuil showed equally as
founding forgetfulness of important points
of mis- evidence concerning Dreyfus ac-
quaintanceship with a foreign attache and
when NJ Demange capped his successful
examination OF these points by promising
to show that NJ. DuBreuil's record in the
law courts is far from clean, the witness
left the stand badly descredted.
The correspondent of the Associated
Press talked this evening with M. Jaurez,
the socialist leader, who. with Mattqieu
Dreyfus sees NJ. Labori every day after the
session, and who is acquainted with the
entire tactics of the defense
M. Jaurez said: II am convinced that
Dreyfus will be acquitted. He must be
acquitted, for no new fact has been
brought up against him. The generals,
I believe, are going to make their stand
on Bertillon's system, which they intend
to submit as proving Dreyfus' guilt. IN
telligent men laugh at 1t, but 1t is very
ingenius and mas the merit In the eyes of |
the generals of being incomprehenslble to |
an ordinary man and thus calculated to
impress him II supported by the puppets |
of the general stan.
"Bertillion's theory has already been in |