The St. Louis Republic., 1903-02-23
Z0LA'S POSTHUM0US NOVEL,
TRUTH" KINDLES INTEREST.

| REPUBLIC SPECIAL.
IN. New York, Feb: 22-Ernest A. vizetelly,,s
Truth" appears on Monday Simultaneous
| ly In New York and London, from the pub
! clearinghouse of John Lane
Besides the pathetic interest it possesses
| as the last utterance of a great master of
| hctton, 1t has an photographed and his
| toricai value as explaining the attitude he
assumed in the Dreyfus case, and as sum-
| ming up his opinions on the questions of sec
ular versus religious education. which have
divided and are dividing France into two
hostile camps.
This double purpose is achieved by MAX
ing the plot of truth turn upon a scan
dal similar in its outcome and its results
TO the Dreyfus scandal. but affecting not
the army, but the church.
As in the affair of Dreyfus. an innocent
Hebrew Is made the scapegoat of the real
criminal The moral is exactly that which
NJ lola sought to enforce in his advocacy
OF Dreyfus-the ignominy and even the fu-
tiiity OF falsehood the debasing effects of
power that come from knowledge. the at
Ter peing the steppinS-stone to truth, which
ends by triumphing against all the powers
that were arrayed against her.
Briefly. the plot concerns itself with the
murder of an orphan boy of 13. the nephew
of Hebrew schoolmaster, with whom he
resides, but the son of Catholic mother
and himself Catholic by education and 4
pupil in the Brothers school. He Is found
following the day Of his first communion.
Al hrst there is no clew to the assassin.
Simon the schoo. master who teaches in the
secular schools, is not suspected. He
tablishes what is accepted as thoroughly
satisfactory alibi. His reputation and his
antecedents are all in his favor. Even the
1aVofite paper of the masses, LIE Petit Beau
MANOR, fully eXonerated him.
Then horrible whispers are circulated. 1t
Is found that the murder had been prompt
ed by the desire to hide an unnatural crime
Suspicion falls upon the clerical teachers
In the religious school, Abominable stories
are revived, especially one which had been
cerned brother whom his superiors had
Court.
Nobody could have mistaken the public
hostility against the Brothers and all the
vague rumors. all the hoIrid stories hushed
up IN the past aggravated that hostility in
such wise that he was threatened with some
abominable scandal In which the whole
lapse
1t is recognized by the Brothers that some
thlnS must be done to save alike the church
ana party. Evidence must be manufactured
10 imDiicate the Hebrew schoolmaster, So
turning the popular favor from the ministers
or the church to the Semitic population.
The place of the famous bordereau is TAX
en- en- In this story by paper which one Fa-
tner Philbin had removed from the mouth
OF the dead boy. 1t had evidently been used
as gag TO suppress the victims cries. This
paper has been long enough in the hands
OF Father Philbin and his associates to be
tampered with. Forgery is supplemented
by perjury to make it damning bit of evil
uence against Simon. His alibi is diScredit-
ed lie Petit Beaumanoir at once changes
front and bitterly attacks the schoolmaster.
When Simon appears at the funeral he is
met with furious cries ITO death. TO death
With the murderer and sacriligiSti To death,
to death with the Jew.''
Simon was arrested. Like Dreyfus he is
found guilty at his first trial and transport
ed TO a penal settlement, where he under
goes terrible tortures. But he has friends.
among the Hebrews. and the more impartial
Christians work increasingly to clear away
the mystery and obtain for him new trial.
The real criminal. 1t turns out, is one Broth
er Georgias- His accomplices confess. and
to the victim, the issue of which is sub
stantially the same as that of the second
trial of Dreyfus.
This is how the whole affair is summed up
in the mind of Simon's most loyal friend and
champion Marie Froment who Is in some
respects Zola himself:
1.-The only regret which Marie now expert
enced was that he had not been able to
utilize that prodigious Simon affair as an
admirable lesson of things which would
have instructed the masses. There was
the completely of all the powerful and all
the oppressors banding themselves together
to crush a poor. innocent man. whose inno
cence imperilled the compact Of human ex-
plottation which the great ones OF the world
had signed together. There We're all the
averred crimes of the priests. soldiers, mag
istrates and ministers, and, finally, there
had been the division of the country into
two camps-on one hand the old authori-
tartan. antiQuated and condemned Sc
cial order; on the other the young society
of the future, free in mind already and even
tending toward increase Of truth, equity and
peace.
IF Simon's innocence had been recog-
nized. the reactionary past would have been
struck down at one blow