The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-18
The Dreyfus Case In Fiction-Zola's
ssTrufh'

failed, as he deserved He was excluded
for this reason from the French Academy
and from the drawing rooms in Paris of
the highest class although the French, in
respect TO Zola's weakness, are the most
forbearing nation on earth Although lola
in his later life saw the error of his ways
and wrote novels like the present still such
odum justly attached TO his early books
that no parent would ever permit any of
his novels where his children could read
them. While Zola is the equal of Victor
Hugo or of Balzac in genius, yet il is likely
that he will never. on account Of this same
| early sin, take his proper rank beside them
| 1t is doubtful as between BalZac's and
| Zola's early books which of the two IS the
worse While Balzac has won his place,
yet no one dares speak a good word for
lola, upon the principle of you cannot
touch pitch and not be dehled We are
all of us too cowardly TO do him justice
and overlook those youthful errors which
he afterward abandoned.
lie Verite," or Truth" was Zola's last
| book. written just before his death. 1t is
| the Dreyfus case done into fiction and the
| fiction is made the transparent veil for
searching comments upon and pictures OF
| France and her struggles with the clergy
| in the matter of her public schools. The
heroes of this story are two school masters,
| Simon, a Jew, and Mark his friend, both
mont. One morning a little pupil of ST.
mons who unfortunately was a Jew, was
! found murdered i'm room which he occu-
| pied in his teachers house The real muir
derer was a Catholic priest. Gorgias by
name. Soon after the crime was discov-
| cred, a paper gag was found in the boys
mouth, and inside of it a copy plate such
as Is used TO teach pennanshlp IN the
French schools. In France there are two
rival systems of Scholastic clerical and
| the secular-and these were run in bitter
| opposition in the little French city above
| named at the time the story opens. II
goes without saying that the. Catholic
| tAe other or secular by the state, in whose
employ we've both Simon and Mark The
| copy slip discovered inside of the gag was
| from the priest school and bore its official
stamp. Father Phibian, who was called in
| Immediately after the murder, found it and
tore off the stamp, and then, with his
| brother priests, raised the cry that the Jew
| teacher, Simon, was the murderer. This is
| the DreyfuS case over again. Like Drey-
fus, Simon protested and kept protesting: II
| am innocent" II am innocent" The power
/ of the church was at once aroused to pro-
| tect it's priest. With consummate skill 1t
raised the anti-Semite cry of Dirty Jew"
and Simon arrested So as TO turn the
| tide of public prejudice against him the lit
| tie murdered boy was given magnificent
| funeral. Upon the slimmest of evidence
Simon arrested, and a weak, time
| serving official bound him over 20 court.
| Then follows 800 pages of powerful descrip-
| ton of the Vaccinations of the church and
| the Intellectual efforts of Mark, Simons col
league In the school, and OF Simons brother
David, another prosperous Jew, to stem the
| tide. lola gives a masterful picture of the
stolidity and ignorance OF the French mid
| die class and of that general principle or
human nature that, witnesses or no wit
nesses. we believe what we want 10 believe,
and that prejudice is the mother Of con-
viction. In this respect we have BrowningS
Ring and Book over again, which book
| is constructed upon the same principle, and
| which is the real key of the great poem.
| Like Dreyfus, Simon was convicted after
| one-sded trial by the French Criminal
Court and sentenced to life transportation
| 10 Algeria The verdict against him, like
| the DreyfuS verdict, was procured by per-
| jury and by the outside cry of Dirty Jew"
| itism in the judge, who in the jury room,
| after the trial, exhibited to the jury, just
| as in the Dreyfus case, evidence not pro-
| duced in the open court. Years intervene,
! during all of which Simon's brother indie
| fatigably pursues all legal clews. By the
aid of his lawyer, Der is in whom we see
Maitre Labor, of the Dreyfus case. David
| finally obtained from the French Court of
| Cessation, after heart-breaking delays, an
| order for a second trial. In consequence
| of cfueties practicsd upon him at Algeria
| Devils island) Simon returns TO France
| a broken-down, whte-haired old man OF
| extremely unattractive appearance and OF
| disagreeable speech. Here we have Dreyfus
| over again. Upon the second trial the same
| bulldozing tactics are practiceds especially
| by the judgc who, upon the first trial,
| produced to the jury evidence not given IN
/ the open court and who was witness in
| his own behalf. The church could not at
| ford an acquittal, although in the meantime
| innocence had become universal. Again the
| cry of DIRTY Jew" was raised, and
| this subtle influence so dominated the
| court and jury that they could not
| AT the same time the sentiment which pre-
| vailed everywhere of Simon's innocence so
| influenced the jury that they unanimously
| recommended Simon's pardon. While he
/ was sentenced to ten years imprisonment a.
| home, he was almost Immediately after
/ ward released by the CHIEF executive or
| France. Here we have the Dreyfus
| once more At this point comes in the
| humanitarian portion of Z0a's novel, which
| is to show the superiority of the schoolmas-
| ter and schoolmistress among the French
| people as compared with that of the church
| and its army of clergy. 1t must be con-
| fessed that lola is extremely, and per-
| haps, unnecessarily bitter against both
| priests and church, although the recent ac-
/ ton of the French legislature shutting up
| church schools and excluding priest teach
! ers, which has raised so much opposition,
| seems to justify Zolas extreme position
1 taken in this book, which Is that the school
| master and the schoolroom, next TO the
| mother and the home. mold the nation and
| make it's life either worth living and worth
| fighting for or its destruction only ques-
| ton of time lola insists that the Catholic
| Church of France corruptS its women with
| superstition, and that as the women are, in
matters of religion and morals, so the men
/ ultimately become This position is the key
/ of the book and is iterated and reiterated
| until il becomes somewhat tiresOme. No
| doubt in the Catholic schools of France the
! catechism is overtaught ana the children
| are inculcated with great reverence and awe
| for the church and clergy. This, upon the
| whole, is the main thing implanted IN the
young and plastic minds of the French chill
| dren At least, so says lola Per contra,
| his contention is that the schools of a ma
| ton should be thoroughly nonsectarian-
| that u.s. no theology or dogma whatever
| should be allowed to enter their precincts.
| Accordingly. lola would exclude the Bible
| from all schools and make the burden of
| their teaching Equity and justice" side by
| side with the great facts and truths of
| science and the elements of knowledge-in
/ reading writing and arithmetic With the
| usual license of the novelist, he pictures the
| upper classes in the beginning or his volume
| as affected with excessive bigotry, but at
| the end of the volume, which covers
| period of thirty years, during which revo-
| luton had taken place in the little city of
| Beaumont he claims such a change has
| been wrought by Mark and his wife and
| their fellow teachers that when the second
| trial of Simon occurs the people had so far
| freed themselves from the priests and the
| church and made such an advance in the
| principles of justice and equity as 10
| weigh the evidence and TO see that Simon
| was innocent and held upon insufficient
| testimony.
| To more wildly illustrate the effects of
| patience in educating stupid and bigoted
| people lola in this story, after Mark and
| his wife had been teaching a score of
| on a dark night by an unknown man. The
| mother and father of the girl had sepa-
| rated a few days before. The assailant
/ bo5 5ropDad q handkerchief which whom