Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1906-07-17

tlal. The witnesses against MN were
the officers of the general staff.
Several secret documents were
shown to the judges, but not to Drey
fus nor his counsel. These secret
documents made up what afterwards
became known throughout the world
as the famous "dossier." These doc
uments, it was mysteriously explained,
not only to the judges, but to the cab
met, to the president to parliament.
and to the press, were SO terrible that
their publication would be the signal
for war with a great continental
power. The power referred to, of
course. was Germany.
Dreyfus was convicted by the dos
sier.' 1t may be stated here that the
documents which made up the dos
sier" We're forgeries. 1t was a pri
vate letter from Lieutenant Colonel
Won Schwarzkoppen, the German mil
itary attache, to Lieutenant Colonel
Panizzardi, his colleague of the Ital
ian embassy, written two years before
and which contained the sentence:
"Cette canaille de d. devient trop
exigenunte." (This dog of he d.
is getting too importantly
1t was afterward conceded by the
accusers of Dreyfus that the DID,
did not refer to Dreyfus at all, but re-
! ferred to another person.
Dreyfus was convicted and senten-
ced, first to be publicly degraded and
then to be transported and imprisoned
for life on Devils Island, barren
spot off Cayenne, South America. On
/ January ), 1895, the first partt Of the
sentence was carried out. The troops
We're drawn up in hollow square.
/ Dreyfus, in full dress uniform, was
conducted to the center of the open
space. non-commissioned officer
tore the epaulets from his shoulders,
ripped the gold braid from his coat.
tore the buttons off. and finally, as a
supreme mark of degradation, broke
mis- sword across his knee and threw
the Iishonored fragments to the
ground Then the unhappy officer
was compelled to march to rogues mu-
sic along the front of his regiment.
Prisoner on DEVILS island.
On February 8, 1895, Dreyfus reach
ed Devils Island Here had been
erected stockade, like pen in which
, negro convicts are kept. In the stock
ade was hut. In this hut, under the
glare Of an equatorial sun, Dreyfus
: was condemned to pass the remainder
of his life. He ate and slept in the
hut and took what little exercise he
! cared for in the little stockade inclos
: ure. He was permitted to have nc
| converse with his guards. He was
, denied the sOlace of books and news
! papers. He was permitted to write
) to his wife once a month and to re
! ceive one letter a month from her.
The first clew to the innOncenct
1 of Dreyfus and to the identity of the
+ real culprit came later in the yea
a 1895 by the discovery by spies of +;
card telegram (petit bleD written b.
5 Lieutenant Colonel Won Schwarzhop
r pen and addressed to Commandan
Esterhazy, calling upon him to give
( more detailed information.
| This card telegram-afterward ia
: nous in the case as the petit bleu'
-Gt was written on little blue pos
card-waS taken to Colonel Georges
/ Picquart, who had succeeded Colon
telligence bureau. Colonel Picquar'
looked into Esterhazy's record and
, antecedents. He obtained specimens
of his writing and made the sensations
al discovery that it was Esterhazy
and not Dreyfus, who had written the
bordereau.
Conspirators Are Alarmed.
Picquart set the machinery in mo
ton which would have given Dreyfus
a new trial and at the same time
placed Esterhazy on trial as the real
author of the bordereau.
The French army general behind
the conspiracy thwarted Colonel Pic
QUARTS purpose. They sent him or
! a mission to TuniS and placed Lieu
tenant Colonel Henry in charge o.
the secret intelligence bureau. Thu
matter was then in a fair way to b'
: hushed up when Paris newspape
. printed a facsimile of the bordereau
e A broker employed by Esterhaz,
recognized the bordereau at once a
r being in Esterhazy's handwriting. an
S communicated the fact to NJ. Scheu
l. rer-Kestner, vice president of the ser
ate. who made it public.
Instantly there was public dt
g. mand for new trial for Dreyfus an
Il q trial for EsterhaZy. The conspir;
II tors were compelled to move quickl
S to save themselves. Therefore Ger
g eral de Boisdeffre. chief of the genel
t. al staff. assured leaders in parliamen
II that Dreyfus had been convicted o
e secret documents which it would ne,
/. er do TO make public.
r The public became more insisten
than ever in its demands for a neN
= trial for Dreyfus. To silence the clan