Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-07-13
The Czar-My! how he has grown out of that cradle lin so short a time!

the Twenty first regiment Of artillery
In 1888. Graduating from the Staff
Officers college the next year among
the leading ten of his class, he was ap-
pointed to the general staff, where he
served until arrested ON Oct. 10, 1894.
The famous bordereau, which was
the basis of the entire Dreyfus case,
consisted of fragments of a document
said to have been found In the over
coat pocket of the German military at
tache in Paris, Colonel Schwartzkop-
pen, in October, 1894. When fitted to-
gether they constituted a report touch
ing some minor war and tactical plans,
obviously written by a French spy.
Owing to a similarity between the
handwriting on the single page of the
bordereau and that of Captain Drey-
fus, and to the fact that he was the
only Jew or the general staff, he was
suspected of being the spy. He was
secretly arrested. Hatred of Hebrews
was so strong In the army that the
flimsiest %apparltion of evidence against
him was accepted. His trial by court
martial was conducted behind closed
doors, and a verdict of guilty was rem
dered on the strength, not of the bor-
dereau, but of a dossier, which, in vio-
latlon of law, was submitted by Gen.
eral MERCER and kept secret even from
Dreyfus' counsel. The chief document
of this, dossier was afterward proved
to be forged by Colonel Henry. The
officers who sat in judgment on Drey-
fus, paralyzed by the fear of giving
the lie to their superior officers and
not understanding the lllegality of the
Introduction of the dossier, yielded to
the pressure from high sources ana
condemned Dreyfus to life fmprison-
ment In a fortress.
At Paris Dreyfus In full uniform
was marched into a square of 5000
troops and degraded before his com
rades by having his sword broken and
his facing cut away. At this Dreyfus
shouted in a loud voice:
"Vive la France! You have degraded
an innocent man. l swear l am lnno-
cent"
He would have spoken further, but a
roll of drums overwhelmed his voice,
whiio the populace without the square
screamed, Death to the traitor!'
A few weeks later Dreyfus was tax
en- to DEVILS isle, formerly a leper col
ony, off the coast of French Guiana.
In the living tomb of Devils island
Dreyfus was kept In ignorance of the
incessant labors of his wife and friends
In his behalf. Under the eye of six
armed soldiers, who met his every
question with silence, confined to a
small section of a hot, sickly and bar
rem rock in the tropics, he watched five
years come and go. Though he made
no attempt to escape, for a part of the
time he was locked to his cot in his
howell by mean of heavy iron bars at
tachel to anklets. Inducements were
made to him to commit suicide.
The friends of Dreyfus, particularly
Colonel Plcquart and Emile Zola. were
tireless In pushing his ease and brought
about the arrest of Colonel Henry,
chief of the intelligence department,
who when driven to the last ditch con
tC5SVU lhat Z hdu lolScu OAc Vi TIE
discriminating documents against Drey-
fus and committed suicide in prison.
BY this time the whole of France was
arrayed for or against Dreyfus. and
the utmost excitement prevailed In mil
itary, political and social circles. But
a reaction Of feeling In favor of Drey-
fus set in with the suicide of Colonel
Henry, and ON June 3, 1899, a fresh
court martial of Dreyfus was ordered.
and the prisoner was brought from
Devils island TO be retired.
The second court martial of Dreyfus
ut Rennes, France, Aug Z.
1890, under the presidency of Colonel
Jouaust. Opposed tc the prisoner were
almost the whole French army and the
machinery of ths government. Strong
evidence was brought forth In favor OF
Dreyfus, aud the case of the pFoseeu-
ion was shown to be very weak.
But after a long and sensational trial
was convicted Of treason
with e@fenuating circumstances and
Tas sent nced to ten years imprlson-
lent in al forfress. Later he obtained
full paf on from President Loubet
nd was Sd NJ liberty: