The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-07-13


was no announcement. The public was
kept in complete ignorance
At the end of two weeks Dreyfus was
tried before a secret court martial. The
witnesses against him were the officers
commanding the army, several officers
of the general staff. Five handwriting
experts testified. Two declared that the
writing Of the bordereau was not the
writing of Dreyfus. The other three
thought it was. though they admitted that
the writing of the first page was I'M
natural, constrained. and possibly dis
gulsed, and different from the second
page, which was written in flowing,
natural hand, and which was more like
the writing of Dreyfus.
y Terrible "Dossier" Appears.
Several secret documents were shown
TO the judges but not TO Dreyfus nor
made up what afterwards became known
throughout the world as the famous
dossier." These documents. it was mys-
teriously explained, not only to the
dent. to parliament. and to the press were
SO terrible that their publication would
be the signal for war with great
continental power. The power referred
to of course was Germany
For five years France trembled and
looked 10 her guns whenever the terrible
dossler was referred to- A threat to
publish the documents of the ''dossier -
vite instant war with Germany at a time
when France was not yet ready
Convicted on Forged Proof.
Dreyfus was convicted by the "dossier."
1t may be stated here that the documents
which made up the ''dossier'' were for
gerles. Only one of them has ever been
made public. 1t was private letter from
the German military attache, to Lieuten-
ant Colonel PaniZZardi, his colleague of
the Italian embassy, written two years
before, and which contained the sentence:
"Cette canallie de d. devivent trop ext
geante. (This dog of de d. is getting
too importantly
1t was afterwards conceded by the ac-
cusers of Dreyfus that the ID" did not
refer to Dreyfus at all, but referred to
another person.
Dreyfus was convicted and sentenced
first to be publicly degraded and then to
be transported and imprisoned for life on
DevlFS island, barren spot off Cayenne
South America. On Jan ,, 1895, the first
part of the sentence was carried out The
troops were drawn up in a hollow square
Dreyfus. in full dress uniform, was con
Quoted 10 the center of the open space
A noncommiSSioned officer tore the
epaulette from his shoulders, ripped the
gold braid from his coat, tore the buttons
off. and finally as a supreme mark of
degradation, broke his sword across his
knee and threw the diShonored frag-
officer was compelled to march to rogues
music along the front of his regiment.
II was a punishment more bitter than
death.
On Feb. 9, 1895. Dreyfus reached Devils
island. Here had been erected a stockade,
like q pen in which negro cOnvictS are
kept. In the stockade was a hut In
this nut. 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 toCk what exercise he
cared for in the liN. ~c0ckade Enclosure.
He was permitted TO have no converse
solace of books and newspapers. He was
permitted to write to his wife once q
month and to receive one letter a month
from her.
The world had never heard of Alfred
Dreyfus The brief announcement that
he had been convicted of selling military
secrets aroused not a ripple of interest.
but when the French army conspirators
placed their vicIim on Devils island they
put him where the entire world could
witness his suffering. and almost instant
ly the Indignation of tie entire civilized
world was aflame.
France Aroused to Shame.
This Indignation became too furious for
the great fair minded justice loving peO-
pie of France, and demand arose for
an inquiry into the secret which made il
necessary to heap so much dishonor and
so much suffering on humble officer.
With the demand in France for an in
quiry into the DreyfuS affair began the
long series of disgraceful intrigues TO pre-
vent the secrets of his arrest trial and
convictions coming to light. These in
trigues snlrched the fame of generals /
and statesmen and led to an attempt To /
overturn the republic.
The first clew to the innocence Of Drew
fus and TO the identity of the real culprlr
came later in the year 1895 by the discov-
cry by spies of a card telegram (petit /
bleu) written by Lieutenant Colonel Won /
and addressed to Com
Esterhazy. calling upon him to /
give more detailed information
This card telegram-afterward famous |
in the case as the petit bleu Gt /
was written on a little blue post card
quart, who had succeeded Colone; |
Sandherr as chief of the secret intel,i- |
sence bureau. Colonel Picquart looked into |
record and antecedents. He |
made the sensational discovery that it was |
9sterhaZy ard not Dreyfus who had writ
EN- the bCrdereau.
Picquart set the machinery in motion /
which would have given Dreyfus a new |
rial and at the same time placed Ester
lazy on trial as the real author of the
)ordereau.
The French army general behind the
conspiracy thwaTted Colonel Picquart's
purpose They sent him on a mission to
Tunis, and placed Lieutenant Colonel Hen
v in charge of the secret intelligence bu-
eau. The matter was then in a fair way
O be huShed up, when a Paris newspa-
,er printed a facsimile of the bordereau.
\ broker employed by Esterhazy recog-
lized the bordereau at once as being in
Csterhazy's handwriting. and communi-
ated the fact to NJ. Scheurer-Kestner
ice president of the senate who made it
public
Instantly there was a public demand for
new trial for Dreyfus and a trial for
csterhaZy. The cOnspirators were COM
,elled to move quickly to save themselves |
Therefore General de Bosdeffre. chief of
he general staff assured leaders in par
lament that Dreyfus has been convicted
N secret documents which it would never
10 to make public
The public became mere insstent in its