The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1906-07-20
COMPLETE HISTORY
Of the Dreyfus Case is Yarn Of Per.
jury, Forgery and Murder.
New York Times.)

Stripped of the entangling yarn of
tragedy and comedy, of perjury, for
geries and murders, the true thread OF
the Dreyfus story is not difficult to
trace. In the summer of 1894, when
General MERCER was Minister if War,
a member of the French Controls
pionage" was caught near the German
frontier and released by the Minister'S
order. Mercier, never pipular with the
Liberal press, thereby brought down
upon his head heap of unjust, insult
ing denunciations. His maligners could
not know the true character of the
man released. An opportunity was Of
fered MERCER to rehabilitate himself,
when a bordereau, or list enumerating
articles that had been transmitted to
a foreign power, was intercepted and
taken to him. The character of the
contents showed that the writer was
reasonable member of the French
General Staff If MERCER could de-
tect the criminal there would be no
more cries heard from the Liberal
press that he was in the habit of free
ing traitors.
MERCER called to his aid one Du
Patty de Clam and ordered him to find
the author of the bordereau among the
officers of the various bureaus. The
handwriting of an Alsatian Jew, Cap
tain Dreyfus, resembled that in the
bordereau. Experts were of varied
opinions. Dreyfus was arrested and a
curious "acte d'accusation," or in
dictment was drawn up against him in
which various charges were made on
less than hearsay. He was tried on
the charge of having communicated to
a foreign power-obviously Germany
the documents mentioned in the bor
dereau.
From the very beginning the prison
er's counsel, Maitre Demange, swept
away all charges with the exception
of that duplicating Dreyfus as the
writer of the bordereau. The court re-
tired to deliberate on this point A
hurry call was sent for MERCER an
nouncing that the prisoner was about |
to be acquitted MERCER hurried to |
the Ecole Militarie and entered with |
out ceremony the secret chamber of |
the court. He said he would read to
the cour a telegram which had been |
intercepted while passing from the
military attache of one embassy to that
of another. This document, he added,
was in cipher but he would translate. l.
He read: Decidedly this rascal Drey-
fus has become too exacting" The
document was not in cipher, nor did
it contain the name Dreyfus-merely
the letter d. The judges, however,
never questioned their Generals word, |,
nor did they resent being made his
partners by accepting evil
dence which was introduced without
the accused's knowledge or the knowl-
edge of his counsel They found Drey-
fus guilty and sentenced him to death
"a sentence lated changed to impris-
onment for life on Devils Island.
A book might be written-books
have been written-showing how the
conviction by the Court-martial had
been illegal-how this Illegally was
cd n,ah1f0 Tho ~ |
Picquart and Emile lola and a host
IF others should always be mention if
I'd in the story which tells of the three 70
rears' struggle to bring the Illegally liz
% the attention of the Supreme Court II
If Appeal This Court was finally Ii
cached. During the winter of 1S9S-99 In
t heard witnesses. and finally gave its "
opinion that Captain Dreyfus might be Ia
ent before the Rennes Court-martial Id
o be tried on the charge of having In
to foreign power GER L
ain documents mentioned in a list In
which, 1t 1.-THE Supreme Court of APP II
eaD had overwhelming evidence, had ii
cen written by another man. AS the
roceedings of this Court had been
ally published, there was no doubt
s to who the other man was. He was
ne notorious Estherhazy, the real
raitor. The Supreme Court, it will be 10
cen thus left the Renes tribunal an al
bsurdity to establish. Sc
At Rennes, however, the Judge ut til
erly ignored the opinion of the SUI fo
rene Court-that of itself would ri
ave been sufficient TO have the SEN :
nee annnlled had not the ag;tated
ate of the country prevented the SUI
'eme Court from exercising its au-
lority in tn is instance-and proceed
try Dreyfus on the old charge, with .
| the old pharaphernalia, but with T,
| additional witness, named Cernusl1y G.