Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1897 — IS CAPT. DREYFUS INNOCENT? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

IS CAPT. DREYFUS INNOCENT?

All Paris Excited Over a Story of Blackmail and Corruption. The allegation that Alfred Dreyfus, former captain of French artillery, was falsely accused and convicted by a court martial of selling French military plans to the agents of a foreign government, continues to be widely discussed in Paris and throughout France. The presentation of the prisoner’s case to. the French

Government, which caused the present agitation, reveals a romance with the “gang” of so-called “journalists” and stock jobbers who beset the late Max Lebaudy, the millionaire conscript. The plot, it would further seem, was conceived in 1893, when the wave of “Jew baiting” swept over Europe. Dreyfus is of Jewish extraction, and these jackals of Parisian society, easting about for funds, determined to “bleed this wealthy Jew.” A beautiful adventuress, whose house was the resort of a number of French officers and foreign diplomats, is said to have acted as the go-between I in these transactions. By invitation Dreyfus was a frequent visitor to her house. In due course of time the plan fee the mobilization of the French army, which had been drawn up in a handwriting which cleverly imitated that of Dreyfus, was produced and money was demanded for its surrender. Dreyfus, however, it is said, refused to i*ty' the sum demanded, knowing that the purchase of the document would be an admission of -Ms. guilt and would furnish ground for future extortion, and being aware that the fact that he had been friendly toward the woman, who herself was a party to the plot, would be considered part of the strongest evidence of his guilt. Friends of Dreyfus assert that the newspapers have constantly maintained & warfare ogainM Dreyfus, even up to the present time, and that in consequence the prisoner’s wife and family are obliged to keep secluded. Alfred Dreyfus is now enduring the most terrible punishment indicted by a civilized nation upon a human being. Four years ago he was a rich, brilliant Parisian, a captain in the army, attached to the general staff. Suddenly he was arrested and without legal procedure condemned by a council of war to exile for life in French Guiana. He was charged with betraying French military plans to a foreign government, understood to be the German. The sole evidence against him was a brief note, alleged to have been found in the waste paper basket of the German embassy. Although the trial of Dreyfus was absolutely secret, his condemnation was of the most public character conceivable. The unfortunate man was taken to the Champ de Mars, the largest parade ground in Paris, where 4,000 troops were drawn up in line. Dreyfus stood in the midst of them. After the judgment of the council of war had been read, a lieutenant took the sword of Dreyfus and broke it across his knee, and then cut the buttons, epaulets and other marks of military rank from him. Then he was sent to his place of exile, the Devil’s Island, off the coast of French Guiana, in South America. There yellow fever is permanent. On this island he is condemned to spend the rest of his life, watched day and night by three old soldiers, not one of whom may ever speak to him. Latterly his hut has been indoa-

ed in a large iron cage, in order that an possibility of eseaiie may be removed. Compared to this the life imprisonment of an ordinary criminal is merciful. Dreyfus is certainly being tortured to death.

THE BARBARIC CAGE BUILT AROUND CAPTAIN DREYFUS’ HUT.