| Show DREYFUS vindicated alfred dreyfus 0 captain of artillery in the french army has waited twelve years to have a stain removed from his good name and to bo restored to his rights for a tim he ed doomed to a life of torture on dev ils difo saved him from that terrible the history of the dreyfus ccle reads like fiction when the charwoman employed to do the necessary lotse work at the german embassy in paris was about to light the fire in the office of count lunater one morning late in september 1894 she found beside the grate a sheet of letter paper torn into four pieces it was letter paper more or lees distinctive bang ruled in the small check which is neither common nor uncommon in several eu countries had she tossed the fragments be the bars and applied she would have saved a great nation much of reproach and not a attle of disgrace for these four scraps of pap er later pieced together constituted the gamoua bordereau but charwomen employed to do housework lu the heads quarters of the traditional enemy of france are riot supposed to away or to bum documents which smell of mystery and suggest treason moreover to do so Is to lose much good money and soy having lighted her fires athla particular charwoman lost no time but hurried with her find to the intelligence department of the french war office there a certain colonel genrl who had recently been placed in command of this secret service bureau patched the pieces together thousands of people have heard of the dreyfus bordereau but comparatively few know actually what wap disclosed when this patchwork waa completed here then was the result sir although you have not asked to see me I 1 send you some interesting intelligence li gence 1 A note on the hydraulic brake no and hov 1 it is worked 2 A note on covering troops several modifications will be brought forward in the shenew neW plan 8 A note on a modification in tho formation of artillery 6 4 A note referring to madagascar 5 manuels project for field artillery gun practice march 14 1894 this last document is extremely difficult to procure and 1 have only a few days at my disposal the minister tor war has sent a particular number 0 copies to tho corps and these corps are responsible for them every officer possessing one must return it after the maneuvers it you like ato take out of this what interests you and give it back to me afterward I 1 will replace it provided that you do not require me to copy it in and to send you a copy I 1 am just starting tor the maneuvers naturally tharo was excitement in the intelligence department it Is not known definitely who first suggested that ahe handwriting w aa similar to that of a captain of artUr ery but it ie now generally believed that it was genrl himself but whoever it may have been there cannot be the slightest doubt that the suggestion was accepted with alacrity and proceeding on tho assumption that the accused is guilty until be can prove his innocence the prosecutors rapidly built up a case against this officer the first trial of alfred dreyfus began behind closed doors on december 19 and respite the disagreement of handwriting he was convicted and sentenced to be publicly degraded and to be transported to a desert island where be should spend the remainder of his life the end of the year came and with it the refusal of a now trial on saturday january 5 1906 the sentence of public degradation was carried out in the square in front of one of the military schools tha captain was first stripped of every insignia of rank the buttons of his bunc tunc cut off tho stripes torn from his trousers his cap denuded of embroidery and his sword broken across the knee of a commissioned noncommissioned non officer after which ho was marched all around the square where his former comrades and men were drawn up i with hundreds of others |
