DREYFUS, THE MAN
BY WALTER LITTLEFIELD
Author of "The Truth About Dreyfus"
In cases of high treason no less than in violations of
the criminal code the personal character of the accused
has always had great weight with French judges. In
attempting to prove that Captain Alfred Dreyfus carried
on treasonable negotiations with a foreign power,
M. d'Ormescheville, in his Acte d'Accusation or indictment,
laid great stress on the information collected
from the municipal police tending to show that the prisoner
was an habitual wrong-doer. The supposition that
as an Alsatian he might have entered the French army
and remained there with the patriotic and unselfish desire
to serve Germany is treated with secondary importance.
It was the intention of the officer who served as
Juge d'Instruction to show that Dreyfus was criminally
corrupt, and hence was quite capable of being a traitor.
Not only did the semi-official press of Paris, in the
winter of 1894-95, dwell upon those acts that seemed
intimately connected with the alleged treason, but they
delved into his domestic life. With diabolical frankness
and in a network of specious details they branded him
profligate as well as traitor. The Acte d'Accusation
charges him with being a gambler and libertine, unmindful
of the well-being of his family, faithless to his
wife.
