The Dreyfus trial has been ,going on all the week,
for Vie most part rather drearily. M. Bertillon, the man who invented the anthropometric system of measuring criminals, has a craze about handwriting, which induces him to believe that Dreyfus wrote the .hordes-eau in a disguised hand, and that Esterhazy's confession of having written it was false. He endeavoured to explain his system to the Tribunal, but neither the officers nor the audience understood. Mr. Steevens says he does, and that it is outrageously clever, but might be made to prove anything. The Court has been occupied, therefore, for days with experts who affirm and experts who deny Bertillon'a conclusions, among the latter being M. Gobert, the official trusted by the Bank of France, who examines thousands of handwritings every year. He is quite convinced that Ester- hazy wrote the bordereau. Judging from photographs, we should say that the two men wrote in the same way, but that the impression of character produced by their writing was totally different. Both write finicking bands, but Dreyfus's characters do not shake. M. de Freycinet appeared as a witness, and made a long speech in favour of "appeasement," but the only morsel of evidence he gave was that, although he had spoken of the immense sum collected for Dreyfus, he had never met with an instance in which money had been paid on his behalf. He, in fact, exploded the syndicate story, which, nevertheless, the majority of Frenchmen will continue to believe.
