nce come boundin' in, an', r-rushin' up th' steps iv th'
thrybune, smacked Gin'ral Merceer in th' eye. Th' gr-reatest rayspict
was shown f'r th' former chief magistrate iv th' raypublic. No wan
shot at him. He was white with rage. 'Th' honor iv Fr-rance is at
stake,' he says. 'Our counthry lies prostrate in th' mud. I must
presarve th' dignity iv me high office; but, if Gin'ral Merceer will
step out into th' back yard, I'll beat his head off. I don't know
annything about this accursed case. It was all referred to me whin I
was Prisident. I am here to see that th' honor iv me high office is
not assailed. I protest I did not say what an anonymous corryspondint
in to-night's Sore says I said. I did me jooty. Whin I saw th' ar-rmy
disorganized an' Fr-rance beset be foreign foes, I raysigned. What was
I to do? Was I to stay in office, an' have me hat smashed in ivry time
I wint out to walk? I tell ye, gintlemen, that office is no signcure.
Until hats are made iv cast iron, no poor man can be Prisident iv
Fr-rance. But I was not speakin' iv th' Dhryfuss case.'

"'Don't dare to mintion that matter in this coort,' says th'
prisident. 'I'm surprised a man iv ye'er intilligence 'd thry to dhrag
in exthranyous matther, whin th' honor iv th' ar-rmy is at stake.
Gin'ral Merceer, stand beside this witness. Now both speak at wanst!
Annybody else that has annything to say, lave him say it now, so it
won't be heard.'

"'Mon colonel,' says a former minister iv th' Fr-rinch governmint, who
was th' polisman at th' dure, 'Judge Crazy th' Boorepare is here,
demandin' to be heard.'

"'Gr-reat hivins!' says th' coort; an' they wint out through th'
windows.

"That night they was gr-reat excitement in Rennes. Th' citizens
dhrivin home their cows cud har'ly make their way through th' excited
throngs on th' sthreet. Th' corryspondints iv th' English papers do
not dare to go to bed befure nine o'clock on account iv rumors iv a
gin'ral massacre. Madame Sara Bernhardt gave a magnificint performance
at th' theaytre, an' was wildly cheered. It was believed in London,
Budapesth, Posen, New York, Cookham, an' Upper Sandusky that Fr-rance
is about to perish. As I go to press, th' news has excited no commint
in Fr-rance."

THE DREYFUS CASE.

III.

"While th' thrillin' scenes I'm tellin' ye about is goin' on,
Hinnissy, worse is bein' enacted in beautiful Paris. In that lovely
city with its miles an' miles iv sparklin' resthrants,--la belly