THAW TRIAL INCIDENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 10 April 1907, Page 4

THAW TRIAL INCIDENTS.

TIIK MURDERED MANS PAST, j A DIVIDED FAMILY. Thousands of men ami women sought in vain to enter the court-room on Slid January, when the trial uf Harry Ken- , Jal Thaw began. j Thaw, whosq father left a fortune of about 30,000,U00d01., and one of whose sisters married the Earl of Yarmouth, it wih be remembered, shot Stanford While, the greatest of American architects, just before midnight, on 25th of June/, in a summer theatre and cafe, on the roof of the great building known as Mad.son . Sipiare Garden, which, with its beauti- j fill tower, surrounded by a statute of Diana, was one of White's creation-. Thaw,' writes the New York correspon- j dent of the ••Melbourne Argus," was a wild fellow, whose escapades and excesses had freiruciitly been reported by the sensational press. His h.irdheaued father, who made his money in coal and »iron,at Pittsburg, cut him oil' with only '2.0(10 dollars ii year, but his wiibrae-l mother afterwards gave Mm all that he desired, and her generosity enalhcd him to spend from To.OOO dollar, to KW.IIUU dollars in every twelve monllis. Seven years ago for one d'lincr in Paris to thirty dancers, he paid .IO.OOU dollars. ' The souvenir, were diamonds an.l pearls. / Immediately after the murder I he sensational press painted White's character .and habits in very dark colours. lie was not n saint, but many of these stories within a few weeks were shown .0 li.; faise. His two partners in the linn of IP Kim, Mead and White (our fore- ! most architects), were men of the high- , est respectability. White was a gen- , ius. Hei was a generous and open- j hearted fellow, but his morals were not what they should have been, i would not be understood as offering the slightest excuse for his loose way of living. But the stomp immediately following the murder represented him as a mean detestable monster of depravity. There has been no evidence to prove this. Within a few weeks an instance has been given of this misrepresentation. Two years ago a girl who had come from Poland told a revolting story to a Polish Catholic priest, Father 'Blazowski, pastor of a church a few miles from New York. She had been imprisoned and iil-treated, she asserted, by a man named Wejss. The priest believed that here was a case against Stanford White. Some months ago he went to Thaw in prison, and arrangements were made for obtaining a sworn statement from the girl, who is now in Hungary. When the statement came, they priest began, 1 to think shell ad never seen White. He ' made further enquiries, and procured 1 additional statements from her and fi»;in her relatives. These proved conclusively that, while the girl's story was in all probability true, the guilty man had not been Stanford White*, but Weiss (as she ■ had said), an Immigrant, like liersillf, and who could speak but a few words of English. Now the poor priest has beg- ! ged the newspapers to deny the story

he gave thorn some weeks ago, and to I sav for liim that unwittingly he did 'the ry of Stanford Whito "a grievous wrong." In court are Thaw's mother, his two brothers (who have lived quietly), his sister (the Countess of Yaruiouth), anil another .sister, the wife of a nephew of Andr The Thaws looks somewhat coldly u[ Evelyn Nesbit (Thaw), who sits wa_ May MeKenzie, a chorus-girl who has been her intimate friend, and who may become a witness. Thaw has half-a-tliem is Deiphin Michael Delmas, whom Thaw's family lirought to New York from California, because of his succ ~ on the Pacific coast in dafend.mg it accused of murder, by invoking in their I behalf the "unwritten law" wlr husband's honor, or that of his \ involved. There are no ro> tiv court to represent the dead ma the side of White's secretary sits Evelyn Necbit Thaw's brother Howard, who is ready, it is said, to testify against ,-: - sister and her husband. xtraordinary provison for reporting the trial was made. In the) courthouse the two great telegraph companies set up offices. Two telegraph cables enter the building by way of a skylight. One London newspaper has cxclusivei i" a wire. With a paper in J'ilUuuig. more than three hundred miies away, there is direct comiminica phone. Two hundred i-ej for seats, bni ■!.,„•.. ih„,< of them w< Some of the newspapers are represented by writers whose works of fiction have commended them to a considerable ' ' -■• of readers. Thorn are three ...- .-> —Alfred Henry Lewis, S.imuel Hopkins Adams, and Julian Hawthorne, the last-named shining partly by the reflected liglH of -his eminent father, Nathaniel, now many years dead. Clara Morris, once a very successful "emotional" actress, is another of the reporters, and the "Herald" has employed, for daily comment and review, : no less a than Roland B. Molineaux, who [. His was itted by \, little bottle of what ; bromo seltzer." 'This in a nan an intended victim, who ,by giving it to another pel It is expected that Mrs 'ther of Evciyn Nesbit Thaw, will testify against Thaw, if her testimony shall lie needed in rebuttal; also that Howard that she had no ever with her daughter since the latter marriage made the mother his paring (lie projected suit against Thaw for breach of promise, in connection witli which Stanford White's advice was sought by both. At that time the girl was hostile to Thaw, who had beaten her and knocked her down. In the mother's ion are many letters : affair. Among th ' and denied) lias I | the interest of defendant 50,000 dollars .„ ..duealed at Stanford White's expubf, publishes a statement to explain tin- altitude of bis mother and himself towards Thaw. "Mr While," he says, "as my benefactor, and (lie sincere and honest friend of my mother, so limied my deep gratitude that T would do what little T could ' defend hisnamq; and I would not s silent and fail to attempt to iift tho charges that have been hurled at him. So truly do 1 respect and honor the ry of Mr White Unit, should it be il to me that my faith in him was sphered, if. wOuHl' nearly 'break my Concerning the published assertion that his sister wns deserted in her hour of trial by her mother, Nesbit savs:— "11. was inv sister who deserted, abandoned, and ignored her mother. If any breach exists between mv sister and inv