Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, August 31, 1913, Image 3
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MRS. MARY COPLEY THAW.
WILLIAM TRAVERS JEROME.
HARRY K. THAW.
MRS. EVELYN NESBIT THAW.
DELPHIN M. DELMAS.
N DEPORTATION BATTLE:
E
T
‘He’s as Good as on His Way to Mat-
teawan,’ Declares Nemesis of Mil
lionaire Fugitive, Who Is Fighting
to Stay in Canadian Jail.
SHERBROOKE, QUEBEC, Aug:. 30.
Harry K. Thaw, for the first time
glnce he crossed the boTder into Can
ada, lost a skirmish to-day in the
battle which must result either in his
release or his deportation.
Attorneys representing the Cana
dian Government strained every point
possible in the endeavor to put Thaw
into the hands of the immigration au
thorities for deportation to-night.
They did not succeed in this, but
they did succeed in strategy which
caught the defense unprepared, when
Constable Boudereau, of Quebec, was
given a writ of habeas corpus, re
turnable Tuesday. The constable is
in the position of demanding the
liberty of the man he arrested on
Canadian soil.
Lawyer Takes Special Train.
C. IX White and H. B. Frazer,
Thaw's barristers here, regard the sit
uation as so menacing that they tele
graphed J. N. Greensfield, an asso
ciate in the case, to come at once
from Montreal. He hired a special
train and set out with the avowed in
tention of breaking all speed records
for the 100 miles to Sherbrooke.
Jerome was Jubilant.
“Harry is just as good as cn the
way to Matteawan now,” he said.
The fight opened to-day when Tnaw
did not appear in court in answer to
a writ of habeas corpus returnab.e at
10 o'clock this morning.
As the upshot of .he early argu
ments came the Boudereau writ-—
habeas corpus writ No. 3—in the
case.
Repulsed at first by its own attack,
the State of New York was com
pelled to wait for the famous
prisoner to make some move which
will permit them to take counter ac
tion and again place him in Mattea
wan Asylum, from which he so dra
matically escaped more than a week
ago.
Thaw occupies just as» paradoxical
a position. In his fight to become a
free man he is fighting every move
to get him out of Jail.
Here is the situation. The State of
New York preferred criminal charges
of conspiracy against Thaw. On this
charge he was arrested soon after h6
hod crossed the New Hampshire State
line into Canada.
His attorneys first sought his re-
lea.w from prison on a writ of habeas
corpus. The date for arguing the ap-
Thaw Life Drama Bares Every Human Passion
^•••2*
Nation's Interest in His Case Is Unflagging
plication for the writ was set.
Thaw Called an Undesirable.
In the meantime representatives of
the State of New York sought Thaw’s
deportation into New York by the
immigration authorities. These au
thorities held that Thaw is an un
desirable citizen and should be de
ported.
This ruling meant that if Thaw
were to win his fight for freedom on
the habeas corpus writ he would lose
his fight for freedom by being deport
ed into the United States and imme
diately rearrested. Obviously, Thaw’s
only hope for freedom was to stay in
jail.
His attorneys immediately made
application for withdrawal of the ap
plication for the writ of habeas cor
pus. The State of New York imme
diately struggled to have the original
application granted and Thaw made
free.
State Loses First Tilt.
In the first legal skirmish before
Judge Globensky. before whom the
writ was pending, was won by Thaw
on all three points at issue. These
were:
1. New York State was denied the
right to be a party tc the proceedings
in court.
2. Counsel for the State failed in
their efforts to have Thaw arraigned
before a magistrate, and the commit
ment on which he was held quashed,
which would have released him to the
immigration authorities,
* 3. The court granted the plea of
Thaw's counsel for a discontinuance
of the writ of habeas corpus, which
might have brought about his release.
This remedied the stragetlc blunder
that his counsel had made In making
the original application for writ of
habeas corpus.
But Thaw’s principal victory was
in his realization that Canadian pub
lic sentiment is with him and he is
assured of a fair trial and probable
acquittal if the charges of conspiracy
are ever brought to trial. If he is ac
quitted on that charge, it is held by
his counsel that his legal status in
Canada will be fixed and he can not
be deported as an undesirable.
Prisoner Given Ovation.
As soon as the crowd that packed
the courtroom saw that the court had
ruled in favor of Stanford White’s
slayer there was a tremendous dem
onstration in his favor. He was
cheered all the way back to the jail
and was made to realize that if he
gets a jury trial in Canada chances
of his success are exceedingly bright
William Travers Jerome, his old
prosecutor, who is representing New
York State as special counsel, has
now gone to Quebec, where he will
make every effort to have the magis
trate who committed Thaw, Alexis
Dupuis, of Coaticook. quash the com
mitment.
If he succeeds in this Thaw will be
In jail with no charge against him
and. of course, will have to be re
leased.
From Mansion to Lone
ly Farmhouse, Every
Development Is
Watched With Breath
less Interest.
By DOROTHY DIX.
No other murder case in the whole
history' of the world has been so much
written about, so much read about,
so much discussed as the Thaw case.
If all that has been printed about it
were spread out upon the earth, it
would blanket the United States from
Canada to the Gulf, and from the At
lantic to the Pacific Ocean.
And every printed word of it all
has been eagerly devoured, not only
by people to whom their daily news
paper sensation is as necessary as
pepper and salt in their food, but by
quiet, conservative folk who as a rule
religiously skip all accounts of mur
ders and scandals in their papers and
confine their attention to the tariff
and the editorials.
But there was something in the
Thaw case that took hold of the pop
ular imagination and stirred the dull
est fancy so that the remotest ham
lets and the loneliest farmhouses were
just as much interested in It as was
Broadway. Every move in it was fol
lowed with the breathless interest with
which an audience watches a grip
ping melodrama, and, no matter what
the real merits of the case are, or
what the law, it is idle to deny that
popular sympathy went with Thaw.
Thaw Appears as a Hero.
In New York we were close to the
magnitude of the crime, and we knew
a few things about Harry Thaw that
did not seem to make him just the
ideal avenger of youth and innocence.
Also there were circumstances con
nected with Evelyn’s past history that
dimmed her halo as a victim of man’s
depravity, but away from New York
these slight blurs on the picture were
not perceived.
Harry Thaw was the noble hero
who rescued the persecuted heroine
and slew the despoiler of virtue, and
most people hoped that the law would
deal leniently with him. He killed to
avenge the woman he loved—his wife
—and that theory of justifiable homi
cide still goes in the South and West
As a matter of fact, popular sym
pathy has always been with Thaw,
even in New York, and it is interest
ing to note that, in his present at
tempt to escape from Matteawan.
practically everyone that discusses it
expresses the hope that he will suc
ceed in his efforts to get free.
General Interest Not Abated.
For underneath It all is the feeling
that Thaw' committed a crime that
needed to be committed, that he rid
the world of a man who was a mon
ster of vice and an influence for evil
whose pow'er was be/ond computing,
and who bad preyed on defenseless
young girls. This man's social and
professional position and the wealth
of the men who were his associates
put him almost beyond the reach of
the law.
Probably only such a bullet as
Thaw’’s could have stopped his iniqui
tous career, and for that reason the
man in the street and the woman in
the home have never judged Thaw
hardly, and have always felt that he
was unduly punished—which isn’t law
nor logic, but is very human.
Nor has the general interest in the
Thaw case abated, although it is now
The People Hail Thaw as Public
Benefactor, Says Dorothy Dix
“Popular sympathy has always been with Thaw, even in
New York, and it is interesting to note that, in his present at
tempt to escape from Matteawan, practically everyone that
discusses it expresses the hope that he will succeed in his ef
forts to get free.
“For underneath it all is the feeling that Thaw committed
a crime that needed to be committed; that he rid the world of
a man who was a monster of vice and an influence of evil;
whose power was beyond computing, and who preyed on de
fenseless young girls. This man’s social and professional posi
tion, and the wealth of the men who were his associates, put
him almost beyond the reach of the law.
“Probably only such a bullet as Thaw’s could have stopped
his iniquitous career, and for that reason the man in the streets
and the woman in the home have never udge Thaw harshly
and have always felt that he was unduly punished. Which
isn’t law, nor logic, but is very human.”
—DOROTHY DIX.
sadder tale or one that went straight-
er to the heart of every honest man
and woman. That such experiences
should befall one so young and ten
der drew 'tears from every eye—
tears that had to be wiped away sur
reptitiously, so that we wouldn’t miss
a single word of her revelations.
Escapades Startle the Nation.
And there was Harry Thaw him
self, a perfect type of the gilded
youth, who make history up and
down the tenderloin. The country al
ready rang with a thousand stories.
some true, some false, of his es
capades—of his giving $50,000 beauty
dinners to the demi-mondaines of Eu
rope, of his shooting up cafes Just
for fun, of his hard-headed old
father having made a frantic effort
to save him by cutting down his al
lowance, and of his fond mother hav
ing circumvented the plan by supply
ing him with money from her own
deep purse.
Other features of Interest were the
lawyers, Dan O’Reilly, fresh from the
Patterson case; Clifford Hartridge,
Gleason, Delmas, brought from the
Pacific Coast because of his golden
tongue and posing about in Napoleon
ic attitudes; Martin Littleton, alert,
the iron hand in the silken glove, the
only man who has ever been able
to control Thaw at all.
Question of Sanity Absorbing.
And last, but not least, one of the
reasons for the undying interest in
the Thaw case is the still unsolved
query whether he is san e or insane.
It is like the conundrum of the lady
or the tiger, and each person has a
perfectly good opinion on it which he
can substantiate with perfectly good
arguments.
Half a dozen alienists, eminent and
respected in their professions, most
of them the authors of books on
mental diseases, many of them in
charge of institutions for the insane,
swear that Thaw is a dangerous lu
natic. An equal number of other
alienists, also authors of books on
mental diseases ajul in charge of
other insane asylums, swear that he
is perfectly sane. When doctors dis
agree what is the layman to do but
argue about it?
And so, for a hundred arid one
reasons, the interest in the Thaw
case goes on and will continue to
go on for Heaven knows how long.
It is the great continued story of
real life in which our interest never
Hags, for none of us knows what is
coming next, nor what the real end
will be.
seven years and more since Thaw shot
Stanford White dead In Madison
Square Garden. Thousands go night
ly to see Evelyn Nesbit do a foolish
little dance on a roof garden simply
because she was the heroine of that
scandal, and millions of readers are
watching Thaw’s attempt to escape
from Matteawan with an interest they
are not bestowing upon what Huerta
is doing in Mexico, or Congress ifi
doing to them in Washington.
Drama Held Every Passion.
This undying interest in the Thaw
lease is easily explained in many
'ways. For one thing, it was a great
human drama that swept every chord
of emotion. It had in it love, and
jealousy, and bitter hate and re
venge, every passion that sways the
heart. Moreover, it went back to the
very foundation stone of romance,
and told the tale, in real life, that has
been the basic idea of every novel
from Pamela down to William Dean
Howells.
Its heroine wag the poor, pretty
country girl who comrts to the gre\t
city to seek her fortune, and whose
beauty is her undoing. She meets
with the rich villain, who substitutes
silks and satins for her homespun,
who plays his knowledge of the world
against her unsophistication, and so
beguiles her into the primrose path.
Then comes the rich young prince,
who falls in love with her, who mag
nanimously marries her in spite of
her past, and who takes her by the
hand and leads her to his splendid
home and his white-haired old moth
er, who. after having at first fran
tically opposed the marriage, finally
consents, and bestow’s upon them her
blessing.
Romance in Real Life.
There isn’t one of us who hasn’t sat
up nights to follow some novel with
exactly that plot. There isn’t one of
us who hasn’t shed tears over such a
play on the stage, and hissed the vil
lain. and applauded the noble hero,
and felt that when the hero shot down
the dark-brow’ed villain he was doing
a praiseworthy act for which he de
served a Carnegie medal.
And here was the story in reality.
Here was the romance in actual life
Here was the play being played out
by the living people, not the mum
mers on a stage. No wonder that the
Thaw case interested the general pub
lic!
Another reason was because of the
importance of the people concerned
in IL In one of the charming come
dies that Sol Smith Russel! used to
play there was a scene in which he,
starving himself, told stories to make
two hungry little children forget
their misery.
“What shall I tell you about?" he
asked. *
“Tell us about rich people,’’ replied
the poverty-stricken little creatures.
Tale Had Good Background.
So say we all. We like to hear of
the doings of the rich and great, and
we like to read of millionaires’ af
fairs just as we prefer to peruse nov
els in which the characters are dukes
and duchesses rather than scrubwom
en and longshoremen.
The Thaws’ millions gave a sort of
aureate background to the story. Be
sides which, they were persona lly in
teresting. There was his old mother,
white-haired, haughty, her nroud head
bowed to meet this agonizing experi
ence—the greatest that any mother
can possibly suffer—that of seeing hei
idolized son, his hands red with t ood,
standing in the shadow of the elec
tric chair, fightino f. his life.
There were his sisters, Mrs. Car
negie, married to a nephew of Andrew
Carnegie, and so adding other mil
lions and other prestige to the Thaw
millions and prestige. There was the
Countess of Yarmouth, another sister,
the shadow' of her mad marriage to a
discredited and fortune-hunting Eng
lish peer already darkening about her.
There were brothers who came and
went during the trial, and always
Roger O’Mara, grim mouthed, silent
as the Sphinx, forever hovering in
the shadow of the Thaw family.
The Three Vital Figures.
About all there were the three
vital figures in the case. First the
ghost of Stanford White, all the
more interesting because it was so
intangible it left a million things to
the imagination—an evil ghost that
might have come from the pit itself,
so black and sinister were the things
attributed to it.
From the shadows from which it
was evoked came also lurid pictures
of unmentionable orgies taking place
amid scenes of indescribable beauty
and splendor. They were scenes such
as filled the pages of Oujda, and that
ravish the fancy.
Then there w'as Evelyn Nesbit
Thaw', marvelously beautiful, with
her story of injured innocence to
make the very angels weep—a story
that gained credence from her wist
ful little child’s face. Never was
there a more lovely heroine, never a
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HARRY THAW AND SOME OF THOSE FOR AND AGAINST HIM