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THE STORY OF MY LIFE
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Mrs. Mary Copley Thaw, Mother of Harry Thaw, Sketched
by Evelyn Nesbit at the Trial as Mrg. Thaw,
Senior, Was on the Witness Stand.
Chapter IX.—Evelyn Thaw’s Emotions as
Harry Thaw’s Ayed Mother Revealed What
the Family Thought About Harry’s Bride.
Copyright, 1913, by Star Company.
Book Rights Reserved by Evelyn Nesbit Thaw.
OF course it was my husband. Hurry Thaw, who was on trial,
not I. And yet very few prisoners at the bar ever had
a more severe searchlight thrown upon them than was
cast upon me during my husband’s trial for his life.
Day after day I was the target of Mr. Jerome's sharpest shots.
After court adjourned for the day Jerome, during the night,
thought up new questions that he hoped might tnngle me. Some
times I was suddenly called to the witness chair for a few ques
thms; sometimes for hours, and then dismissed. But to be dis
missed by the district attorney was the equivalent of the dis
mrtweal by a cat of a mouse. His long paw would lick out and
haul back the victim at a second’s notice. So would thfe more
gentle paw of Mr. Delmas, and after awhile one or the other
would have me back again to identify a letter or disprove some
other witness’ statements.
But as 1 look over my notes as I made them at the trial my
mind turns back to at least one day during the progress of the
case when I was an intensely interested spectator, and not an
actor in the scene. It was when Harry's mother took the wit
ness stand and, consciously or unconsciously, revealed to me the
true feelings of tjie Thaw family toward me —me, the actress
bride of Harry.
Referring to my notes of the trial, I find:
Mrs. Thaw, who came to the stand to-day, is too absorbed
In the big things of life to take any definite steps one way or
the other, but it is a curious fact that despite the .gravity of
the situation, these people have time to think out such petty
matters as the attitude of a society which hitherto has not
overburdened itself with any great responsibility in regard to
the "social standing” of the Thaw family.
Airs. Thaw made a good witness. She put up a fine fight
for her son’s life. Every motherly instinct was aroused. She
Is a kindly matron, with brown eyes and a pleasant expression.
She was dressed in widow's garb, with her black veil thrown
back, disclosing a mass of silver-white hair. At all times she
was perfectly self possessed.
Harry, who now shows traces of his prolonged ordeal and
confinement, sits with his face buried in his hands, following
bis mother’s words.
1 find myself intensely Interested in the evidence. I feel
like one to whom certain secrets hitherto hidden, but long sus
pected. are to be revealed. What the Thaws thought of me 1
knew —what they would say I had anticipated.
The evidence is at first formal.
In the Autumn and Winter of 1903 she was living at Pitts
burgh. Her son, Harry, came home on November 16th or 17th. a
day or two before his brother. Josiah's, wedding.
"During the time your son Harry was home, did you notice
anything unnatural in his conduct?"
"Certainly I did."
"Will you please describe what took place?"
"On the day that he first came to the door there was a
look of absent-mindedness on his face—a despairing look. It
struck me at the time.’’
Did that impression of your son grow on you?”
les, he seemed to have lost all Interest in everything. His
room was next to mine, and often in the night from his room
I heard smothered sobs. Sometimes when 1 was awake late
at night I would see a light under his door, and I often found
h m sitting up until 3 or 4 ,ln the morning. When 1 asked him
«hy He sat up so late he told me that he could not sleep and
that it was no use going to bed. I am not of a prying dispo
se on. but | asked him to tell me what was the matter. He
aaid it was impossible to tell his story.”
Did he at any time freely, or in answer to your questions
101 l you that story?”
Harry had told her the story. His troubles were caused
oy something a wicked man had done in New York—probably
the wickedest.man io New York. That man had ruined his
Written by Evelyn Nesbit Thaw.
Ninth Instalment of the Most Extraordinary Human Document Ev
Written Stranger Than Any Story in Fiction or Drama
Interesting Comment by a Clergyman.
By Rev. HENRY FRANK,
Pantor al the Independent Church, New York.
IS it wise that the sad and tragic woes of life, which
a few of the race endure, shall be known to the
many?
Is it wise that the glittering lights of gaiety,
which allure so many innocent human moths to sor
row and destruction, shall be despoiled of their
glory and be revealed in ail their lurid truth?
Shall we disavow the plea of the poet and refuse
to believe that "where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly
to be wise?”
These questions are clearly answered, so that all
who run may read, by the heart-saddening divulg
enees of Evelyn Thaw, now appearing in the col
umns of this newspaper.
What father, what mother, who reads and pon
ders these eloquent and startling narrations but will
realize as never before that to keep their daughters
in ignorance of the alluring pitfails that are set for
them in every great city, and especially in this gilded
and ornate Babylon of American iniquity, not only
life, and he would never be happy again. That was all.
Harry had seemed absorbed to his mother, as if he wefb
working out a great problem. He was extremely fond of music,
and he would leave the table and go into the parlor. She would
hear loud music on the piano, which would gradually grow
softer, and he would come back to the. table as If nothing had
happened. He did this oftenest when there was company at
table and. he was engaged in conversation.
Poor Harry! No evidence of Insanity here, as I can testify
Mrs. Thaw went on:
"A week before Thanksgiving Day I understood more. I
did not know what the girl's name was and did not ask. I did
not want to know, but I did know that his condition had some
thing to do with a young girl. He Had told me about a
wicked man in New York, but it was only later that I found out
that this man had ruined a young girl.” continued Mother Thaw.
After I found out that his condition was due to something
that had happened to a young girl, I asked him why he should
allow his life to be ruined on that account, and told him it was
not his duty to look after the girl. I tried to influence him
in another direction, but he told me that his life had been
ruined, and told me the girl had the most beautiful mind nat
urally of gll the girls he had ever met.
Poor Harry’s Thanksgiving Day.
He told me this about Thanksgiving time and it caused
me to look at meters in a new light. He said there was still
a chance for her to be good, and so on. I don’t recall all he
said. On Thanksgiving Day Harry and 1 were alone. The
rest of the family were all away.”
Poor Harry, again! A more wretched way of spending
Thanksgiving I cannot conceive.
I give her statement as she gave it. The opening sentence
more than any other shows Mrs. Thaw and the interests which
once were mine.
"It was the first Thanksgiving in our large, beautiful new
church, and Harry and 1 went to church together," she said
It was so crowded that we had to sit well back under the
gallery. I was glad ft was so later, for when the choir was
singing Kipling's 'Recessional’ to Beethoven’s beautiful music,
I heard Harry sob, and looking round saw his tears falling on
the programme he had in his hand.
"1 put out my hand and touched him. He was trembling all
over, but 1 succeeded In quieting him. As we drove home I
asked him how he had come so to forget himself.'
Harry weeping at the "Recessional” was to Mrs. Thaw
an amazing thing. That he should so "forget himself" was
evidence enough of a disturbed mind.
'When did you first learn who the young woman was?”
"I cannot recall precisely, but 1 think it was in the Spring
of 1904.”
"Can you recall any conversation you had with your son
at that time?”
Mr. Jerome objected on the ground that there was nothing
in the evidence to show that the prisoner was insane at this
period. I feel inclined at this moment to agree.
'Did he speak to you again about the young girl?”
"There had been a horrible scandal or. at least, they made
ft out to be a scandal. I remember my expressing disapproval
of his coming home in the same ship with the girl, and he ex
plained it all to me and said he was still of a mind to marry her.
"You have said nothing before of his wanting to marry her.”
"I must have forgotten it. He told me In November, 1903,
that he wanted to marry her, but had been frustrated. In
February, 1905, I took Harry for a trip to the South. He then
asked me to come to New’ York and meet the young woman,
and in March 1 did so.”
' Was the marriage then under discussion and was it finally
arranged with your approbation?”
"Yes. It was not necessary that 1 should give my consent.
Out I did.”
Here came the record of a conversation between Harrv and
his mother that was interesting to me.
By Evelyn Thaw
does them an injustice, but commits a palpable crime
against them?
Knowledge, not ignorance, is the only door that
leads to the temple of peace. Bliss that is stagna
tion is w’orse than sin that lacerates the heart to
purify the soul. Let mothers and fathers read these
sorrowful tales which Mrs. 1 haw pours forth from
a heart blistered by the fires of wanton indulgence,
and they will better understand how to train their
daughters in the path they should follow..
This is the age of woman and of the divulgence
of woman’s wrongs; an age of revelations such as
humanity has never before permitted. I’he social
assassin in the gilded palaces of society and the
white slaver in the dark purlieus of our cities are
alike the product of ignorance, fear, false modesty
and prudish hypocrisy.
Away with the senselessness of past ages that led
our girls to the Shambles of shame and our boys to
an insane zest for feminine conquests!
Evelyn Thaw’s life will have been no failure if,
raising her hand of warning from the purgatory
through which her soul was dragged, she wards off
giddy and unwary girls who else had been the too
easy prey of waiting tempters.
"After meeting the young woman we returned to the hotel.
Harry asked me if I had any objection to his marrying her. I
told him it was not necessary for me to give my consent, and
he said he did not want to do anything against my wishes. 1
did afterwards make one condition, not to prevent the marriage,
but 1 told Harry that if he married the girl and she came to
my home to live, her past life must be a closed book and must
never- be referred to —I mean her life in New York.'’
Mrs. Thaw continued to refer to me as "the girl” and "the
young woman." I might be excused resentment at this latter
description, but I felt none.
"We arranged that the young woman should come to
Pittsburgh and that she should be provided with a chaperone.
When Harry came home from the wedding he seemed to be
laboring under great stress. I feared the wedding w'ould be
interfered with by the young woman’s mother on account of the
girl’s minority.”
Jerome tackled one point of view which was new to me.
“Was the defendant’s income fixed at a stated sum in his
father’s will?” he asked.
"Yes.”
Jerome asked Mrs. Thaw to state Harry's income prior
to June, 1903.
“I am unable to say exactly. It was certainly not what the
newspapers said.’
“Was that income from his father’s estate?"
“It was from his own estate, inherited from his father.”
"When your son returned to Pittsburgh in the Fall of 1903,
he expressed a desire to marry Miss Nesbit?”
"Yes."
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Harry Thaw and His Sister, the Countess of Yarmouth
“Did he ever express a fear that others would pre.®
him from accepting her?’’
"He said she had told him that it would be a very unsuitqH !
match. I said if she came to me her past would be a efo® i
book.” i
That was all. Harry had been upset because he wanß '
to marry me. I was a “young woman” who had eome into ■
Thaw family. The past was a “closed book.” . j
A closed book never to be mentioned in Pittsburgh foci® ;
but to be reserved for a crowded court where every other ul i
was a reporter!
I
And now another curious little episode comes to my mi i
during my brief honeymoon at the Thaw residence in Pittsburi
It was a small matter, and yet It really had some bearing on t
tragedy, too, because Harry was furiously angry and it add
to his grievances against Stanford White. ’
It happened this way. White had posed a number of pictui /
of me, as I have told in preceding chapters. Several of thy
were taken with me lying and sitting on the wonderful uh
bear skin that was such a feature of his Twenty fourth stre
studio. Many of these pictures were afterward sold for co
mercial purposes. One of them, popularly called "Beauty a
the Beast," fell Into the hands of a firm that made calendars.
There was a butcher in Pittsburgh who made a great s[
cfalty of sausages. He served the Thaws and every New Ye t
he gave his customers a very gorgeous calendar upon whi
was largely displayed his name and some praise of his sausagi
I/et me see—what was his name? I ought to remember
Oh, yes, Haudenshlfdd. Well, as luck and fate would have ,j 0
that unfortunate picture of mine had to be the one he select
for his New Year gift that Winter. Think of it. with all tl i f
butchers there are in the world, all the calendars and all tl i f
pictures to go on them, my picture had to fall into the han i
of the only sausage maker who served the Thaws!
I knew nothing of this at first, but afterwards I heard i a
lot about it. The butchet didn’t know me, had never se i t
me, didn't, know it was my picture at all. And as the Thaw
were among his best customers, they were the first to get on
of his calendars. He gave It proudly to the Thaw cook. The coo
recognized it at once and showed it to Mother Thaw. In th
meantime, the butcher had given away several more. Quit
all at once there was a rush of custom to his shop—and ever
one wanted "one of those beautiful calendars.” Poor Mr. Hat
denshield couldn t understand it. But he gave out the calendar!
Mother Thaw was terribly upset about it. What woul _
all her friends think? How could I possibly keep up even f
semblance of respectability when my picture was circulating
as a sausage advertisement about Pittsburgh?
Buying Up the Calendars.
Mother Thaw told Harry, and Harry was very angry. •
1 m sure I can t help it." I said. "Heaven knows wha
?lse those pictures are being used for.’’
And that made them all the more furious. That day Mothei
Thaw was so wrought up about it that, she went down tc
the butcher in person and demanded that he stop giving the
calendars away. She wouldn’t tell why she wanted him to
do so and the butcher didn't want to lose the money he ha<»
spent for them, naturally, so he refused. After that Hard
sent an agent down to explain that it was my picture an<S
that it was lese majeste at. the least to circulate it. But byl
this time the butcher was doing so much more business on|
the strength of the calendar that he refused again.
Well, the upshot of it was that the Thaw's served notice
.hat I had never authorized the picture as a butcher’s adver
tisement —which was, of course, very true —and the sausage
man was thrAatpriod whH
umu was tureareneo with suit if he persisted.
Also he was told that the Thaws would burrin' j
the rest of the stock if he would promise to be good.
And so he promised, and they bought the rest df the ,
pictures, and they also bought in all they could get
that were already distributed. Some people made
quite a little money on buying them from others and
selling them back to the Thaws at higher figures.
Harry treasured this up in his queer way
White, although White was really not responsible for
it. Nobody was responsible for it, least of all myself.
It was just one of the penalties of having a Chorus
girl and a model as one of the family, and not intel
ligently accepting the fact that you cannot wipe out
her past life when she becomes one of the famify.
I know that Mother Thaw was always thereafter i
worrying for fear that I would turn up as a coal ad
vertisement or what not.
Rut, you see. “social position" had suffered If it
is true that many crimes are committed in the nam«
of liberty, it Is just as true that many more crimes (
are committed in the name of "social position” —both
to preserve “social position" and to avenge its lor
"Social position" is a very much abused term. True
breeding doesn't bother about it any more than it
does about “culture.” But a rich first generation, I
suppose, has to lean backward as far to attain it as
a chorus girl married into such a family has to lean
backward to be "respectable.” 4
I remember the first time I went to church with
Mother Thaw and Harry. Now, I have nothing' u" J
the kindest feelings for Mother Thaw; everything
that she did was because of her firm conviction that
she was doing the right thing. And if this conviction 1
has caused more unhappiness in the world and more 1
martyrs than any other, it isn’t, after all, the con >
scious fault of those who have the convictions. Nev- 1
ertheless, I haven't become so philosophical as yet 1
that I can deny how miserable these strong convlc
tions can make others feel. i 1
Harry loves to "control things." He believes thaw
he can do anything better than any one else. He al w
ways wants his own way. He is always at odds w'* W
his lawyers because he thinks he can do |hings‘bet