Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1906-11-27

Observation-Disclosures
entire country was ringing with the
tragic news that Harry Thaw had
slain Stanford White. The setting
for the fatal attack had been the
Madison Square Roof Garden where
the first night performance OF sum
mer musical show known as Mile
Champagne" was being given. The
place was gay in flowers and multi
colored electric lights ANA was thron-
ged with a fashhonaby dressed audi
ence. On the stage Il man was sing
ing II Could Love Thousand Girls
when suddenly above the music tho
pistol shots rang out. The music
ceased the chorus girls and actors
upon the stage were terror-stricken,
men and women In the audience drop.
ped their glasses upon the tables
before them. In the stiffness n man
was heard to say:
"Ycu Ruined My Wife"
"You ruined Icy wife, d. you,
and now I've got YOU"
Stanford White lay dead at tho
table where he had been sitting;
Harry Thaw, in evening dress, stood
with smoking pistol In his hand.
: His wife who had seen Inn fire the
fatal shot was led screaming away
from the spot and Thaw was arrest.
;, -uti:1r-' ne made no attempt to escape.
White was the vice president OF
the Madison Square Garden Com
pany, and was the architect of that
famous structure in whose tower he
hal always maintained studio 1t
was in this tower that Thaw hal
Y
his arrest, that White entertained
young women at the gayest CT par
| ties. Thaw said he had frequently
complained of these studio parties
to the Society for the Prevention of
wee. and it has been stated on au-
thority that this society hal made
several investigations prior to the
ROOF Garden tragedy.
White, Befr:cnds Girl.
1t has been brought out since the
Shooting that White befrienden Eve
lyn Nesbit and her mother when the
young woman first was brought to
this city to enter the studios as a
model. Letters which passed be-
tween White and the mother of the
girl have been published and may
play an important part in the trial.
T"ere have been reports that White
sought the gorl's society after her
marriage 70 Thaw, but this has been
admitted by neither side and so far,
as they could do so, counsel for
both sides have closed the mouths
of the most important witnesses.
Thaw's Justification.
Thaw has sought his justification
In the words he uttered to his victim
on the night pf the tragedy. He
claimed that under the "unwritten
law. no jury could convict him OF
having taken the life of "the man
who had traduced his wife in her
innocent girlhood." TO these accu-
Stations by Thaw, the friends of Stan
ford White. many of them influential
men of the community, have de-
clared that the architects interest
in the girl was purely of fatherly
character. They said he had assisted
many young women to make place
for themselves in the world and that
he was no more deeply interested
In Miss Nesbit than he had been in
a number of others about whom no
breath of scandal has been uttered.
Plea of insanity.
1t has been constantly stated that
the Thaw case would never come to
trial and that the mysteries OF It's
many intricate phases would never
be exposed to the light of the pub
lies gaze, this conjecture being based
on the report that plea Of insanity
might be entered and accepted.
This probability, however, it is
now said, Is past. Harry Thaw has
himself stood in the way of any such
plan. 1t is asserted that in his re-
fusal to give assent to the insanity
l plea has been steadfastly supported
by his wife, who. 1t Is also gener-
ally reported, had constantly urged
upon her husband to take some act
ion against White.
Mrs. Thaw's Daily Visits.
Mrs. Thaw has been a daily visitor
to the Tombs prison, and Mrs. Will
liam Thaw, who was called from
Europe when the tragedy occurred,
has also been n frequnt caller. There
have been many family conferences
and many stormy interviews in the
young mans cell, his resentment
being shown every time the suggest
/ ion of insanity has been offered.
II prefer death in the electric
chair to life in an insane asylum"