Omaha daily bee., 1906-07-02
real VICTIMS or TRAGEDY.
The innocent. ~ Usual, SAVER More
Than the Guilty.

Than the Guilty.
Very little public sympathy Is shown for
either Of the principals in the New YORK
tragedy and scandal The lives Of victim
and felou challenged the fate that IL theirs
Only the innocent victims deserve the sym
pathy the tragedy calls forth The wife
Of the dead man. the mother Of the living,
both have borne the pain and heartache
of family skeletons in silence. Tragedy
reveals their misfortune and makes their
anguish almost unbesrsble. Touching upon
this melancholy phase Of the case the New
York Times says:
Luminous against the murky background
OF scandal leading to the murder OF stan
ford White by Harry X. Thaw shines forth
the real victim Of the tragedy-a woman
whose sweetness and goodness have en-
deared her 10 thousands in all walks OF
life and whose high character and excellent
connections long ago made her welcome In
the best dircles of New Yorks real society
She is Mrs. White. devoted wife, loving
mother. sterling upholder OF all the things
worth while which IT was her husbands
delight 10 drag in the miro under cover OF
the giittering bohemianism he affected.
Mrs. White for ten years has been to
her husband a wife in name only. They
lived under the same roof. they went at
times to the same social AFFAIRS. they dined
at the same table in the rare intervals
when Stanford White could dine at all
without the glare and blare OF Brosdwny's
gingerbread abattoirs. but their real lives
were far apart as the poles.
Mrs white, of the two. alone was stead
fast in pursuing the path to which her
girlhood's training had accustomed her.
She mingled with the old Kniokerbocker
families and the equally staid society folk
OF Murray hill. Her antecedents, her hus-
bands name, her own wealth-above all,
the endearing, inherent goodness OF the
woman-opened TO her all the doors In New
York worth while passing
Wide swung those doors before the ar
| chitect, as well, but seldom was Il that
he appeared before them. He Stunned
whenever he could the conventional cir
cles to which his wife belonged and basked
In the midnight sun Of the restaurant or
rathskeller. Once his ambition had been
to accumulate a fortune enabling him to
spend all his days In rural quiet. When
at last wealth was his, he cared for moth
ing more rustic than the village chorus OF
musical comedy, nothing more tranquil
than the abandon Of his famous little sup
pers in his richly furnished apartment
| near the top of Madison Square gardens
| tower.
He who had sighed for the life of q
| country gentleman became a townsman of
the most ultra type. and not always q
gentleman. Times there were when not
all the wealth OF his wife placed at his
command would have suflced to save him
from the vengeance of injured men had
| he not made IN the under world of the
Tenderloin friends who valued his favors
highly enough to fight for him-mercenaries,
OF course, yet useful TO q man Of his sort
Whether Mrs. White ever dreamed Of 90
terrible a termination to her husband g
existence she alone can tell. Whatever
the extent of her apprehension, she per-
sisted In her course with patience match
Ing his stubbornness, and though she could
| not draw him US, he could not drag her
down. From first to last, Mrs. White. II
not altogether the most sensible woman
In the world in giving her life into the
keeping OF a man cursed with a con1bina.
ton of the artistic temperament and an
artistically tesselated conscience, certainly
has been good one. -
| White was worse than cratic. Indeed
1t was no mere error when he ignored his
vows made at the altar He did not stray
| from the beaten path. In his more mature
| Jooi - az any Ialot ne walked parallel TO
it and in plain view OF II, but as widely
separated from it's narrow borders as II
at the other side OF the earth There was
in him no restlessness melting him to evil.
He went about his vicious deeds deliber-
ately, seriously, steadfastly
In the Thaw family one misfortune fol-
lowed another. With all her millions Mrs
Thaw, the mother, has never been able 70
get what she so rAtich desired-happiness
Her own welded life was not a happy one.
Old William Thaw, philanthropist, friend
| OF the destitute, and all that he was, for
many years prior to his death maintained
two homes While his residence was the
Thaw mansion, Lyndhurst, he seldom or
never occupied 1t. He had a suite Of apart
ments in the downtown district, where he
spent all of his time, surrounded by a
| crowd of companions, men and women.
Mrs. Thaw spent most of her life in these
years in charitable and church work, taking
much consolation from them.
After William Thaw died there was hardly
ever a time when young Thaw was not IN
hot water. He capped his series of esca
pades with his marriage. Even when that
marriage came the elder Mrs Thaw made
the best OF it and accepted her new daugh-
ter-in-law.
This marriage had been preceded but a
few months by the notoriety which arose
out Of the finding of Mrs. Harriet Thaw, an
aunt of Harry Thaw. living destitute in a
cellar in Philadelphia. She was a maniac
| when the authorities found her, and she
died in that condition a short time after
ward. This, those who are familiar with
the history of the family declare, was the
only case of insanity that was ever known
in the Thaw family.
| The next unfortunate matter which
brought the Thaw name prominently be-
fore the public was the suicide in Phila-
delphia of a brother Of William r. Thomp.
son, the banker, who died IN New York
L.. LIZ =.