The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1907-04-10
DEPICTS SLAYER
OF WHITE AS
AVENGING ANGEL
Delmas Declares Thaw's
Insanity Was Manifesto
ton of Manhood
BRILLIANT APPEAL
Styles Defendants Af-
fiction 'Dementia
Americana"
OPPONENT PROTESTS
OPPONENT PROTESTS
District Attorney Charges
Californian With Going
Beyond Evidence

NEW YORK. April On an
eloquent appeal both to the written
and the unwritten law. Dolphin M.
Delmas this afternoon committed
Harry K. Thaw's fate to the jury.
The California attorney concluded his
FIVE hours summing up speech declar-
ing his client was justified in killing
Stanford White
Tomorrow morning at II:30
o'clock District Attorney Jerome will
make his appeal in behalf OF the
prosecution. Justice Fitzgerald prob
ably will then charge the jury, and by
tomorrow evening at the latest the
famous case will pass to the delibera-
tion of the twelve men who have SO
carefully attended its uncertain course
for weeks past.
Jerome expects to speak for three or
four hours. Justice Fitzgerald would
not say today whether he would or not
charge the jury directly after the Dis
trict Attorneys remarks. but the gen
eral impression is that he will do So
With the exception of the moments
when he was reading from testimony
Delmas speech today was one of sus-
tained oratorical effort He threw
about the form of Harry Thaw the
cloak of chivalrous knighthood.
Why" he shouted. should we who
admire the chivalry of the knights of
the middle ages. who went about re-
dressing wrongs and rescuing maidens
in distress, withhold our sympathy
from this brave man?'
Bitterly the attorney assailed STAN
ford White. He declared White sought
to play with Evelyn Nesbit so long as
her beauty remained and then would
have thrown her away like a, dirty
rag. to float down life's sewers to
grave in the potter's field"
Again he said: Harry Thaw had
snatched the girl from the old lecher
who saw in her but toy to crafty
go her way down the path of fallen
women
With dramatic emphasis Delmas cried
out that when Harry Thaw beheld
Stanford White on the Madison Square
roof garden the story of his wifes
wrongs overcame him. He pictured in
an instant, as dying man may pic
ture his past lifez-all that Stanford
White had done. the ruin he had
wrought--and he struck; struck as the
tigress strikes in defense of her young;
struck for the home; struck for Amer
lean women; struck for humanity-and
Stanford White fell.
Gentlemen" the advocate went on,
IF Harry Thaw believed he was the in
strument of Providence. who will say
he was Mistaken"
Delmas discussed but briefly the tes-
timony of the expert witnesses. declar-
ing that whatever weight might attach
to their utterances was on the side of
the defendant. He declared the burden
of proof as to Thaws sanity at the time
of the homicide rested with the prose-
cution. which had failed to make out
its case.
In discussing Thaw's mental state
Delmas came at last to. the "unwritten>
law" He declared the experts had
been at a loss to classify the form of
insanity from which Thaw suffered
Il will suggest its name he de-
clared. Il would call it 'dementia
Americana It is species of insanity
which has been recognized in every
State of this Union. 1t is that species
Of insanity which makes the American
man believe his home. his wife and his
daughters are sacred and whosoever
stains the virtue of his. threshold vio-
lates the highest of human laws.
Twice during his closing periods Del
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