River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1907-04-04

New York. - Ever since Eve
Ign Nesbit Thaw told her story
on the witness stand 50 that
all men might judge whether its tell
ing were not enough to turn husband
mad-eyen before that, ever since the
pistol shot that killed Stanford White
last June let loose on the ears of men
countless stories of reyel and debauch
until only legions of shameful ghosts
seemed left to guard the memory of
the dead architect, curiosity has been
drawn irresistibly to Whites Twenty
fourth street studio. 1t is the place
which, if half the stories told were
true, White had dedicated to that part
of his life which ultimately led him to
his death-the place where he played
Hyde with a few depraved companions
while to all the rest of the world he
was a distinguished and an envied
Jekyll; a place which was heaven Of
beauty, and also, according to report,
hell of sin.
No other spot in New York has SO
stirred the imaginatiOns Of thousands.
No other spot has been at once such
a commonplace of gossip and yet SO
utterly unknown, such a closed mys-
terry to ALL And today stripped of
much Of its mystery and of all the
glamour and lure of its wonderful
treasures of art, with only the dull
outer walls left to give mute testi-
mony to the reality of the wild scenes
they once sheltered, it remains with
out a parallel in the history of this or
any other modern city.
Truly Well Concealed.
1t is not just a suite of rooms or
one or more floors of a house cleverly
protected from the observation or in
trusion of other tenants. Still less is
it an ordinary house, the windows of
which, however thiclJly curtained
and screened must still look down on
passers-by in the street below and be
exposed in turn to the curious gaze
of any and all who cared to raise their
heads.
You may have trouble to find this
place." wrote Harry Thaw when he
first appealed to Anthony Comstock
and the Society for the Suppression of
Vice to put stop to the infamous
practices which he said were carried
on within its walls; you may have
trouble to find this place, for it is we'll
concealed"
Well concealed it is, for though a
man knew street and number he might
search all day and never find it, going
on his way at last satisfied the address
he had was wrong. No stranger in
the street ever saw the windows of
Stanford Whites studio; man might
pass through the outer door of the
house and wander all through the
building, and though he would find
easy access to the studios or rooms of
other men he would find no hint to
lead him to that of Stanford White.
That gilded temple Of the senses
stands apart, a house almost within
house, inclosed within two rows of
other houses with blank walls on all
sides to shut it off from all view and
observation. 1t was a place used only
In the night time and, with no need
for the light Of day ordinary windows
and their outlook had no place in the
designers plan. )nly secret pas
sage, cunningly walled off in the main
house fronting on Twenty-fourth
street, could it be reached, and only
through a secret door which slid open
at the touch Of a hidden spring could
friend or visitor enter that passage.
Belongs to Other Days.
The studio is situated in the small
open court that lies between the rears
of the houses on Twenty-third and
Twenty-fourth streets. As it stands
to-day, dismantled and untenanted, it
would make an ideal haunt for kid
napers or counterfeiters, or any of the
other desperate plotters who figure so
largely in romantic novels, and for
this reason, even in its present, its
most commonplace aspect, it seems to
belong to medieval days, an age
younger by centuries than busy, prac-