The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-03-01
"rHE MAN WHO ATE BABIES. "

The Society for the Suppression of
the Facts in the Thaw Case is APP
parentIy making little Roadway. The
public generally believes that one of
the best things that could happen to
awaken the real moral sentiment of
the country is the story of Evelyn
Thaw. Harpers Weekly puts the case
exceedingly we'll in the following:
1.-The president thinks that the pa
pers that give the full. disgusting par
ticulars of the Thaw case ought not
to be admitted to the mails. Perhaps
not. Perhaps the country at large
does not need all the particulars. but
in our judgment New York does need
most of them, and it would be not
gain, but an sinjurY, to morals If the
newspapers were restrained from
printing them.
I'VE will try to explain.
"Once there was a man who had the
Incompatible misfortune to be aff1ict-
ed with mania for eating babies. He
was an extraordinary man, of aston
ishing vigor, of remarkable talents. of
many engaging qualities, and of pro-
digious Industry. He had education
and social position; he could earn
plenty of money; and the diligent ex-
ercise of his intellectual gifts made
him valuable to society. There was
man of his profession which he could
not have, but over what should have
been a splendid career hung always
the shadow of his remarkable pro-
pensity. The precise dimensions and
particulars of it were not definitely
known to many persons. A few men
who had a mania like his doubtless
knew absolutely; good many other
men knew well enough; and there was
practically a public property in the
knowledge that he had. and gratified,
cannibalistic inclinations of much
greater intensity and more curious
scope than those that commonly OBJ
tanned among careless men. There was
an honest prejudice against him. Per-
sons of considerable Indulgence to &C.
centricities of department disliked to
be in the same room with him. Sens1-
tive stomachs instinctively rose against
him Yet he was tolerated. for, after
all. nobody had ever seen him eat
baby.
lone day another man-quite a
worthless person-knoc him on the
from it's body. 1t made great stir,
for the man who was killed was very
widely known, and his assailant was
also notorious. There followed pro-
fuse discussion of the dead mans char
acter. qualities, and achievements. His
record was assaileds but it was also
warmly extenuated. When 1t was
averred that he was an ogre, the re-
tort was that he was not a materially
worse ogre than a lot of other men.
and that we must take men as we find
them, and make special allowances for
men of talent. When it was whispered
that he ate babies the answer was that
that was absurd; that whatever his
failings, he was the helpfulest, best
natured man in the world, and par
ticularly fond of children and good to
them; and that if he ever did eat
babies he was careful where he got
them, avoiding the nurseries of his
acquaintances, and selecting common
babies of ordinary stock, who were
born to be eaten, anyway, and would
never be missed, and who, besides
were in many cases not so young as
they made out.
$50 the discussion went on, and
waxed and waned as the months
passed. But one day there was set up
a great white screen, big enough for
all the world to see, and over against
it was placed a lantern that threw a
light of wonderful intensity, and then
came a person named Nemesis, with
something under her arm, and took
charge of the lantern. And then there
f1uttered forth all day on the great
screen the moving picture of the poor
monomaniac and a baby-how he
found her, enticed her, cajoled her
and finally took her to his lair pre-
pared her for the table. and ate her up
well; it was said that the picture
was shocking, and that the public
ought not to have been allowed to see
it. oh yes. it was shocking; never
picture more so. But it was terribly
well adapted to make it unpopular to
eat babies"