The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1907-02-14
NESBII THAW
TELLS HER STORY
Gives Motive For Husbands Az
Legged Insane Act
LIFE LAID BARE IN COURT
Left in Stanford Whites Care by Her
Mother, She Says He Induced
Her to Drink Wine, Then an
Became Black.


Her to Drink Wine, Then Al
Became Black.
New York City.-Evelyn Nesbit
Thaw, the wife of Harry <. Thaw,
laid bare in the Criminal Branch of
the Supreme Court the story of her
life, the recital Of which was expected
by the defense to convince the jury
that her husband was justified when
he shot down Stanford White, the
man who, she declared, first drugged
and then ruined her.
AS the former chorus girl answered
readily the questions put to her by
Dolphin NJ. Delmas, chief counsel for
the prisoner, every one in the court
room leaned eagerly forward, so as
not to miss asword that dropped from
herSlips. The pitiful story she stold
moved every one In the room. Men
wiped the tears from their eyes, while
women sobbed aloud. It was one of
the most dramatic recitals aver heard
in any court.
Never before had the grim court
room held a bigger crowd or one
wrought up to such a pitch OF excite
ment. The defense had put forward
its star witness.
A more girlish figure that that
which answered when Clerk Penney
called Evelyn Nesbit Thaw could
scarcely be imagined. She wore a
loose jacket of dark blue, such as
many a schoolgirl wears, and a dark
hat Of childish cut decorated with q
hwr-A1 - -4-1& 1919 1>~l~
she wore a wide rundown collar of a
modified Little Lord Fauntleroy de-
sign and a soft lawn tie of black tied
in a bow. Her hair, while not hang
ing loosely down her back, was half
caught.up and tied with a black rib
bon in a sort Of pug at~the back of
her neck.
The court room saw her without
a veil for the first time since the trial
began. There was disclosed a pretty
face, small of feature, but regular in
cut, a pair Of large black eyes, very
soft and very pleading, a pair of
straight eyebrows of heaviest black, a
large but not ~unpleasing,
whose lips parted to disclose two
Of very white teeth.
Mrs. Thaw was called by the de-
Tense to supply the testimony needed
to support its contention that the de-
PENDANT had learned something about
the architects treatment of Evelyn
Nesbit that had caused an insane
idea to form in his brain that grew
with the years until it eliminated in
the impulse that caused him to shoot
White on Madison Square roof gar
den.
In her story Mrs. Thaw gave a mo-
tive for the shooting by laying her
ruin to Stanford White. She had
first been led by Mr.. Delmas to tell
of the dinner at the Cafe Martin, the
shooting on the roof garden and of
her marriage to Thaw on April 4,
1905. Then the examining lawyer
jumped back to the summer of 1909,
when she and Thaw were in Paris. 1t
was at this time, she said, that Thaw
first proposed marriage to her and
she had refused him.
"In stating the reasons to Mr..
rhaw why you had refused him, did
you state a reason based on an event
Of your life with which Stanford
White was connected?" Mr.. Delmas
Yes" said Mrs. Thaw.
Then, in the form of a relation of !,
he confession she made to Thaw,
he witness told of meeting White,
a girl friend, in August,
1901, when So was only sixteen
Tears old. She went to a luncheon
party given by White at a house in
Vest T~wenty-fourth street, she said,
after that met the architect sew
eral times, always with the knowl-
edge and consent of her mother.
y0~ofi-oC tho norfioc Woro IN tho |
Twenty-fourth street house and some
lines in Whites apartments in the ,
over of Madison Square Garden.
After the acquaintance had been
for some time, she said,
asked her mother If she didn't
want to go to her home in P~ittsburg.
Mrs. Nesbit objected that she did not
ike to leave her daughter, but White
promised to look out for her, and
FRS. Nesbit left town, the witness
aid.
Two days afterward White sent her
! note to come to a party at tho
rwenty-fourth street house, and she
vent there after the theatre. Only
White was present, she said. After
upper, White invited her to inspect
part of the house she hadn't seen,
they went upstairs to "a strange
DOM" filled with cabinets, paintings,
tic. Adjoining was a bedroom, with
"'tiny little table in the centre, on
which was a bottle of champagne and
me glass. At Whites urgent solicit
she said, she drank a glass of
he wine, and 81 don't know whether
/ was a minute after or two minutes
fter, but a pounding began in my
ars, then the whole room seemed to
o around, everything got very
The girls voice broke at this
oint, and, although she did not
reak down, it was only with the
reatest effort she forced back the
ears. Some Of the women in the
.urtroom sobbed openly, and more
han one man used his handkerchief