The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-02-05

Did you ever hear of carsigitis ?"
mo"
What books on nervous diseases
have you ever read?"
| > The witness mentioned two authors.
DO you reeollect a single thing that
either one of these authors said ?"
Not in their language.
when did you last read them ?"
| Just before coming here.
Why did you do that?"
Il merely glanced at them
Doctor Wiley, can you recall any
thing you ever read in any book,
please state it to the jury?"
Il have read translation of Open
heimers works. the witness began.
How many volumes?"
"One."
You mean to say you read Open
| heimer in one volume?"
| Yes"
What did the book look like?"
''I don't recall
What was the precise title?''
Il don't know"
Getting back to the pneumo-g gastric
or cardiac nerve. is it not fact that
they do not connect with the spinal
column at all, but enter the brain in
| the skull cavity?"
The witness hesitated.
Mr.. Jerome relented.
II will withdraw the question, your
Fitzgerald. Are you homeo-
pathist?' asked the district attorney.
mo"
well, what are you?"
Il am nervous practitioner"
During the long narrowing cross-ex-
animation of the witness, Thaw's coun-
sci were a study. Mr.. Gleason looked
appealingly at DR.. Wiley as he was
piled with Mr.. Jerome'S questions Mr..
Delmas looked interested at times and
then again appeared fatigued Mr.. Hart
ridge was palpably worried. Mr.. Pea
body was busy in conversation with the
a +
torney McPike could not suppress a
smile Assistant District Attorney Gar
van plainly indicated his enjoyment OF
DR.. Wiley's ordeal
Relies on Wife and Mother.
New York, Feb. 5.-The defense
begins today to forge the links in the
chain of circumstances which it is al
legged disordered Thaw's brain and led
to the mental explosion which claimed
Stanford White as its victim.
The evidence promised to be intro
duced to bear out the claims set forth
in the opening address of Thaw's at
yesterday afternoon, has lent a great
human interest to the trial and there
is an impression that Evelyn Thaw
will tell a story the half of which has
not heretofore been publicly known.
1t is apparent that the defendant de-
ponds upon his frail little wife to turn
the tide for him. 1t will be her
wrongs, if there were any, which are to
impress the jury. Thaw believes he
will show that any man placed in the
circumstances where he found himself
might have lost his mental balance,
and acted as he did. Upon the effect
of her story. barring the whole of her
past life, the prisoners fate, in large
measure. rests, though the picture of
his white haired, elderly mother TAX
ing the witness stand to save her son
from felon's death, Is expected to
have a weight with the jury which
a with n
can appreciate.
1t was alleged by Mr.. Gleason yes
terday afternoon that Thaw's insanity |
began to be apparent some three or
bit in 1901, SO it is to be inferred that |
his mental disorders had their begin
ming Subsequent to the meeting of the |
two young people and the attachment |
Thaw formed for the girl. In this |
way the defense hopes to build up the |
theory that Thaw lost mental poise |
through worry over the wrongs. he |
felt his wife had suffered at the hands |
of another. The attempt will be made |
to prove that Thaw's insanity was due |
to heredity as well as to stress.
So serious was his disease that he |
believed he was called upon by Provi- |
dence to commit an act which in |
man of sound mind might be termed |
murder.
Mrs. William Thaw and Evelyn
Nesbit Thaw are both expected to be |
early witnesses. 1t has been reported /
several times from Pittsburg that the
elder Mrs. Thaw has been urged by
persons of influence not to allow the
plea of hereditary insanity to be en-
tered in behalf of her hayward son.
The disregard this woman, whose So
cial ambitions once knew no bounds
and whose daughter Is the wife of an
English earl. now feels for all the
dear. when they stand in the way of
life and liberty of the son on whom
she has lavished fortune after fortune, |
is illustrated by the fact that not only
did she consent to the plea of insanity
heredity, but will actually
take the stand to offer whatever testi-
mony is within her power to help
make this defense of insanity a tangi-
BILE thing.
Those who have followed the case
since the trial began have shown the
greatest respect for the heart broken
sorrow burdened mother. and they
frankly express sympathy with her
over the ordeal of the witness chair
1t will be a mothers love for her son
and Mrs. Thaw is willing to make any
sacrifice that lies within her power to
be enabled to make tbs appeal to the
IL men who hold the fate of her boy
in their hands.
Little Evelyn Thaw has been grow
ing paler day by day the time APP
proaches for her to take the witness
stand.
She will be at the mercy of a de-
termined prosecutor who realizes the
weight of the story she will tell the
jury and he will leave nothing undone
to upset it. Young Mrs ThaW's life
will be as an open book to District
Attorney Jerome when he takes her in
hand His detectives have traced her
life from early girlhood. She is now
but % years of age, but has lived the
life of thrice those years.
"She will tell you with her own lips
the reason why she declined to marry