Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1907-04-19
APOTHEOSIS OF THAW.
Tacoma Ledger.

Tacoma Ledger.
To the ordinary citizen who has re-
spect for the moral sense of the COM
munity, who has not been a party to
a liaison and who believes that the
opinion of friends and acquaintances
is one of the best deterrents of i'm
morality, the speech of Dolphin NJ.
Delmas, attorney for Thaw, must be
extremely disgusting, although the
eloquence of his plea at times cannot
be denied.
Think of apotheosizing such a man
as Harry Thaw, who had been trav-
cling about in Europe for months
with Evelyn Nesbit long before any
marriage ceremony was performed or
perhaps dreamed of. 1t may be the
speech struck a chord of sympathy
in the hearts of some, but certainly
it is not convincing to the everyday
American who stands for decency
and right. The freedom with which
Delmas quoted Holy Writ in defense
of an acknowledged murderer is
nothing short of sacrilege.
Think of the intemperance of such
words as these: Il ask you in the
name of the law which Invoke, l ask
you in the name of humanity, in the
name of religion, to resolve what
ever doubt you may have in favor of
this defendant. Mr.. Delmas had q
strange mixture of religion, however,
before he got through with his argu-
ment. He was thinking of the relig-
ion of the pagans a great deal of the
time, for note how he sought to glor-
ify the very act of drawing the re-
volver and shooting White down in
cold blood. Here is his language:
He then slowly and deliberately
turned to the audience, spread out
his arms in the shape of a cross and
stood composed there "a circum-
stance which has not been dwelt
upon by the learned experts called as
witnesses by the State, but which
denotes the character of the execu-
tion that took place. Mr.. Thaw
stood as q priest might have stood
after some ceremony of sacrificial Of
fering, saying: All is over and
dismissing the congregation"
Now it may be that those inclined
to think Thaw performed a noble act
while in q state of transitory fury"
will say that Mr.. Delmas had the in
sanity of Thaw in mind when he pic
tured him as a priest" after some
ceremony of sacrificial Offering.
But Mr.. Te,mas does not think Thaw
was insane. He made that very
clear when he turned to the distin-
guish ID alienists to say: "Ah, gen.
tlemen, if you desire name for this
species of insanity, let me suggest it
call it dementia Americana. He
then elaborated on this name as
meaning the species of insanity that
leads every American to protect his
wife, home and daughters, and re-
quires the man that stains the virtue
of his threshold to appeal to the
mercy of God, if mercy there be for
him anywhere in the universe. This
is nothing more nor less than an at
tempt to justify the commission of
murder. Is every man that feels
himself wronged by the act of an
other who destroys or attempts to
destroy his home, to be regarded as
priest at some ceremony of sacri-
fetal Offering with license to butcher
when he will?
After Evelyn Nesbit had been liv-
ing in Europe with Thaw for several
months, it appears that he asked her
to marry him and she refused. In
the language of Delmas, this is SUBJ
lime self-abnegation." He says the
little girl did sacrifce-did rise to
the height of sublime renunciation. /"
The attorneys efforts to make =" little
Evelyn" out such wonderfully noble
character and his rhetorical figure
comparing Thaw with the nights OF
the Middle Ages are equally nauseat-
ing.
Think of the extravaganza of de-
scribing moral reprobate like Thaw.
who was little better than the man
he murdered, as knight of the Mid
die Ages "who went about redress
ing wrongs and rescuing maidens in
distress. !"
Rescuing maidens in distress? In
nocent little girls like Evelyn
Nesbit, who had been knocking
about in the world for. several years
and had taken jaunt to Europe with
the knight.
Whatever may be the verdict of
the jury, the verdict of the vast ma