The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-02-09

Ihere IS way which seemeth rig ~.
unto = man. but the end thereof are the
| ways of death.-Proverbs 14:12.
The central figure of the nation this
week is the girl who has been barring
| the secrets of her soul to a New York
jury and to the world in the hope of
saving from a murderer's death her
young husband who in a fit of madden
ed rage-jealous rage mayhap-slew
the man who had wronged her by the
greatest sin he could commit against
woman.
AS she tells the dreadful story of her
wrongs to the world. poor little Evelyn
Thaw is greatly to be pitied The vic
tim. not only of lieentious and GRIM
inal beast, but also of a designing
mother-if present differences may be
relied upon-she is compelled to dis
close secrets which the worlds wealth
could not drag from her-nothing. in
fact, but love for the man whose name
she bears. Largely the creature of cir
cumstances she has been led by those
who should have protected her along a
path which seemed fair and pleasant
at the outset but which has led her into
ordeals unspeakable. Her situation is
well described in the following from
Tic LUIS Angeles Times.
Poor little Evelyn Nesbit Thaw!
What pathetic figure she cuts in the
center of that tragedy in the New York
court. More dainty. more beautiful,
and more fragile than the prettiest
vase ever turned out from the artists
hands at Sevres, while still an unso-
phisticated child her mother set her in
the limelight where she might attract
the eyes of all that portion of mascu-
line New York which glorifies in calling
itself the swagger set
1T was the devils auction and moth
ing else.
THE deliberate purpose was to draw
the attention of the gilded youth of the
great metropolis. Without moral re-
straint, with no more sentiment than
a tiger glowering upon its prey, the idea
was to sell the pretty toy to the high
est bidder
The auction was marked with lively
bidding, and no doubt the elder Nesbit
thought it had been successful. We
have now the ultimate result before
our eyes.
The bloom gone out of her cheek,
eyes and nostrils red with weeping-a
bedraggled canary escaped from the
cage and barely escaping from the
claws of a cat which has rolled it in
the mud, presents scarcely as forlorn a
inquire as this poor little woman, de-
graded by her mother and lowered to a
further depth of degradation by mar
rage with young Thaw She is one of
the saddest pictures in the wide world
today. Fascinating, to be sure is this
primrose path, but not once in mil
lion times does it lead to other end than
that presented in this New York court.
Other painted human toys have gone
that path before and come to the same
sad end. Evelyn Nesbit's mother failed
TO take warning; other mothers will
fail through all time to read the hand |
writing on the walls; and other dolls |
will be toyed with as Evelyn Nesbit !
was, and will present the same tattered |
appearance before many miles of the
gay path are trod."
But there is more hope for EVELYN |
Thaw than for many another victim of |
the Primrose Path. The shadow of her |
wrongs will always rest on her, but |
her future may not lead downward. |
Many another victim enters the Prim- |
rose Path and escapes from it's de-
graduation only into eternity Many an
other victim of a Stanford White has |
gone down the path, which seemed |
pleasant at the start, and there Was |
no rescuer even in the shape of a young
profigate like Harry Thaw
The ends of the Primrose Path "are
the ways of DEATH"