The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-03-07
THAW'S MOTHER TAKES
 STAND IN HIS BEHALF
Continued from First Page)

She said that when Harry had come home in 1903 he seemed depressed and apparently had lost all interest in life. He passed sleepless nights, would oft en leave the table at meals and go into the parlor and play upon the piano, the music growing softerand softer until it finally died away. She told in moth- erly way of her s1licitude for the boy. The family physician was summoned.
 He told me a wicked man-probably the wickedest man in all New York had ruined his life"
 It was until some time after he had offered this explanation of the change in him that she learned the story of the young woman who was to become her daughter-in-law Mrs. Thaw told of Harry breaking down at church in Pittsburg, and. afterward explaining that it was all because of the sorrow Which prevented the young woman he loved being at his side. Mrs ThaW told of coming to New York to meet Evelyn Nesbit,and of giving her con sent to her son's marriaige-the one condition being that the girls past life tn New York should be a closed book, Ns Then came the story of the marriage in Pititsburg in April 1905, the honey moon trip, and tn ehappy, placid sum- mer spent at the mothers home in the mountains.
 That was all. MT. Delmas ended her testimony abruptly. The district at torney was taken by surprise, and be- gan to cros-examine Mrs. Thaw in very low voice, with the utmost respect in word and manner He asked the conditions surrounding the increase in her sons allowance, but MT. Delmas objected. He asked what the sons in- come amounted to. Mrs. Thaw said it was moderate, and nothing like the newspapers have SD often reporteA
 MT. Jerome next treaded upon what he must have felt was the thinnest of ice lest he put himself in the attitude of attempting to harass the pathetic figure in black on the witness stand He asked the mother what she knew of her sons relations with Miss Nesbtt before she became his wife
 Nothing" she replied without hesi- tancy
 The district attorney seemed com pletely baffled and speedily brought his cross examination to a close.
 Mrs. Thaw's story was deeply im- pressive in it's simplicity and brevity. Her anxiety to go on and tell more added immeasurably to the meaning of her presence as a witness. The half filled court room listened almost breathlessly to each word she uttered, rUa Q iylt ne kn1t taf when Mir. Jerome announced that his brief examination was ended.
 If Harry Tlaw's fate is thrown into the hands of the twelve men in the jury box who to-day heard the moth- er's story, there seems little doubt that what she said will carry wonderful weight with it. But Mir. Jerome gave the impression that he might use the mothers testimony as a weapon in an- other direction, in his fight to have a commission appointed to test the pres ent state of mind of the defendant While the elder Mrs Thaw was on the stand to-day the district attorney en- gagged in wordy war with MT. Del mas, during which he uttered publicly for the first time the threat of lunacy commission. MT Delmas was invok- ing the presumption of law that Thaw, declared insane in 1903, remained in- sane In 1904. This was to enable Mrs. Thaw to state conversations with her son during the latter year. These con- versations were admissible only on the ground that they were the utterances of a person mentally irresponsible. MT. Jerome said there was no reason why the assumption should not continue down to the present day, and, if MT. Delmas' point was well taken, the trial should be suspended and commission appointed.
 MT. Jerome added that he was mere- ly suggesting the alternative of a com mission for the sake of argument. Jus tiee Fitzgerald upheld MT. Demas' po- sition and said the question of a com mission was not before the court,
 Upholding the principle that the pre- sumption of insanity continues, Justice Fitzgerald seems to have placed the burden of proof as to the present san ity of the defendant entirely upon the defense.
 With the completion of Mrs. William Thaw's testimony to-day Thaw's at torneys announced that they would have but two more witnesses-experts- who will be called upon to answer g newly-framed hypothetical question covering the entire case from beginning to end These experts are said to be Drs. Graeme M. Hammond and Smitl E. Jelhffe.
 Harry Thaw, during his mother S stay upon the stand, seemed unusually pale and extremely nervous For a time he would fix her with stare then look away and bite at his finger nails. His two brothers, Edward ant Josiah Thaw, sat near him, but neither the Countess of Yarmouth nor Mrs George Lauder Carnegie, his sisters was in court.
 At the end of Mrs. Thaws examina- tion court adjourned until Friday morn ing, death in Justice Fitzgerald's family causing an abandonment of tilt Thursday sitting.