The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1907-04-13
LAWYER DELMAS' PLEA
FOR HARRY K. THAW.
Brilliant Effort Of the California Orator-Bases
Argument On Story Tsld the Jury on Witness
Stand BY Evelyn Nesbit Thaw-Shews White
a. Msnster-Exeoriates the Girls Unnatural
Mother-Pathetie and Beautiful Appeal.

mother-fathetic and beaufnui Appeal
Mr.. Delm as based his arguments sole
ly upon the story of Evelyn Nesbi
Thaw. With flushed cheeks, but dry
eyes, the young woman heard her life
story repeated to the men who are tx
Judge her husband and bowed her heac
as her mother was denounced in the bit.
terest terms and tones the eloquent law.
yer could command.
"Eyen beast protects its young," hi
declared with scornful emphasis, "but
this unnatural mother deserted hel
daughter in this city of millions to be
betrayed by false friend, to be lured
into gilded palace and there left the
victim of a gray-haired man, wounded,
bleeding and devoured."
Mr.. Delmas went with great detail in
to the life Evelyn had led up to the
meeting with Harry Thaw. In all her
remarks he referred to her as "this
child" for child he said she was today.
He told of Thaw's great love for her and
his efforts to rescue her from "the clutch
es of Stanford White" whose achieve
ments in his profession, the attorney de-
clared were an aggravation of his crime.
"She was born on Christmas eve, 1884
in the city of Pittsburg, Pa. The first
year of her childhood saw her lose her
father and natural protector, and left
her in charge of mother who early
manifested that character of frivolity
and extravaganza which were to lead to
such deplorable consequences. When
the girl was ten years of age the family
found itself in straitened circumstances; !;
they began to feel the pangs of want.
SAT Ii she became the family drudge,
assisting her mother. And thus the
family continued moving from place to
place without any fixed habitation.
"But nature had endowed her with the
fatal gift of beauty-a beauty which
manifested itself in early youth; a gift
with which the mother soon saw means
of supporting the family.
After reviewing Evelyn's past up
to the time she arrived in New York re-
ferring to the death of her father in the
early years of her childhood and of her
posing as an artists model in Philadel-
phia. Mr.. Delmas continued:
"Braye and courageous went this
child at Is or Is years of age, rushing
in the day time from study to studio
earning from sic to $i8 per week and at
nights appearing upon the boards and
earning an equal salary. At this time
we find man whose hair was tinged
with grey, who had an excellent wife,
an accomplished son, firing his eyes up
on the fated child and determining to
make her his. To win her he had none
of the graces or principles of the hon.
orable suitor. He conducted himself in
to the family in the guise of an influen-
tial friend. He won his way into the
confidence of the mother and establish
ed himself in a paternal and protecting
attitude in the family and when his foot
ing was sure, he persuaded the mother
to absent herself from the city, assuring
her that the child would be safe in her
hands and telling her how fortunate it
was that there was such a protector to
watch over her. The child was left alone.
l wish it was in my power to pass over
the scene that followed; wish it did
not have to be embodied in my argu-
ment to you, but my duty leaves me no
choice. In one of those dens fitted up
with all the beauty and taste which this
man of genius possessed; into one of
these dens this child was lured and
found herself alone with this man, old
enough to be her father, the man who
was her protector.
"Must tell you how she was led on,
step by step how she was piled with wine |
and drugged and finally became his VIC
tim. That story you have heard from
that child's faltering lips. Better that
he should never have lived to hear the |
cries of anguish of the victim who lay |
before him. He had committed the !
greatest crime that ever defiled the i'm
age of God. He had lured to destruc- |
ton and had crushed the child who had
trusted him. He had committed crime |
against the law of this State, crime |
that the chief magistrate of this coun-
try in message to Congress said shodld
be punished by death.
"Had this man forgotten that when !
our Lord set down child among his
disciples qe said: "Whosoever receiv-
eth such child in my name he shall |
dwell with me for ever, but he who shall
offend a little one such as this it were
better that mill stone were tied about
his neck and he were drowned in the
depths of the sea-"
"He, gentleman, who had erected a
temple to Abraham, had forgotten the
words of the great Jehovah to the chill
dren of Israel, that he who afflicted a
should surely die.
SEES ACT OF PROVIDENCE.
"Oh, Stanford White, who entrapped |
q child who had no father, who had been
deserted by her mother, and was left
alone in a city of millions, had you
imagined that God would not hear that
cry?