The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-04-08

father and natural protector and left
her In charge of a mother who early
and extravaganza which were to lead
TO such deplorabIe consequences When
the girl was 10 years of age the fam
lily found itself in Strengthened circuTn-
stances; they began to- feel the pangs
of want.
AT 1S she becane- the family drudge.
assisting her mother And the family
continued moving from place to place
without any fixed habitat ton.
But nature had endowed her with
the fatal gift Of beauty beauty which
nlauffestAd5 itself IN early youth, a gift
with which the mofhAr scea saw means
of supporting the family.
AT Il years she -vas- in Philadelphia
already seH bar kedaGRrthe aperIICus sea
as an artists model But, New York,
the great metropolis, was the market
where such natural gifts are most
sought and most dearly paid for and to
New York she came with the family
and by the procurement OF the mother
the employment begun in Philadelphia
In reciting the early experience of
Evelyn Thaw in New Y DIRK, MI Del
mas said:
This beautiful child wendell her
way through the streets from morn
until noon and from noon until even
ing from studio to studio and from ar
tist to artist, and at the end of the
week the scant earnings she carried
to her mother for the support of the
family.
Brave and courageous we find this
child at IS or 16 years Of age rushing
in the day time from studio to studio
earning SIC to SIS a week and at night
appearing upon the boards and earn
ing an equal salary.
AT this time we find a man whose
hair was tinged with grey, who had
an excellent wife and an accomplished
son, fixing his eyes upon the fated
1Tr7fr 70 Ia baw
his. To win her. he had none of the
graces or principles of the honorable
sutton He conducted himself to the
family in the gufse of an influential
friend He won his way into the con-
hdence of the mother and established
himself IN paternaI and protecting
attitude in the family and when his
footing was sure. he persuaded the
mother TO absent herself from the city.
assuring her that the child would be
safe in his hands and telling her how
fortunate it was that there was such
a protector to watch over her The
child was left alone I wish il were
in my power to pass over the scene
which followed; I wish it did not have
to be embodied in my argument to
you; but my duty gives me no choice.
In one of those dens fitted up with all
the beauty and taste which this man
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 I tell you how she was led
on, step by step. how she was piled
with wine and drugged and finally be-
came his victim That story you have
heard from that chiId's faItering lips.
Better that ne should never have lived
than to have lived TO have heard the
cries OF anguish Of the victim who lay
before him He had committed the
greatest crime that ever defIed the
image of God He had Iured TO de-
Struction and had crushed the child
who had trusted him He had com
mitted a crime against the law. against
the law of this state, a crime that the
chief magistrate of this country in a
message to congress said should be
punished by death"
DeInas quoted at length from
Thaw's letters to Mr.. Longfellow from
Paris in 1903, which he claimed /
proved Evelyn Nesbit told Thaw her
story.