Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1907-01-22
THE TRIAL OF HARRY THAw.

NneIl ftarry Kendall IhaW answers
The charge Of killing Stanford White,
the case will go on record as one
which, for sustained interest I'm the
long interval between the commission
of Il crime by n known slayer and the
trial of tho accused, will stand with.
out parallel for many day, perhaps,
IN the criminal history of the coun-
try. The White.Thaw case has been
called the most sensational case in
New York since Ed Stokes shot down
Jim Fisk on the stairway of the old
Grand Central hotel years ago, but
that tragedy was accompanied by no
such network of qualifications as to
call forth even fraction of the in
cdents that have followed the act OF
June % of last year, when the young
spendthrlft millionaire from pitts.
burg killed the distinguished archi.
tect on the Madison Square Roof gar
den.
Another distinguished feature Of
Harry Thaw's case has been the un.
certainty OF the plea that his lawyers
would make for him before the court.
To those who have followed the case
III It's many phases II seems as if a
lunacy commission would have been
called to pass on Thaw's sanity long
ago had the prisoner not prevailed
against this line of action. All through
he has declared that he would 20 to
trial pleading justification for his act
and he has looked with scorn or with
q show of forbearance on the alien.
lists called In by his own counsel and
by the District Attorney.
No Tombs prisoner facing trial for
has had behind him the
money that has Leen and will be used
to keep Thaw from the chair Ac-
cordlng to report the members of his
family expect that 100000 will have
been spent by the time Thaw goes
INTO court. or the money used in
looking up innumerable witnesses and
collecting evidence for the prisoner
there can be little attempt at an es,
innate.
Or the three principals in the trag.
edy Stanford White stood first be-
cause of the great ability as an ar.
chitect that brought him international
fame. The other two, Harry Thaw
and his wife, who was Evelyn Nesbit,
artists model and chorus girl, had
also been heard from on two CONT
nents, but theirs was q notoriety of
the champagne stained order that
comes with the lavish spending OF
money and gay doings in Tenderloins,
be they local or foreign. White at
the time of his death was in the
zenith of his career He was 5S
years old and in the structural growth
that transformed New Yorks sky line
In the past twenty years his handi-
work was seen. His friends declared
after his death that nearly every
block of New York's greatest thor.
oughfare was full of monuments to
his taste and genius. Madison Square
Garden. on whose roof he met his
death, was perhaps the greatest Of
his achievements.
The manner of Whites living re.
suited in the usual digging up after
the shooting of sensational stories
that the man, dead could not deny
or disprove. Scandal-stained run,or
flowed like millrace after spring
freshet The nature of the charges
made them such that the mans
friends could give them no specific
dcnials and could only stand by their
statements that White was manly
and generous man and altogether dif.
ferent from what the scanda! purvey.
ors would have him. II is only lust
to the memory of the man to saw
that for none of these stories was
there ever shown any proof.
The District Attorney believes that
If the trial proceeds in the ordinary
way his case against rhaw is sunh
that bare of all appeals to human
emotion II should result in the find
ing OF verdict of murder in the fist
degree He is of the opinion. how
ever, SO report says, that enough ref.
orence to Thaw's Lelief that he was
Justified may be made to withhold
the jurymen from sending the pris.
oner to the chair
From the outlook it appears as Il
the worst Thaw can expect is a life
term under verdict of murder in the
second degree, or long time in the