The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-04-11
THAW ACQUITTED
The Jury's Verdict Anticipated and Is
Responsive to Delmas' Pleasing.

II There was flashed from New YorL
J this forenoon news of the acquittal Of
J Harry X. Thaw, the slayer OF Stanford
White, whose damnable record as the
debaucher of young women and girls is
known throughout the world wherever
newspapers are read.
The verdict of the jury is not sur
prsing. It was anticipated notwith-
standing the report in this mornings AS
sociated Press that the jurors could not
iagree.
| The verdict of the jury is responsive
to the pleading of Delmas. who in his
closing argument said:
Il ask you in the name of law which
invoke; | ask you in the name OF hui
manity; ask you in the name OF re-
ligion, to resolve whatever doubt you
may have in favor of this defendant.
| The district attorney will make light
of the experts because they have not de-
fines the species of insanity he will say
| Thaw is suffering. 1t is species of in
sanity that as been recognized in every
State in the Union. All, gentlemen, if
you desire a name for this species of in
sanity, let me suggest it-call it demen-
| tia Americana.
That is the species of insanity which
makes every American man believe his
hime is sacred. This is the species OF
insanity that makes him believe the
honor of his daughter is sacred; it is the
species of insanity which makes i'm be-
lieve the honor of his wife is sacred;
this is the species of insanity which
makes him believe that whosoever in
vades his home, that whoever stains the
virtue of his threshold has violated the
best of human laws and must appeal to
the mercy of God if there be any for
him anywhere in the universe. u
Remember, gentlemen, the law is hu-
man law. | violate no law when | ask
you to take the Oldest of all laws, the
Golden Rule-the law that is at the
foundation of all laws: DO unto others
as you would have them do unto YOU
DO not send this young man to death
for what he did
Il now with all solemn earnestness
leave in your hands the fate of Harry |
K. Thaw."
p And the jurors, as men possessed of |
soul and a heart, did not harken to
District Attorney Jerome's brutal |
ly wolfsh cry for Thaw's blood. |
And as men having a wife, mother, a |
daughter. or sister, they were not mis-
led by the almost inhuman prosecution,
rather persecution, of Thaw. In his eff
forts to discredit and belittle Evelyn
Nesbit Thaw's testimony, Jerome was
actuated by only one motive, which has
had rehexive effect, and which doubt
less led the jury to give its fullest SYM
pathy for Thaw
When Jerome realized tat Thaw would
probably be acquitted, he insisted that
fhaw was insane, hoping to have him
consigned for life at Mattewan, N Y.,I
where the insane are kept and forced to
work The lunacy commission frustrat-
ed Jerome, who protested vigorously
against its finding and threatened to
postpone the case indefinitely, but Jer-
ONE finally subsided when he was con-
vinced that he could not intimidate the
court nor the defendant
In his persecution of Thaw and his
failure to convict must stand as a dis
credit to Jerome from which. he may
never recover officially. Had he dis
played as much energy and vindictive-
ness in prosecuting the insurance swim
dlers and corporation scoundrels in New
York as he has directed in the ThawI
case, more than one of these high-tones
would occupy cells today in the State
prison of New York. It was in meas-l
ure the vindictiveness, the brutality, the
determination of Jerome to
have Thaw electrocuted or in an asylum
for life which aroused sympathy for the
prisoner and which had its influence in
the acquittal of Stanford Whites slayer.
1t is needless to say that Thaw was |
ovated by his friends and admirers.
His wife. his mother and his sisters
is well as himself have good reason for
their rejoicing. II
The Thaw trial is over and the masses
are relieved and satisfied, and Delmas
S the lion Of the day. 1t was his skill
and fearlessness which led Thaw tri-
umphant almost from the very jaws of
IN ignominious death.
DAAIBLY'S ORDINANCE. |,