Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1907-02-11

He was big and fat and an ugly
mani remember him meeting us at
the head of three fights of stairs
she continued.
The Room of Many Mirrors.
He gave me presents and my
mother let me go to other parties.
Then he said my mother should visit
some friends in Pittsburg. She said
she could not leave me. He said it
would be all right; that he would look
after me. Finally she went. Then
came an invitation to party, but no
one else there-just two. They all
seem to have turned us down, he said.
After we had dined I wanted to go
home and he said l had not seen all
of the apartment and we went to the
bedroom with mirrors all over the
walls"
Thus the story ran with just here
and there an interruption by Delmas
to advise the girl to fix dates of the
various happenings and always to tell
just what she had told Harry Thaw
when he asked her to become his
wife. 1t was through the fact that
she had told everything to Harry"
that she was permitted under the
rules of the law to give her story to
the jury.
Thaw sat pale but brave-faced be,
side his counsel when his wife took
the stand. The two exchanged
glances and the faintest of smiles
played about the firmly set lips of
the girl. In the sympathy-impellin
story of the girl, the girlish fascina-
ton of voice of softest quality, yet
ringing clear in enunciation, the
courtroom lost view of the prisoner
But when there came a halt in the
girls fight against the tears, people
who had gazed increasingly at her
lowered their eyes as if the relief
from their stare migHt bring her the
cOmposure she finally won. Then
they saw Harry Thaw again
Defendant in Tears.
His whole frame was shaking. he
sat with his head buried in his hands,
handkerchief covering the eyes
ere the defendant sits he is all
but shielded from the jury Bent
over the table as he sobbed, he could
not be seen at all. Thus Thaw sat
for many minutes and when he finally
lifted his head his eyes were red and
swollen.
Even if they could have seen, the
jurors would have had no eyes fo1
the prisoner. They, too, turned their
gaze from the witness as tears came
to her voice as well as in her eyes
and each man of the IL seemed in
tent upon some object on the floor
before them. Justice Fitzgerald
looked out through the long grated
windows. The scene and story
marked a new precedent in the his
tory of criminal proceedings in New
York.
Mrs. Thaw was still on the stand
her direct examination uncompleted
when the day was done. Once during
the afternoon she was excused for an
hour while a lawyer, Frederick Long
fellow, was sworn to fix the date OF
certain letters written to him by
Harry Thaw subsequent to the rev
cations Miss Nesbit had made to him
in faris.
The girl had identified the writing
but the court held that the date must
also become a matter of competent
evidence.
Corroborated by Letters.
The letters, which were offered in
evidence after much objecting by
Jerome and a flood of argument by
the opposing counsel during the af
ternoon sitting of the court, are re
garded as corroborative of Mrs
Thaws testimony, which she often
declared, in response to objections
offered from time to time by the dis
trict attorney, was a repetition of the
reasons she had given Thaw for re
fusing to become his wife. They also
were offered as tending TO show the
state of mind of the defendant just
after he had heard from her own lips
the story of the girl he loved and
her relations VITA the man it is
claimed he killed as a result of the
insanity inherited in part and IN
duced by stress of circumstances.
The letters were written by Thaw
to Longfellow as his attorney. They
told of his coming marriage with
Miss Nesbit and of the row they
want to raise" The letters con
stantly refer to that BLACKBOARD who
poisoned her as a girl and say that
her name was falsely connected with
two others besides that backyard.
Only two of the half-dozen offered in
evidence were read during the after
noon session. Others probably will
be presented today when Mrs
Thaw is again called to the stand
The competitor of the direct exami
nation of the prisoners wife will pos
sib.y require all of todays session.