The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-03-20
EVELYN NESb|T TRAW
TELLS HER STORY
Gives Motive For Husbands Al
legged Insane Act.
LIFE LAID BARE IN COURT
Left in Stanford Whites Care by Her
Mother, She Says He Induced
Her to Drink Wine, Then All
Became Black.

Mother, She Says He Induced
Her to Drink Wine, Then All
Became Black.
New York City.-Evelyn Nesbit
Thaw, the wife of Harry X. ThaW
laid bare in the Criminal Branch of
the Supreme Court the story of her
life, the recital of which was expected
by the defense to convince the jury
that her husband was justified when
he shot down Stanford White, the
man who, she declared, first drugged
and then ruined her.
AS the former chorus girl answered
readily the questions put to her by
Dolphin M. Delmas, chief counsel Tor
the prisoner, every n in the court
room leaned eagerly forward, so as
not to miss a word that dropped from
her lips. The pitiful story she told
moved every n in the room. Mel
wiped the tears from their eyes, Whlle
women sobbed aloud. 1t was n OF
the most dramatic recitals ever heard
in any court. .
Never before had the grim court
room held a bigger crowd or one
wrought up to such a pitch Of excite
ment. The defense had put forward
it's star witness.
A more girlish figure that that
which answered when Clerk Penney
called Evelyn Nesbit Thaw could
scarcely be imagined. She wore a
loose jacket Of dark blue, such as
many a schoolgirl wears, and a dark
hat of childish cut decorated with a
bunch of violets. About her neck
she wore a wide rundown collar OF a
moo fed Little Lord Fauntleroy de-
sign and a soft lawn tie Of black tied
in a bow. Her hair, while not hang
ing loosely down her back, was half
caught up and tied with a black rib
bon in a sort of pug at the back CT
her neck.
The court room saw her without
a veil for the first time since the trial
began. There "a disclosed a pretty
face, small of feature, but regular IN
cut, a pair. Of large black eyes, very
soft and very pleading, a pair OF
straight eyebrows of heaviest black, a
mouth large but not ~unpleasing,
whose lips parted to disclose two
rows of very white teeth.
Mrs. Thaw was called by the de-
tense to supply the testimony needed
to support its contention that the de-
PENDANT had learned something about
the architects treatment Of Evelyn
Nesbit that had caused an insane
idea to form in his brain that grew
with the years until it eliminated in
the impulse that caused him to shoot
White on Madison Square roof gar
den.
In her story Mrs. Thaw gave a mo-
tive for the shooting by laying her
ruin to Stanford White. She had
fist been led by Mr.. Delmas to tell
OF the dinner at the Cafe Martin, the
shooting on the roof garden and of
her marriage to Thaw on April 4,
1905. Then the examining lawyer
jumped back to the. summer Of 1903,
when she and Thaw were in Paris. 1t
was at this time, she said, that ThaW
first proposed marriage to her and
she had refused him.
I'm stating the reasons to Mr..
Thaw why you had refused him, did
you state a reason based on an event
of your life with which Stanford
White was connected?" MI. Delmas
asked.
YES" said Mrs. Thaw.
Then, in the form of a relation of
the confession she made to Thaw,
the witness told of meeting White,
through a girl friend, in August,
1901, when size was only sixteen
years old. She went to a luncheon
party given by White at a house in
West Twenty-fourth street, she said,
and after that met the architect sew
eral times, always with the knowl-
edge and consent of her mother.
Sometimes the parties were in the
Twenty-fourth street house and some
times in Whites apartments in the
tower Of Madison Square Garden.
After the acquaintance had been
continued for some time, she said,
White asked her mother if she didn't
want to go to her home in Pittsburg.
Mrs. Nesbit objected that she did not
like to leave her daughter, but White
promised to look out for her, and
Mrs. Nesbit left town, the witness
said.
Two days afterward White sent her
q note to ome to a party at the
Twenty-fourth street house, and she
went there after the theatre. Only
White was present, she said. After
supper, White invited her to inspect
a part of the house she hadn't seen.
and they went upstairs to "a strange
room" filled with cabinets, paintings,
etc. Adjoining was a bedroom, with
a "tiny little table" in the centre, on
which was a bottle Of champagne and
one glass. At Whites urgent solicit
tation, she said, she drank a glass of
the wine, and Il don't know whether
it was a minute after or two minutes
after, but a pounding began in my
cars, then the whole room seemed to
go around, everything got very
black"
The girls voice broke at this
point, and, although she did not
break down, it was only with the
greatest effort she forced back the
tears. Some OF the women in the
courtroom sobbed openly, and more
than one man used his handkerchief
vigorously.