The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1907-04-10
The THAW CASE.
DELMAS DECLARES HIS CLIENT
WAS SENT BY PROVIDENCE
TO KILL WHITE.

III w
The California Attorney Begins His
Argument in Defense of the Noted
Prisoner-He Does Not Plead the
Unsritten Law in justification for
the Deed-He Denounces Mrs.
Thaw's Mother, Stanford White,
the Dead Man, and Abraham Hum
mel in the Bitterest Terms.
New York, April S.-The trial Of
Harry K. Thaw, charged with the
murder of Stanford White, nearing
the end. Attorney Dolphin M. Del
mas, the California advocate, this af-
ternoon began his address to the jury,
and after he had spken for more
than two hours and a half an ad-
journment was taken until tomorrow
morning. Mr.. Delmas expects to con-
clude before the luncheon hour is
reached. District Attorney Jerome
will make the closing address of the
trial cn Wednesday and Thaw's fate
should be in the hands Of the jury
by Wednesday evening. Justice
Fitzgerald today ordered the jury
locked up until the end Of the trial.
In view of this the judges charge to
the jury undoubtedly will be deliver
ed Immediately after the justice con-
ciudes. The latter says his speech
will ocuupy not more than three or
four hours:
Declaring he would not base his
plea upon the "unwritten law be-
cause his client found ample protec-
ton in the written statutes Of the
State of New York. Mr.. Delmas made
striking appeal to the sympathies
Of the jurors and so far as he pro-
gressed today the subject Of Thaw's
insanity at the time ne cmmitted the
homicide was not even hinted at.
Mr.. Delmas based his argument
solely on the story Of Evelyn Nesbit
Thaw. With flushed cheeks, but dry
eyes, that young woman heard her
life history repeated to the men who
are to judge her husband and bowed
her head as her mother was de-
nuounced in the bitterest terms and
tones the eloquent lawyer could COM
mand.
Gwen beast protects its young, :"
he declared with scornful emphasis,
'but this unnatural mother deserted
her daughter in this city Of millions
to be betrayed by a false friend, to
be lured into gilded palace and
there left the victim Of a gray haired
man, wounded, bleeding and devour-
ed
Mr.. Delmas went with great detail
into the life Evelyn Nesbit had led up
to the meeting with Harry Thaw. In
all Of his remarks he referred to her
as '.this child" for child he said she
was today. He told Of Thaw's great
love for her and his efforts to rescue
her from "the clutches of Stanford
White" whose achievements in his
profession, the attorney declared, was
an aggravation Of his crime.
Mr.. Delmas, before beginning his
attack upon Evelyn Thaw's mother,
poured out a torrent Of denunciation
upon the architect who became the
victim of Thaw's pistol. He accused
him in the crime Of rape" and then
declared that President Roosevelt had
said in message to Congress that
such a crime should be visited with
| death. This was one of the sugges-
tons which Thaw himself made to his
counsel for his summing up speech
one Of the suggestions which played
so important part in the proceed
ings before the lunacy commission.
Mr. Delmas declared that God
heard the cry of the fated child upon
whom Stanford White had fixed his
gaze and had determined should be
his. He quoted from Scripture that
''he who aff1icts fatherless chilu
shall PERISH and declared that
Providence had sent Thaw to avenge
the wrong.
The attorney declared that Thaw
was his wife's only protector-that he
came into her life when she was on
the downward path. told her that no
matter What the world thought Of her
she was to him an angel. He took
her to be his wife, ready to share the
burdens that mother had helped to