Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-21
CAFES UPON
EVELYN WITH
CONTEMPT
PROSECUTOR SHOUTS STERN
QUESTIONS AT HER
SHE TELLS OF HUSBANDS At
TEMPTs AT SUICIDE
Her Testimony Less Effective Than
That of Last Year, as District
Attorney SpoiIs Effect of
Her Recital

By Associated Press.
NEW YORK, Jan. 2O.--Mrs. Evelyn
Nesbit Thaw told her story today for
the second time. The repetition lacked
tie vitality of the first recital, but the
husband, Harry Kendall Thaw, is on
trial for the killing of Stanford White.
listened intently to every word.
Justice Bowling had ruled that he
found nothing in the law Cor closing
the doors against the public and there
was a great clamor for admittance
from throng which hung about the
building all day long.
Mr.. Jerome, failing in his move to ex-
clude spectators, took occasion when
it came his turn to cross-examine the
witness to bring out all the details of
the first trial which Mr.. Littleton of
the defense had omitted on his direct
examination of the witness.
Mr.. Jerome also sought to block Mrs.
Thaw's testimony in its entirety on the
ground that a conversation which oc-
CURED three years before the tragedy
could not have any bearing on the
mind of Thaw on the night of the
homicide. Justice Dowling overruled
the objection.
On Stand All Day
Mrs. Thaw was on the stand all day
and Mr.. Jerome announced at adjourn
ment that his cross-examination would
occupy a greater part of tomorrows
session.
Mrs. Thaw's story was broken into
today by the constantly repeated in
terruption by the prosecution, which
sought to exclude all details on the
ground of immateriality.
The frequent objections led Justice
Dowling to request Mr.. Littleton to
cut his examination as short as possi-
BILE. Mr.. Littleton took the course Of
ficially suggested, to find that on
cross-examination Mr.. Jerome insisted
upon reading from last years record
nearly every word the witness had
then uttered. He did this under the
privilege of framing new questions.
Mr.. Littleton objected, declaring the
district attorney by reading the former
testimony in a disagreeable manner
was trying to discredit her in the eyes
of the jury when he could not disrcedit
her in any way by a direct question.
Mr.. Jerome made no attempt to dis
guise a tone of complete contempt in
reading the testimony. Contempt also
characterized most of the questions he
put to the witness, whom he attacked
in the loudest voice he has used at the
trial.
Mr.. Jerome plunged into the more IN
innate details of the testimony and
made no choice of words in framing
his questions Mr.. Littletons objection
on the ground of "offensiveness and
impropriety' frequently were sustained
by the court.
Matches Wits with Them
Mrs. Thaw matched wits against both
District Attorney Jerome and his asso-
ciate Mr.. GarYan, who was ever at~fiS
chiefs elbow with new suggestions.
She fenced with them as skillfully as
she did year ago, and at times re-
flected the mood of the district attor-
ney by answering in a voice pitched in
as loud a key as his own.
The prosecutors pitiless and aggres-
sive questions often struck fire, and
once, when Mr.. Jerome demanded to
know if the young woman had told
Thaw certain things, she replied:
"Yes, l told him, but 1 did not use
tho language you are now using"
Don't argue with me-" shouted
Jerome, who then had the reply stricken
from the record.
But one new feature appeared in the
testimony of the witness. This was
when she told about Thaw swallowing
the contents of a bottle of laudanum
at Monte Carlo in 1904 in an attempt to
end his life. Previously to this, at the
Grand hotel in New York, Thaw had
talked of suicide, his wife declared, and
had suggested that she also take poi
son, as both their lives had been ruined
Mrs Thaw said she humored Thaw at
the time and diverted his mind. She
was out of the room when he finally
took the poison.
''Why didn't you tell us about this at
the first trial?" demanded Mr.. Jerome.
''Mr Delmas said it might make
Harry out too crazy" the witness re-
torted before the attorney could stop
her.