The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-08-11
SANE 45 TIMES
 OVER, SAYS THAW 
fn Signed Statement Prison CT Estimates Result of
 Jerome's Efforts
He Ridicules the Alienists

White Plains, IN. Y., Aug. Hilary K. Thaw has issued a statement re- viewing the evidence given in his re- cent hearing on his application for re- lease from the Matteawan asylum. In the course of his argument to sustain his contention that he is sane. 'Thaw : said, that, according to the alienists, District Attorney Jerome has proved him to be sane 'forty-f1ve times over,' in his long questioning. Thaw's state ment follows:
 -"The following is all have to say about the trial:
 Mr.~Jerome's witnesses were an un- pr9fesslonal lawyer and an unfortun- ate woman who contradicted each other, also three of his peculiar alien ists and Dr. Baker, who from his tes- timony might have been on either side, except that he showed some unfriendliness to us, and could not re- member many admissions he had made to me and to Dr. Pilgrim
 | "Dr. Baker admitted he did not be- lieve in souls because he had never seen. any. Dr. Hirsch affirmed that their profession was incompatible with religion. pr. Macdonald and Dr. Flint refused to believe what Jerome had soiemnly stated to a jury, so hard ly think any judge could believe any
 'The best experts have informed me that if any insane man was question ed for 20 minutes as Jerome question ed me he would assuredly show his in- sanity. As Jerome kept this up over 15 hours in all during the trial he proved me sane 45 times over, for the aIienists said any 20 minutes during his 15 hours of wild and extraordin- ary questions would have settled any
 eHoweter, I might have failed as other sane men might have. so I do not consider my testimony one-tenth so important xas the 20 alienists who personally examined me and in the records have sworn I am sane, or the testimony of the 62 lay witnesses.
 s'Mr. Jerome at the second trial af- ter telling the jury why he had not produced Dr. Flint and company, said he would submit the case to human intelligence.
 .sWilliam De Morgan relates the fol- lowing conversation to the same point:
 <sA great alienist is going to oper- ate on woman who has been uncon- scious for 40. years and desires clear Knowledge of her mental state if she regains any mental faculties So he asks his wife and her friends to watch The doctor tells them, T don't atien. but what want is to have one or more good observers at hand and I want everything observed and recollected.' His wife replies: Why won't the people at the asylum do?"
 l" Because answered the husband each of them has a theory and none of them will recollect anything that don't agree with it. I want real live human creatures of good average in tel1igence.'
 ssIt seems to me I must be perfect 7y sane if hard-headed, sensible men, who slept in the same room with me, saw me undress and go to sleep and wake up. then eat my breakfast, din ner and supper, and who took me up on the mountains where I could have ! left them miles behind had not been trustworthy, say iso- These and many clergymen, headed by President Pat ton, of Princeton, and ladies some of whom have known me all my life, and bankers and manufacturers and police and prison keepers accustomed to ob- serving both sane and insane men, also city clerks, editors, farmers, lawyers and the ex-governor of a great state, all find me perfectly sane and none find anything irrational at all.
 This seems to me to prove my San- ity ten times better than whether or no I could handle MT. Jerome in a fourteen and half hours debate on every possible subject except the al- legged deIusions which he did not seem to want explained. Maybe explana- tions, would have spoiled his hypothe- tica1 question
 lSighed) "H. K. THAw.
 ssWhite Plains, N. r., Aug. 10,1909.' 9