The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1909-07-23
WON OVER BY GOLD
EVELYN TELLS STORY OF HOW
STOLE HER FROM WHITE.
Claims He Did So BY Flashing a Pts
toll, But Admits That the Promise
of Cash and Life of Luxury As
sisted in Deciding Course; Scared
Heart and Told Horrible Tale at
Trial; Makes Disclosures.

New York, July 2O.-Evelyn Thaw in
an interview has made disclosures con-
corning her life with Thaw and con-
corning the events leading up to the
murder of Stanford White which are
almost as strange and startling as
anything she told in that remarkable
story of hers on the witness stand.
She says that for three years she
tried to prevent the murder of White,
whom she dearly loved; that Thaw
stole her from White with a revolver,
that Thaw is absolutely stingy, and
finally that she loves man whom she
may marry and with him raise a fam
lily.
Il laugh and play and cut up the
highest kind of high jinks, in spite OF
all I've gone through" she began. 'I'm
still a young woman. I'm an optimist
by disposition. l don't talk the way
generally am quoted in the newspa-
pers. l am not as forlorn person as
these wonderful 'interviewers would
make me out.
Doesn't Pose as Example.
81 have no desire to pose as an ex-
ample for young American women to
follow. / want no one to have illusions
as to what l am. But l am anxious to
end for all time the ridiculous non
sense that is being spread abroad as
portraying me. / want two things thor
oughly understood.
"The first one is that / nave never
committed any crime. l am a young
woman whose unfortunate upbringing
has ended by my being connected with
sordid murder in which I had no
part and which I tried for three years
to prevent. During my life with Harry
Thaw I lived at home as quietly and
with as much regard for the conven-
tions as any woman ever did, | may
marry again. 1t is all a question in
nv mind as to the advisa bility of fol-
lowing the career | have mapped out
for myself or of settling down to rear
children in the fashion of a good
housewife and mother.
Will Not Trade on Notoriety.
"The second thing l want made plain
is that / will not trade on the no.
toriety that has attached itself to me
as a result of this terrible affair." If
I chose to accept the many offers
that nave been made me to go on the
vaudeville stage l should be indepen-
IDENTIFY rich.
"That | have refused these things is
no indication that / am wonderfully
high principled. If You will have the
truth / am distinctly immoral, as the
world today views morals, but | have
my own code of ethics and | live up
to them.
"But | am not bad woman in the
sense that / spoke of bad women in
that first trial. If | make up my
mind to marry the man | love l shall
do it and the world will hunt in vain
for chance to accuse me of indiscre-
tions.
Mrs Thaw then went on to tell how
she had been bewildered by stage life
when she was thrust into it at fifteen
years of age in "Florodora." child
used almost to want, she suddenly
found herself with fine clothes, rich
suppers, and showered with costly
gems.
Thaw Like Stone Age Man.
1t simply fabbergasted her, she says,
especially when Stanford White gave
her $1,000 pearl.
'Thaw stole me away from Mr..
White just the same as men in the
stone age stole women, if folk lore
says sucn things happened, and | UNI
derstand that is the way the old tales
CO." she continued. "For more than
year before the Christmas night in
1903 | had seen White only occasion
ally. But he was my protector, my pa
.tron if you will, and I loved him more
than l ever had any man or woman in
my life, my mother and father not ex-
cepted.
"He was giving me birthday party
the night Thaw appeared with a revolt
yer in my dressing room and told me
he would kill White before he would
allow him ever to take me away from
him. There was nothing for me to do
under the circumstances but go with
Thaw.
81 hardly knew him. did not like
him. 1t was simply case of go or
be killed. That was the nature of the
beginning of our love affair.
Sand right here, before we get to
the rest of it, let me say it was not
easy-what l forced myself to do on
the witness stand. Do you think |
followed my inclinations when sat
there and looked at that grinning Thaw
down below me, and miserable man to
save whose life was soaring my heart
and told secrets / would have kept
from the world at the cost of my own
life?
at wasn't easy. But it was follow
ing out determination l had made
with a flash of his revolver that night
on the roof garden. That's ALL