The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-08-18
OUT Of FRYING
PAN into fire.
JOHN ARMSTRONG CHALoNER SAYS
HARRY THAw MUST GET OUT
OF CONNECTICUT.
TELLS OF HIS FIGHT
FOR SEVENTEEN YEARS, HE, PAT
RON of ART AND EDUCATION,
HAS BATTLED WITH
LUNACY LAWS.

When John Armstrong Chaioner
was informed early yesterday after
noon of the escape OF Harry Thaw
from Matteawan he was In very
happy frame Of mind. Mr.. Chaloner
has TAX an the keenest interest In the
Thaw case and has been interviewed
on the case frequently by the New
York papers.
He received a number OF kilograms
from the New York papers yesterday
afternoon asking for statement, and
dictated the following for The Viz
ginian. which he duplicated to the
New York papers:
Glad OF It.
81 am glad to hear OF his escape.
have always maintained he was In
sane at the time of the shooting
| emotional insanity with full and suffi-
cient cause, supplied by Stanford
and his case has proved that II Is
| impossible for him to procure fair
trial In New York State.
II have already drawn attention In
the press to the fact that the last
Judge that turned him down. namely
Judge Keogh, is Stanford Whites
brother-in-law. and as such is legally
incapacitated from trying the slayer
Of a member of his own Immediate
family. Thus. Mrs. Stanford Whites
sister. Miss Ella b. Smith. married
Island. and Devereux Emmets sister,
Katherine Temple Emmett. married
said Judge Martin J. Keogh. Such a
situation surely is such a travesty Of
justice as not to be countenanced by
any Judge in Chrlstendom outside the
hailiwick of that great law abiding
and general benefactor of the human
race. President Huerta. OF Mexico
president not by act OF God. not by
vox populf. but by act Of assass ma
tion. Under such a regime a broth
er-in-iaw can sit on the bench and
condemn the slayer Of his relative
with an easy conscience. and no re-
marks passed by press or private citi-
zens
His Only Chance.
"Thaw's only chance was to escape.
hut unfortunately for him he has
jumped fro IN the frying pan into the
fire, for lunacy laws in Connecticut
are as rotten, farcical. and illegal as
In New York. AS my law book.
'Lunacy Law of the World" points
out lunacy legislation is the very last
relic of harharism in law--the ultima
Thule Of tyranny on the bench, and
that the United States. together with
the whole civilized world, is grooming
under the yoke of that moioch. /.
| Forty per cent. OF the lunacy laws
of the States OF this country are
frankly illegal. unconstitutional and
I tyrannically base and vile | am sup
/ ported in this assertion by the leading
law reviewers of this country, who
/ reviewed my book. ] state this so
you may know that you are on safe
I grounds in quoting me in the premises.
The critiQue of my book is In the back
of 'Scorpio' and 'Scorpio No. l.
Patron of Art and Education.
II am well along in the seventeenth
year of my life devoted to the claens-
ing of the said Augean stables of
lunacy legislation. If don't do II ap-
parently nobody will. SO I have re-
luctantiy devoted myself to said cause
with many a smothered oath at my
hard luck--for why the devil should
| /, a lawabiding. upright citizen, have
such lot showed across to me. ], a
patron of art and education. by Fate
or whatever you choose to call 1t. as
! the seventy-five thousand-dollar Paris
prize fund in the hands OF the United
states Trust company, Wall Street.
proves. 1T was established by me in
1891 for completing the art education
/ of deserving American art students Of
both sexes in Paris. giving the win
ners of the competition a nine hum
!
years and residence in Paris and later
elsewhere in Europe to which fund
personally subscribed thirteen thou
sand dollars, while leading members
OF the Aston and Vanderbilt families
also subscribed lesser sums thereto.
I am patron of education. as proved
by my recent deed Of my entire prop
erty to the University Of Virginia and
North Carolina and other leading edu-
cational institutions, valued at con-
siderably over a million and steadily
North and South--increasing in value.
why should such member OF So
ciety as l have proven myself in a
lifetime of fifty years be bounded by
schemers and infamous laws?
I'm conclusion escape Is the only
chance for justice from an insane
asylum in New York for man of
prominence in whose case 1t ID worth
the while of his enemies to fix the
judge who sits on his case. AS 1t
stands now in what In my book afore-
said ! term the Black Belt OF Lun-
acy Legislation in said rotten borough
States. among which New York stands
foremost in infamous lunacy laws, a
sane man or woman has less chance
in court than SNOWFALL has in
hell"