Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-04-19
Evelyn NeSbit Tolerated Only
So Long as 81 ne Could Help
Him, Just as His Insanity
Pleas Are
By ROBERT T. SMALL
Especial Leased Wire to The JournaI9
iCOOvrirht 1924

Copyright, 1924
/ PHILADELPHIA April 17.-They
/ have come to grips a2ain-the two
women in the case--and any one con-
versant with the life history Of Harry
/ Kendall ThaW must wonder as to
which is his better friend, the paint
! cd lady of the cabarets who was once
his wife, or the devoted, naughty,
proud Old mother who is willing that
| he shall go forth in the world again,
| perhaps eventually to meet the fate
which money so long has shielded
/ him form. The painted lady would
! like to keep Thaw in the asylum.
Once she saved him from the cleo
trio chair. Perhaps today she re-
Grets the sacrifices she made to that
end. She fears that he may yet do
her some bodily harm. She seeks
/ to get some of the Thaw money for
her son-the son which Thaw denies
/ Mrs. Mary Copley Thaw, the moth
er, is aged and decrepit. Mostly she
walks with a cane. The grief of
! eighteen long years. however, has
| not bowed her head. Still she feels
she must not die with one of her off
spring under the stigma of insanity
she brushes aside the fact that it
was her own petition which put Thaw
! in his present asylum. That was
when the law was after him again
when he had cruelty beaten a young
boy in a New York hotel and when
Ia long stretch up the river awaited
him. Preferably TIE asylum to the
felon's cell 1t is the ThaW complex
that Harry is insane when he COM
mits a crime. He is sane as soon as
the family feels the crime is for
gotten.
Experts" Always at Hand
The necessary expert testimony TO
prove this theory always seems to
be at hand 81
Evelyn Nesbit today, as she was
in 1907 and 1908, is the aluring fig
ure in the Thaw case. But what a
far different Evelyn today. There is /
mo longer any mystery any look of
Girlish Wonderment in those big dark
eyes which once were so liquid and
dreamy
They are lack-luster eyes today,
dimmed with tear-bought wisdom.
The eyes of dead ashes. The once
tender mouth-the lips that caught
the fancy Of the great artists of her
early daNs-are curled today in a
cynical hardness. The deep brown
NeIVety hair which used to mass it.
self about a small head in waving
| pIentitude, has lost all it's gloss. 1t
Is bObbed now and bristIy and has
that turnout look that goes with
too much curling on the irons.
Evelyn Nesbit was a lonely little
figure at the first Thaw trials. She
sat with the family then, but they
tolerated her with i'll and uneasy
grace They tolerated her because
she was the only human factor
| which could save the scion Of a
proud Pittsburg family from being
burnt up the river" from the fate
Of the common murderer. During
the two great trials, which We're read
around the world as no other murder
cases ever have been, EVELYN. who
still calls herself as if the first
syllable was spelled Eva" stuck to
, the ship, stuck to the most dramatic
story of a girls ruin which ever has
| been told in court.
Her Soul Bought His Life
1t was a confession which should
have been heard in some cloister.
But it was given to the world that
Harry Thaw might not die in the
chair for any act Of mad jealousy
the Staying of Stanford White that
summer night on the Madison
Square roof.
Evelyn contends that after she had
paid and paid and paid at the trials. !
She was cast adrift by the Thaws |
They gave her no money They /
thought they needed her no longer. !
And so today Evelyn sits again a
lonely figure in the vault-like court /
room where Thaw money is lighting
again for Thaw liberty. AS one looks /
at the mature woman who was once /
the 16-year-oId sweetheart Of the /
great architect, there rush back the /
memories of the room of the mirrors.
the forest room. the big velvet swing .
where Stanford White would swing
ner higher and higher until at last
she could kick L-r pointed toes
through Japanese para sol attached (
to the ceiling; the great room in the .
Madison Square tower studio where .
the parties were given for the rich .
young men about town and the cho-
rus girls and Evelyn emerged one
night from a papier mache pie, a
glorious thrObbing young creature. .
an artists study in the nude.
Laura Jane Libbey, in her paImfest /,
days, never thought of such a plot .
or such story as came ripping
from the lips of Evelyn Thaw on the
witness stand It held the world
spellbound, Evelyn still was limo .
cent in those days. despite her ex-
nerieuce at the hands Of Stanford /
White, despite her experiences +