Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1909 — THAW’S MOTHER AND PARKHURST [ARTICLE]

THAW’S MOTHER AND PARKHURST

She Replies to Article Be Supplied to Paper. PREACHER IS ARRAIGNED “Homicide Trials Are a Grim Neces sity. Grossly Misconducted as the Thaw Trials Were and Horribly Re pulsive to Those Immediately Connected, They Were Essentially a Warning, Especially to Careless Mothers. Gilded Vice In Its Most

Reprehensible Form, Was Painted In Sulphurous Colors." Chicago, May 14. —Replying to an editorial supplied a Chicago paper by Rev. Dr. Parkhurst, Mrs. Mary Copley Thaw, mother of Harry K. Thaw, writes:

"Passive endurance ceased on i aiding an article so cruel as that which appeared in your paper of Wednesday. “Dr. Parkhurst’s article properly deprecated the effects of newspaper reports of criminal articles and cited the Thaw trial as an example of dealing with matters lying at *a low moral level.’

"Has Dr. Parkhurst forgotten ids Belt-appointed crusade some years ago, when night after night he visited houses of ill-repute, then published broadcast accounts of his observa tions? Right minded persons, at the time, regarded this exposition of indecency as both useless and disgusting. “Homicide trials are a grim necessity. Grossly misconducted as the Thaw trials were and horribly repulsive to those immediately connected, they were essentially a warning, especially to careless mothers. Gilded vice, in its most reprehensible form, was painted in sulphurous colors. The effect was not unlike that produced on the youth of Athens when drunken slaves were introduced to em] haslze lectures on sobriety and temperance. "Dr. Parkhurst professes to be a Christian minister, yet this is not the first time he has gone out of his way to throw a stone at this defenseless man. Gifted as my son is as a writer, he is powerless to reply to such attacks by reason of restrictions at the jfiaee where he is now Illegally detain ed. ' This is the reason I answer at once, requesting that you will, ip common justice, give this communication the same prominence as the other.”