Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1907 — STRIKING EXCERPTS FROM JEROME’S CLOSING SPEECH. [ARTICLE]

STRIKING EXCERPTS FROM JEROME’S CLOSING SPEECH.

There were two ordinary men in this case, and between them was a tigress urging them on. Why, men, there are the same old elements here that have made criminal history ever since the world began. Great actress, Indeed! She thought she could play on you like so many children. She comes here In her little school girl dress and tries to Impress on you this assumed childishness. This “angel child" comes here, and weaves a web of lies to fool you—to induce you to acquit a cold-blooded, cowardly murderer on a defense of “dementia Americana.” Does this “dementia Americana" flaunt the woman it loves for two long years through the capitals of Europe and then kill ? “Dementia Americana” never hides behind the skirts of a woman ; "dementia Americana" never puts a woman on the stand to lay bare her shame to protect It. If this rich young man Instead of being Harry Thaw, the Son of a millionaire of Pittsburg, had been a poor Italian and his victim, instead of a man of artistic temperament, a maker of plaster casts, and a girl whom they quarreled about was a chorus girl in the Loudon Theater, how long would brainstorms and paranoia have prevailed? The real question here Is whether New York Clt'v Is to become a mining camp. If this sort of thing can go on. if the only thing between a citizen and his enemy is a brain storm, then every man had better pack a gun.

Delmas to the Jury. We admire the chivalry of the knights of the middle ages who went about rescuing maidens in distress. Why should we withhold our sympathy from Harry Thaw who so valiantly rescued the child Evelyn from this parasite? Harry Thaw called upon the district attorney, the man who is now trying to take his life, and demanded that he do Something to cleanse the city of this human leper, White. When she was the wife of Thaw, White met the giri and repeatedly Insulted her. Such conduct, gentlemen, deserves the severest punishment. Waging a battle for American womanhood and baffled by wealth and social position, Thaw met and killed Stanford White.