SAN FRANCISCO MAIL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2734, 8 August 1906, Page 80

SAN FRANCISCO MAIL NEWS.

(Per Sierra, at Auckland.)

THE MURDER OF MR STANFORD WHITE.

New York is tremendously excited over a murder in high life, which occurred on the night of June 25. when Harry Kindall Thaw, ©on of a Pifcteburg multi-millionaire, shot and instantly killed Mr Stanford White, one of America's mont prominent architects. The revelations with regard to the affair created a great &en«ation. Mr Stanford White \va3 shot at the Madison Square Roof Garden, where he had pmate apartments in which it was hLs habit, it is stated, to entertain his numerous chorus Kii-1 acquaintances. The man who shot him (Harry I haw) married something more than a j cur ago beautiful Evelyn Nesbit, a chorus girl and a protege of Mr Stanford Whitrv The marriage, while it shocked the Thaw family, was apparently a happy one. It is now charged of Mr Stanford White that he pursued Mrs Thaw with his attention, and that Harry Thaw was practically in-sane with jealousy. Thaw det'ares that) his defence will not be insanity, but so far he has made no statements as to what his defence- will be. Thaw was pro-

minenfc among the gilded youth of the land

before his marriage, and had while in London been desperately infatuated with Evelyn Nesbit. He followed the girl to Europe, and travelled about with her for some time. On returning to Now York the couple were denied the hospitality of leading hotels, and

finally Harry Thaw* mother wired to 1 them to come to Pittsburc, where the

couple wei*» married in her presence. There is pj charge that Mrs Thaw has been unfahhful, but there are endless rumours as to the bad behaviour of Mr Stanford White- This man — a prince in his profession — designed many of the most famous buildings of the present day. It appears that Thaw had him shadowed by detectives constantly for the past year, and private detectives .and actresses have vied with each other in reporting for publication scandalous conduct in the architect's private life. It is impossible to establish the truth of half that has been told, and a conservative opinion is that, although White was not a moral man, he was not the iromoral monster that he has been depicted to be. The Bociety for the Prevention of Vice received reports as to orgies carried on in his rooms, but was not able to obtain sufficient evidence to warrant h'm arrest. The papers are filled with descriptions of Thaw s life in prison, with pictures of Mrs Thaw's lovely young face, and with dreadful stories and hints of the depravity of both the prominent actors in the tragedy. There was apparently no immediate provocation for the shooting, so ecnjecfrur© has a wide field.

VES3EL STRUCK BY A TIDAI. WAVE. A message from New York, dated July 11, says:— Struck by a tidal wave, which, it is supposed, was produced by a submarine earthquake, the British tramp ttoamer Sir Richard Grenville was almost engulfed on Sunday afternoon 300 miles outside of Sandy Hook. The ship reached the upper bay to-day minus her smokestack, which was washed overboard by on enornioue wave. Lifebuoys were smashed, ventilators are gone, and the main deck is a complete wreck. One of the strange features of the wave is that, after the water on the deck subsided, a piece- of a eper, supposed to be a yardarm of some wrecked vossel, with many pieces of lumber, was found on the main deck of the Sir Richard Grenville. The only explanation of this which Captain Jones volunteered to make was that a submarine earthquake had released part of a sunken vessel from the bottom of the ocean. Captain Jones ripged a jury funnel of scantling and lumber The improvised funnel was a boxnke affair, Sft across, and rising 10ft above the deck. The spark? and flames from the furnace nearly overpowered the men, and a bucket brigade had to be stationed near the funnel lo prevent the ship catching fire. The Sir Richard " Grenville came from Huelva, in the Mediterranean, and brought 3950 tons of iron pyrites.

A young: gentieinau named Ramsay, aged six, travelled by train from Palmerston North to Dannerirke on -ft. little tour of his own last week, explaining that he " wanted to see the shop*. He was taken back to Woodville, and domesticated himself quite contentedly with a local policeman's children during the night. When a bill k of fare was submitted to him, he remarked dispassionately, " I only eat cake !" It was estimated that he belonged to Palmerston, and was sent on there. It is said he has made several railway tours on his own account already.