Page:The Great Harry Thaw Case.djvu/220

 "I do, therefore, in pursuance of the statute in such cases made and provided, hereby appoint Morgan J. O'Brien, Peter B. Olney and Leopold Putzel, M. D., three disinterested persons, a commission forthwith to examine into the mental condition of said Harry K. Thaw, and to report to the court with all convenient speed the facts and their opinion as to whether at the time of such examination the said Harry K. Thaw was in such a state of idiocy, imbecility, lunacy, or insanity so as to be incapable of rightly understanding his own condition, the nature of the charges against him, and of conducting his defense in a rational manner."

The task of announcing the decision of the court to Thaw was allotted to his wife, who tearfully accepted it. Messrs. Hartridge and O'Reilly went with Mrs. Evelyn Thaw to the Tombs and there in the hospital ward they met the prisoner. This ward had been placed at their disposal because of the crowd in the usual consultation room. Thaw was cheerful.

"It is all right, dearie," he said to his wife, "I am not afraid of a commission. I am a sane man now; just as sane as the judge himself, and I am sure that any fair-minded commission will so declare me."

The attorneys quickly withdrew from the conference and Thaw and his wife sat for a long time together discussing what the commission probably