Page:The Great Harry Thaw Case.djvu/25

 CHAPTER II.

Harry Thaw's Sensational Courtship and Marriage.

YOUNG MILLIONAIRE'S ROMANCE STARTLED THE WORLD—MET EVELYN NESBIT AFTER A PLAY WHEN SHE WAS ONLY 17 YEARS OLD—FRIENDSHIP RIPENED INTO LOVE—THE YOUTH'S STRANGE CAREER—WENT TO EUROPE WITH THE FOOTLIGHT AND STUDIO BEAUTY—REPORT OF MARRIAGE ABROAD SHOCKED RELATIVES—DENIED BY BOTH THE SUPPOSED BRIDE AND GROOM—RETURNED TO NEW YORK—EJECTED FROM FOUR HOTELS—HAD WEDDING CEREMONY PERFORMED IN PITTSBURG—MOTHER OF THAW AT FIRST REFUSED TO ACCEPT EVELYN AS DAUGHTER—OFFERED $250,000 TO GIVE UP HARRY.

Harry Kendall Thaw's winning of Florence Evelyn Nesbit stands out as a thrilling chapter in the great book of love. The biography of each of the parties was studded with the bizarre. Fifty thousand dollar dinners, ejectments from hotels, diamonds and grand pianos thrown about as carelessly as if they were trinkets, family opposition, and remarkably romantic love were some of the ingredients.

Harry Thaw's eyes first fell upon Evelyn Nesbit when she was only seventeen years old. She had carried her beauty from Pittsburg to the studios of New