Page:The Great Harry Thaw Case.djvu/271

 is a desire to say startling things. He has said several, the most remarkable being an attack on William C. Whitney and Boss Platt and the declaration that there was a plot hatched to either kill him or scratch him at the polls. Jerome was called to time on these propositions, and he retracted—but he did it without crawling. Jerome is too outspoken to be a successful politician. His aggressiveness and his fearlessness are admirable.

Mr. Jerome's speech was as follows:

"If it please your honor and gentlemen of the jury, you seem, as far as I can judge, to have been wandering through a weird deal of romance in the past few days. It is not on statements such as you have listened to that the life of a human individual on the one hand nor the safety of the community on the other depends.

"And important as it is that no human life shall be put out except justly, yet it is equally important that it be put out if justice demands it.

"As to this 'dementia Americana,' which 'prevails from the Canadian line to the Gulf of Mexico'—and mostly on the Gulf of Mexico—does it wait three years and glare at its enemy and then kill?

"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; no woman could in the category where 'dementia Americana' prevails.

"'When I discharged those shots into his head,' said Thaw, 'I didn't know I was discharging shots. I didn't