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WHY IS HARRY THAW FREE? roared a headline that straddled the Mirror's front page. Underneath was reproduced Thaw's disordered countenance and iron-grey hair with the caption: "Harry K. Thaw, nationally known murderer, is burning up Broadway again. Nightly, with bloated face, he makes the rounds of the night clubs."
On an inside page five pictures of Mr. Thaw were published: AS DANDY, AS SLAYER, AS FUGITIVE, AS BOY BEATER, AS FIREMAN. Two more photographs meaningly compared his features with those of Harrison Noel, mentally delinquent protagonist of a murder trial now occupying national attention. A chronological table of Thaw's misdemeanors bore the title: "Highlights in the story of wealth, mental decay, vicious living, murder and insane asylums, depicting the life of Harry K. Thaw. . . The Rip Van Winkle of the Bright Light District is hitting it up again. . . His bloated face and protruding eyes mark him as he reels about the night clubs of the roaring forties. . . Some twelve girls have held for a short time the fickle favor and glittering gifts of the torturer of rabbits."-
Followed a description of a Manhattan night club (the Del Fey— formerly the El Fey) in which, among others, sat Michael Arlen, Ethel Barrymore, Gloria Goull Bishop. "There entered," said the Mirror, "a haggard looking and white haired man, his bloated face wreathed in smiles. It was Harry K. Thaw. . . Harry looked long and rudely at Michael Arlen. . . Then the chastiser of little rabbits . . . screeched."
Next day Thaw left for Pittsburgh. Said the Mirror: "Harry has suddenly decided to visit his sick mother, whose illness had not hitherto caused any of the many wrinkles in his bloated face. . . The Mirror has won. If he comes back to New York the Mirror will renew its campaign to get him away." With this valedictory, the Mirror published a picture of a small brunette, "winsome little Virginia Frank," and credited her with having spurned the wealthy slayer's suit. " 'Let other girls wear his jewelry,' she said, 'but not me.' . ."
Whether Mr. Thaw is, after all, a slobbering degenerate or merely an old man infected with a disgusting and pathetic lust for pleasures which youth alone can make charming; whether or not the Mirror had any higher purpose in its denunciations than the enlargement of an already huge circulation—matters little. The whole episode merely furnished one more example of how a smart editor can make sensationalism the light that illumines his paper's exceeding morality.
May and September
Skeptics cursed themselves last week.
Late in May, four months ago, E. Haldeman-Julius of Girard, Kas., published in the press a grave advertisement :
"I QUIT: On June 30, / shall quit publishing Little Blue Books! Order till then at 5c.
"I am going to stop because I must give my full attention to my immensely successful Haldeman-Julius Monthly—The Enterprise of Bringing out 842 Good Books has been Sensational — over 75,000,000 sold in Five Years— "Here is sound advice: Do not buy a mere 25 or 30 books—Do as most are doing by ordering 100 or 200 titles, or bttter still, an entire set of 842 titles. Invest today in your future reading. This is your final opportunity."