“That was the time when she was the support of the family, going about in the daytime from studio to studio and appearing on the stage at night and pouring into the lap of her mother her scant wages.
“And what was the nature of the foul wrong done to this child?
“What was the fatal deed which he said he would gladly have purchased with his life if it could be undone?
“I say to you, these letters refer to no other transaction than the story she related on the witness stand—the story she told you she told him in June, 1903. The letters were private. They were to be locked up in Mr. Longfellow’s breast. Then ask yourself whether it is possible that Mr. Thaw was telling his lawyer in September a falsehood or an invention of his own brain?
“That is not all. You remember Thaw returned to New York in November and shortly thereafter went to his home in Pittsburg and told his mother the selfsame story he told his lawyer then in these two letters.
“I desire to give you the mother’s testimony and ask you whether I am not telling you exactly what occurred.
“Not only that but I invite interruptions if you desire to set me right if I omit or tell anything that was not part of the testimony.
“Now, the mother whom you have seen on the stand and of whose veracity I believe not even the prosecution has any doubt, this mother says that after he arrived home she found him awake at night, and when she went to his room he said it was because of a wicked man—perhaps the most wicked man in New York.
“She learned before Thanksgiving that this was said about a young girl, but did not at that time learn her name. Her son told her he was interested in that girl. This she learned one night when the mother found him in his room at dawn. He had not been able to get sleep surcease from his tortured brain.
“She said, the son said, that this girl had the most beautiful mind he had ever known, that she had been neglected, that if she had a chance and anyone looking after her she would be all right. And then you remember, gentlemen, Thanksgiving came. And the mother and the son went to church together, and there, while the solemn anthem was peeling, she heard tears dropping upon the paper which he was holding in his hand, a stifled sob.