“‘Outside of this one thing he was a grand man. And when I said so to Mr. Thaw he said that only made Stanford White the more dangerous.
“‘He had a strong personality and had many friends, and they believed in him and could not believe anything bad about him. And even when they believed, they said: “Too bad. He is so good.”’
“Can there be any grander, better panegyric, uttered than this by this girl on the stand. I am here not to defend Stanford White. That he had his faults, his gross faults, no one will deny.
“But there is a difference between the brute, and the unchaste. Her own words have ruined this Jekyll and Hyde theory.
“Can it be possible that now, at twenty-two, she could look back to the time when she was fifteen and pronounce so grand a panegyric upon a brute?
“A wealthy man, finding, God only knows why, enjoyment in her company—see how young she seems today (pointing to Evelyn Thaw)—think how young she must have been then—that a rich man should have tried to help her is consistent with his conduct.
“That when she was told by the manager of the ‘Florodora’ company, to whom she had applied, that they were not ‘running a baby farm’—that a man like Stanford White should have taken care of her and protected her—is certainly not inconsistent with the belief that her relations with him were pure.
“Again, it is consistent that their relations were not pure. This girl alone knows. But I submit this girl is not telling the truth. There is no proof of the wrongdoing.”
At this point Jerome asked that a recess be taken. At the reconvening of court, Mr. Jerome resumed as follows:
“I have carefully laid out to you what we are here for in our respective duties. I have presented briefly as I could the facts that I have adduced.