Page:The Great Harry Thaw Case.djvu/13

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
PREFACE.

A great trial has come to a close. It has attracted the attention of the entire civilized world for three widely separated and distinctly defined reasons—the unusual degree of heart interest underlying the tragedy that brought it about; the startling and sensational disclosures of life in the great metropolis, and the legal precedents established, particularly in relation to the universal, unwritten law.

Realizing that this remarkable case is destined to be more than a passing sensation of the hour or the year; that it will exercise a wide influence on the thought and lives of uncounted thousands, it has seemed meet that a carefully prepared, clean and accurate record should be given the world in permanent form.

This, because its eloquent sermon cost too great a price to be lost, and its awful warning against a vicious life is of too great value to the world to trust it to fitful memory.

Men standing on the brink of the precipice hewn by unbridled passion, may read in the terrible fate that overtook Stanford White at the hands of an avenging husband, an injunction against the worst in their nature and reflect before it is too late.

Mothers, tempted by the pressing, material needs of the day to permit tender daughters to aid in the