Harry Thaw’s Sensational Courtship and Marriage.
YOUNG MILLIONAIRE’S ROMANCE STARTLED THE WORLD--MET EVELYN NESBIT
AFTER A PLAY WHEN SHE WAS ONLY 17 YEARS OLD--FRIENDSHIP RIPENED
INTO LOVE--THE YOUTH’S STRANGE CAREER--WENT TO EUROPE WITH THE
FOOTLIGHT AND STUDIO BEAUTY--REPORT OF MARRIAGE ABROAD SHOCKED
RELATIVES--DENIED BY BOTH THE SUPPOSED BRIDE AND GROOM--RETURNED TO
NEW YORK--EJECTED FROM FOUR HOTELS--HAD WEDDING CEREMONY PERFORMED
IN PITTSBURG--MOTHER OF THAW AT FIRST REFUSED TO ACCEPT EVELYN AS
DAUGHTER--OFFERED $250,000 TO GIVE UP HARRY.
Harry Kendall Thaw’s winning of Florence Evelyn Nesbit stands out as a
thrilling chapter in the great book of love. The biography of each of
the parties was studded with the bizarre. Fifty thousand dollar dinners,
ejectments from hotels, diamonds and grand pianos thrown about as
carelessly as if they were trinkets, family opposition, and remarkably
romantic love were some of the ingredients.
Harry Thaw’s eyes first fell upon Evelyn Nesbit when she was only
seventeen years old. She had carried her beauty from Pittsburg to the
studios of New York. Then the stage called her, and her brunette
pulchritude charmed the scion of one of Pittsburg’s wealthiest families.
Somebody presented her to Thaw at a gay party of young and beautiful
stage girls who were having a costly supper after the play at an
exclusive restaurant. All this time Evelyn was supposed to be under the
eye of her mother, who, a few years previously, had doffed her widow’s
weeds and married Charles J. Holman, a Pittsburg broker. Mrs. Holman
told her friends she keenly realized the perils that beset the feet of
beautiful young girls, but her chaperonage did not save her own
daughter.
Thaw loved the daughter, he said, as soon as he saw her. His
appreciation of feminine loveliness had always been one of his strongest
qualities. Only three years before he met Miss Nesbit he had given a
$50,000 dinner in Paris to twenty-five of the most beautiful women that
he could get together. Cleo de Merode, at whose feet the King of the
Belgians had laid royal tribute, Anna Robinson of this country and other
famous beauties were at that banquet. Sousa’s band received a check for
$1,500 for furnishing the music. This dinner and many of Thaw’s other
enjoyments were made possible by the fact that when his father died he
left a fortune of $40,000,000. This father was William Thaw and he had
been prominent in Pennsylvania railroad and steel affairs. His widow and
the seven children inherited the fortune.
Harry Thaw’s penchant for economy was pretty
[Illustration: HARRY K. THAW
At the time of his marriage.]
well exemplified by the will under which his annual income was to be
$2,500, because, as his father said, he would spend as much as he got
anyway. His mother, though, let him have annually sums that were never
under $40,000.
With his money he set out to dazzle the little Miss Nesbit, who back
home had often trudged by the magnificent Thaw mansion and possibly had
wondered in her simple impecunious way as to the manner of life that can
be lived by a family that has $40,000,000 to dispose of.
It didn’t take Harry Thaw long to show her how some of that money might
be spent. To her apartments in the Audubon in New York, an apartment
building beloved of the chorus girl, he caused to be sent an exquisite
grand piano. Miss Nesbit’s mother caused it to be carted away. So also
with many of the jewels which Thaw sent up.
While Thaw’s wooing was in progress the name of his family loomed large
in the public prints because of the marriage of Harry Thaw’s sister
Alice to the Earl of Yarmouth. On the very day of the wedding, the earl
halted the ceremony by announcing that unless satisfactory financial
arrangements were made at once there would be no marriage. The money was
paid, although Harry Thaw told reporters that if he had been there we
would have kicked the Earl down stairs. A little later, however, his
sister Alice, Countess of Yarmouth, repaid the harsh blow at the
husband by publicly snubbing Evelyn Nesbit at an English race track.
About the time of this marriage Evelyn Nesbit went to Europe. Harry Thaw
followed her. They went automobiling, and the charming brunette fell
madly in love with the young heir to nearly $40,000,000; he had been in
love with her since the evening they first met.
Then, all because they were arrested for exceeding the automobile speed
laws in Switzerland, the curtain was raised upon their romance, that all
the world might see. In the police court to which they were taken the
impression that they were husband and wife gained ground. News of the
supposed marriage was telegraphed to London and thence to America.
Thaw’s relatives and rich society friends were shocked. They had
registered and stopped at the Carlton hotel in London as husband and
wife, and the report of their marriage was generally believed.
When they returned to New York they had a stormy experience. On their
arrival they discovered that Mrs. William Thaw, mother of Harry, had
announced that under no conditions would she accept Evelyn Nesbit for a
daughter-in-law, and that if her son had really married the beautiful
young model she would promptly disown him.
Harry didn’t want to lose his fortune, and it is probable that the girl
didn’t desire to see him impoverished, either. So they faced the
dilemma. Fear of the wrath of the mother forced them to deny that the
union had been consummated, yet at the same time they were together in
New York at the Cumberland hotel, and the proprietor demanded that
either Thaw write “wife” after his name on the register or quit the
hotel.
Thaw refused to do this, and the couple went to another hotel with the
same result. After they had been ejected from four hostelries they
separated. All this time there had been no public announcement by either
of them that they had been married, as supposed.
Miss Nesbit, as she still insisted on being called, went to a boarding
house and the young millionaire made efforts to placate his mother. He
was successful, but not until an open rumor had it that Miss Nesbit had
refused an offer of $250,000 in cash to give up Harry and quit the
United States.
When the mother did agree to the union she acted handsomely, and the
exquisite beauty was quietly married at the home of Rev. William L.
McEwan, pastor of the Third Presbyterian church, Pittsburg, Mrs. Thaw
and the members of both families being present. This was on April 4,
1905.
The Thaws left Lyndhurst, the magnificent Thaw country mansion near
Pittsburg, and went to New York. They varied their life in the
metropolis by trips to Pittsburg, but did not go to Newport, where
Benjamin Thaw, Harry’s brother, lived. In Pittsburg, Mrs. William Thaw
gave several receptions to the actress-model wife of her son. Pittsburg
society started to squabble over these affairs, but finally attended the
receptions and accepted Evelyn as a member of their exclusive set.
The charms of the young Mrs. Thaw had disarmed much of the criticism.
Mrs. Holman grew to like her son-in-law, although not long before she
had threatened to apply a rawhide horsewhip to him, while Harry and her
daughter were living together in New York, apparently unmarried.
The Thaws themselves, when they saw how hard young Mrs. Thaw was trying
to restrict the money-spending habits of her husband, forgave her
completely. They even regretted, some of them said, that they had
offered to buy her off. When that offer was made--it was during the
stormy days in New York,--Miss Nesbit had declared “My heart is not for
sale!”
The story of the wedding--a remarkably simple affair--is interesting in
that it showed Evelyn Nesbit’s love for simplicity in her private life.
Although fame and fortune were linked in a remarkable union, the wedding
ceremony took place almost in secret.
The day before the wedding Mr. Thaw went to the Hotel Schenley, and in
the grillroom met some of his old associates. He remarked that in less
than a week he would be a benedict. Steins were raised high and his
companions declared that it should be made his bachelor dinner. Their
host swore them to secrecy, and then the story of the coming nuptials
was divulged to the chosen few.
Miss Nesbit arrived in Pittsburg with her chaperon, Miss Pierce, and
went to the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Holman, in Oakland.
In the afternoon Harry Thaw went to the residence of Dr. McEwan in South
Negley avenue and arranged for the wedding.
It was a few minutes after 5 o’clock when three carriages drove to Dr.
McEwan’s residence. From them alighted Mr. Thaw, his mother, Mrs.
William Thaw, his brother, Josiah Copley Thaw, and Fredrick C. Perkins.
Miss Nesbit came on the arm of her stepfather, C. J. Holman, and was
followed by her mother, Mrs. Holman.
Miss Nesbit wore a traveling costume of dark material, which was almost
hidden in a light three-quarter opera cloak trimmed with rare lace and
ornamented with Persian floral designs. She wore a hat that indicated a
slight lingering toward the winter season, and across the silk entwined
brim was a gorgeous leather of three shades of brown.
Miss Nesbit did not remove her cloak or hat and the bridegroom laid his
headgear and top coat over the banisters before he walked into the
drawing-room. When the ceremony was concluded the party left the
parsonage. Dinner was served at Lyndhurst, and the bride and bridegroom
hastened to the railway station to leave for their journey East.