Harry Thaw, the young American millionaire who shot the architect
Stanford White in 1906, escaped on Saturday from the Matteawan Lunatic Asylum, where he has been confined for the last five years. A taxicab drove up to the door of the asylum, and when one of the asylum attendants appeared at the gate seeking admission and the door was opened, Thaw, who was taking exercise in the yard, dashed past the gate- keeper, leaped into the taxi-cab, and drove off, changing to a powerful motor-car which was in waiting at a short distance down the road. The success of the plot, which was evidently carefully planned and timed, reflects strangely on the dis- cipline of the asylum, and has led to suggestions of wholesale bribery. Thaw has since been recognized and arrested in Canada, and there is now the unedifying prospect of a legal wrangle between Canada and the United States. Perhaps the most unpleasant feature of the case is the frank way in which the wealth of the fugitive is canvassed as an element in hie favour. It is also asserted that the deadlock over the New York governorship favours his chances for the time being, an ominous comment on the relations of politics and justice.
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