Show Lfnwritten Law 1 Notable Instances of Its Application r iI Bb Application Bereaved the Emperor Austria Who Took jvo Rerenfte tot the Killing of jilt Soo Prince Baldwin of Belgium licit Apparent to the II Throne Violated Its Provisions Provi-sions and His Slayer an Indignant Indig-nant Husband Was Never Troubled by the Authorities It Ias 1 Relation Too in European Eu-ropean Countries to the Due to Cheating and to Suicide rcordin to It the Correspond eat in a Divorce Cage Is Expected Ex-pected Perjure himself Like Gentleman Unles Stan a ford White Was Actually Caught in the Act of Insulting Mr Harry Than Bar Hits hand Wall Not Justified w Kill lung Run Under the Unwritten Ian Of all the popular phrases of the gush language there is none that more misused and misunderstood an that of unwritten law And 5t at the present tlmo it is on every idys lips In connection with the al for murder of Harry K Thaw ITo I-To judge from popular comment e would Imagine that its Jurlsdic i in was restricted exclusively to one at the most two particular classes i homicide But It covers a far rgcr round and affects almost ery phase of our life Among the several stories current incernlng the mysterious tragedy of ieyerllng which robbed the vener lie emperor of Austria of his only I n the most generally accepted erslon Is that he was slain by the i odes of Baroness Mario Vetsera or se that he was subjected by them i such bodily Injuries that ho blew I Is brains out the men having learned the princes Intention to cut adrift om the girl In compliance with his edge to his parents Instead of rrylng her aftter securing a dl rca from Crown Princess Stephanie I tlnce Baldwin Paid Penalty in Brussels In the Avenue Louise reign visitors are still shown a de rted house where Prince Baldwin of fclgium favorite nephew of King Leo lid and heir apparent to the thrones as killed by an indignant husband princely but not royal rank In is instance however the tragedy as followed by a separation of the bble couple involved Baldwin of Iglum In spite of his popularity of the widowed Duchess of Wellington Welling-ton was able to save him from a fate such as this while acting as charge daffaires of Great Britain at Vienna some 12 or 15 years ago Col Wellesley Welles-ley who was also A D C to Queen Victoria became Involved In the Austrian Aus-trian capital In a quarrel about a woman wom-an with an Austrian nobleman Count K who resented to such an extent his behavior as well as his remarks that he struck him with his glove across the face and challenged him to fight Wellesley refused however to accept the challenge on the ground that by so doing ho would render himself him-self liable to dismissal from the army owing to the fact that tho English articles of war prescribe tho penalty of being cashiered for every officer Involved in a duel either as a principal princi-pal or as a second Called to Task by His General Wellesley was at once relieved of his ofllco of charge daffaires at tho suggestion of the Viennese court which did not relish the Idea of being compelled to accord diplomatic honors I hon-ors to a man who had thus shown the white feather and shortly after his return to London one ofJils fellow officers of the Guards Capt John Del scour who had witnessed tho affair at Vienna brought tho matter before tho notice of the other members of the corps In due course it reached the ears of the old duke of Cambridge cousin of Queen Victoria and generalissimo general-issimo of the British army He sent I for Col Wellesley and asked him if It were true that he had taken shelter behind the army regulations to avoid t i I jd f r f r i I 9 J k all 7 r I r VIII jb RrHcE at DwK I N i t c a t tt C 4 x i Y 1 0 eY i3r1lid Y Or IlIOfffE LV JJlI7RJ tJE Ctr Dl7tffiE 7I CHDUKE Orro as universally regarded as having I colved his deserts and his assailant > keel upon as having complied within with-in requirements of the code of social hies Nor was lie over troubled by o authorities In connection there Hh and remained a respected memo T of his class and of tho communl In general and of society both at OIno and abroad When tho late Edward Parker Dean Dea-n found A Abolllo tho French club man and race horso owner In the apartments of Mrs Deacon on that memorable night In tho hotel at Nice and shot him as ho endeavored to conceal himself behind a sofa he acted strictly in accordance with the demands of unwritten law and it may safely be assumed that If he had been n Frenchman Instead of a foreigner and an American at that he would never have been sentenced to even the brief term of Imprisonment to which he was condemned Unwritten Law and the Duello Duelling Is even more strictly forbidden for-bidden by law in England than on tho continent But If a member of the English diplomatic service or an officer offi-cer of tho English army or navy re celves while abroad a challenge to light or is made the subject of an indignity in-dignity calling for redress to fight ho Is forced to resign not only his commission com-mission but also the membership of his clubs Not even all the Immense social Influence of colonel the lIon Frederick Wellesley brother of tho late Earl Cowley and now husband at quarrel of a tho consequence Vienna thereby bringing discredit to tho corps of officers of tho famous regiment to which he belonged Wells Icy of course was obliged to the of admit that he had been guilty charge Then said tho duke you had better leave tho army exclaimed Leave the army sir the colonel But what urn I to do If I leave the army Turn dancing muster find bu damned to you replied the burly 1 old royal prince swinging on his heel and ordering his aide de cainp In waiting wait-Ing to show tho colonel to tho door A few days later It was announced that Col Wellesley who In his boy hood had been a page of honor of Queen Victoria had been graciously permitted to resign his commission in the I army How an Emperor Avenged a Blow In the same way that European l officers of-ficers are debarred from fighting duels with people of tho working classes so are they precluded from meeting royal personages and crowned heads on the field of honor if n young olllcer during a heated argument with some comrade of royal or Imperial Im-perial rank receives a blow ho has no alternative but to blow his own brains out On ono memorable occasion Emperor Em-peror Francis Joseph Intervened in person to prevent an act of selfdo structlon of tills kind The lato Archduke Arch-duke Otto his nephew while en deavoilng In a drunken freak to cbn slop extorted from him In a moment of exasperation and when smarting under a sense of Injustice resulted In the ruin of his political career and In his being blacklisted by English society so-ciety Perhaps Uio most mortal of all sins In the eyes of unwritten law is unfair play at cards and there aro few families fami-lies of birth and breeding on either side of the Atlantic who would not infinitely In-finitely prefer to have a murderer among their relatives than a man who has been caught cheating at tho card table For It inflicts a stain upon the family escutcheon which can never bo effaced and which Is remembered remem-bered against the house concerned from generation to generation A man caught In tho act of unfair play Is exempt from punishment by tho tribunals of tho land But tho penalty Imposed upon him by unwritten law Is Immeasurably more severe than anything that statute could devise For instctad of being restricted to himself It extends to those who are nearest and dearest to him and ho gI wit g r ryt I i P r t + 1 I IIIZ ruRNDfINCNc 1 ftl1t5TER fiN 8E i r t DAMNED TO V a MRS 2 P DMCON 1 V r A gPANFSE 0 4ANK COMM7YNG RUR EOW 1 D PARAE P Z coc duct a bacchanalian party of men and I women into the apartments of his wife the Archduchess Mario Josopha In order as ho explained that they might see what an archduchess looked like In bod was stopped In tho corridor leading to her apartments by I his aidedecamp who drawing his I sabre threatened to run through tho I body anyone excepting tho archduke who endeavored to pass him Tho crowd sobered by the seriousness i serious-ness of the situation hesitated and then withdrew But the archduke was so beside himself with rage at being balked in his project that ho struck the young officer blow In the face The matter was brought to the Immediate I Imme-diate notice of tho commander of the j I garrison who communicated by telegraph tele-graph with the emperor Francis I Joseph ordered that the young officer bo prevented from doing himself any I harm at all costs hastened to the scene from Vienna and having assembled as-sembled all the principal offlcva summoned sum-moned both his nephew Archduke I Otto and the young aidodecamp to his presence I I Apostrophizing the latter in his I kindliest 1 manner he exclaimed I have to express my gratitude to you sir for having undertaken the defense de-fense of my dear niece at a moment when she was In urgent need of your protection In so doing you received a blow for which you yourself cannot obtain satisfaction and which you i could not return But I can redress that Indignity for you and with that i he strode tip to Archduke Otto and i i before all present slapped his face I I thereupon ordering him under arrest for a period of six months and deprived de-prived him of his command The young officer was promoted had decorated deco-rated But had It not been for the emperors interference and for the manner in which ho avenged tho affront af-front Imposed upon the young A D P tho latter would havo been compelled com-pelled by unwritten law to havo blown out his brains Unwritten Law and Perjury Perjury Is according to every crimInal crim-inal code of Europe a felony yet tho corespondent In a divorce case no matter how guilty Is compelled by the unwritten law to perjure himself In tho witness box like a gentleman and failure to comply with this requirement re-quirement entails an ostracism which by many is regarded as worse than death as ono of the most eminent of English statesmen found to his cost In endeavoring to exculpate himself him-self of the unfounded charge of hav married woman ing betrayed a young whom ho had known from childhood I I he admitted under examination that I he bad been guilty of too great In I tlumcy with her i other This confea 01 hall no alternative but either to kill himself or else to disappear and seek his fortune in some remote foreign country where disguised as to appearance ap-pearance silent as to his origin and under an assumed name ho passes his time in fear and trembling lest he should be recognized and bo once more driven forth like the wandering Jew of old from his temporary refuge Construed Inaults There are all sorts of minor provisions pro-visions of the unwritten law which it would take too much time and space to enumerate hero but among which may bo mentioned the rule which construes con-strues it as an Insult when a man In filling his neighbors glass slant the I bottle backward Instead of forward More than ono sanguinary duel has been fought to the personal knowledge knowl-edge of the writer In Austria for a breach of etiquette of this kind In the same way In the orient if In showing the blade of a sword to an acquaintance one happens to turn the edge thereof toward him ho will consider con-sider his honor Impugned and if by any chance ho Is a Japanese of rank he Is capable of going off and committing commit-ting suicide by ripping himself open leaving a document stating that having hav-ing been Insulted honor demanded that he should commit harakiri and calling upon his nearest relatives to avenge him In Relation to the Thaw Case With regard to the application of the unwritten law to tho caso of Harry Thaw there are several considerations con-siderations to be noted in endeavoring to bring it to bear upon tho tragedy of Madison Squaro roof garden If young Mrs Thaw had been without any stormy antecedents and had been subjected by Stanford White to indignities indig-nities and Insulting proposals since her marriage her husband would havo been justified according to tho terms of the unwritten law as understood abroad In shooting him though of I course it would havo been moro chivalrous chiv-alrous to have given him a chanco of defending himself Instead of taking him at a disadvantage and unarmed But unfortunately young Mrs Thaw is not without a past that she was educated at tho cost of White and had known him first as a schoolgirl school-girl then as a model and finally as a chorus girl for several years prior to her marriage cannot ho denied Her relations with White before becoming Mrs Thaw and also her career in Now York and Paris prior to her marriage mar-riage were of a nature to debar her husband from shooting White unless he had actually caught him in the very act of Insulting her That at leant is the status of the ThawWhite drama from the point of view of unwritten un-written lawNew York World |