Chicago Daily News
PROF. THOMAS TAKEN, WOMAN
LET ALONE
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Warrants Sworn Out at South Clark Street Charge Disorderly Conduct.
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DOCTOR SAYS HE’LL TALK
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BULLETIN
Prof William I. Thomas of the University of Chicago, arrested by federal officers with Mrs. R. M. Granger at the Brevoort hotel, where he had registered under an assumed name, was late this afternoon taken into custody at his home, 6132 Kimbark avenue, by Detective Sergeant Murphy, who got state warrants against the couple to-day. Mrs. Granger was left at the Thomas home.
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Two Warrants Are Sworn Out
Warrants charging Prof. William Isaac Thomas and Mrs. R. M. Granger with disorderly conduct were issued to-day in the South Clark street Municipal court by Judge Kearns upon the request of Detective Sergeants James W. Murphy and William Bowler, assigned to the office of Hinton G. Clabaugh of the federal department of justice, following a conference between the detectives and Assistant City Prosecutor Alexander Freundlich charging a serious offense were at first asked, but the city attorney urged otherwise.
"The warrant will not be served on Mrs. Granger to-day" said Detective Murphy, "because of her illness. She is said to be a nervous wreck because of recent happenings."
With this new angle, federal authorities have virtually dropped the affair, it was said, at the office of District Attorney Clyne, and that the next official move would be the hearing of the case in the municipal morals court.
Two Women Call at Thomas’
About an hour after the issuance of the two warrants in Judge Kearns’ court two women applied at the door of the Thomas’ flat. There was a short parley, questioning on the part of a woman who answered the door, then the two mysterious women were admitted. It is believed they were policewomen, although at the same moment the two detectives to whom the warrants were issued were still in the South Clark street police station building.
Prof. Thomas denied saying that the affair is the result of a "malicious attack," but that his is going to issue a statement regarding the whole affair soon which would "be good reading."
"I am willing to stand the consequences, if there are any," he said. "I am going to stick by Mrs. Granger through thick and thin. She is a nervous wreck as a result of the things she has gone through, and is under the care of a physician.
"There will be no action taken by the university until the return to Chicago, Monday, of President Harry Pratt Judson," said Dean Albion W. Small, head of the university department of sociology.
"Mrs. Thomas must be a very remarkable woman," added the dean, "to take Mrs. Granger into her home and to consider this case in the unusually sane manner that she has."
After Mrs. Granger had made startling revelations of her feelings regarding the professor, whom she called "Dad" or Daddy," speaking of her great love for him and saying that he hoped her soldier husband would not hear of this mixup because "he would come over here and there would be shooting," the University of Chicago colony of students and faculty and Midway residents were treated to a fresh, startling sensation.
Into the Thomas Home
Mrs. Thomas took Mrs. Granger into her home, 6132 Kimbark avenue, where the three are said to have dwelt in peace and amity last night.
"Oh, yes," responded a very pleasant woman’s voice over the telephone this morning, when the Thomas home was called. The voice of the speaker was Mrs. Thomas.
"Yes, Mrs. Granger spent the night here," she continued, "and I hope she will stay indefinitely, or at least until this matter is cleared up."
Her Husband and Child
And while the three points of the triangle are dwelling in "peace and complete understanding," there is a man in the signal corps "over there." He does not know. He left a young wife trustingly.
Down in Fort Smith, Ark., there is a 3 year old child just learning to know that its daddy is a man — a man who went across to fight for right — a little child who will some time know many things.
In Fort Smith also is a mother of a girl who left film studio work in New York to be married to an earnest soldier. The mother, Mrs. Willis Raines Chowning, wept when she learned of it all, dispatches say.
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MRS. THOMAS SHIELDING WOMAN
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Professor’s Wife Treats Mrs. Granger "Like Her Own Daughter."
"She needed me yesterday, I am sorry I was not with her, so I might have protected her. She was excited and spoke
(3) indiscreetly with reporters. So to-day I would rather you would not come in."
Mrs. W. I. Thomas, feminist and charitable to her sex in the most difficult of situations, stood at the door of her apartment and spoke to reporters to-day. Behind her the spring sunshine flooded the apartment at 6132 Kimbark avenue. Somewhere in the apartment was the girl that went to the Brevoort hotel with Prof. Thomas, where he registered as "C. Roland and wife."
Girl’s Trunk at Thomas House
To-day in the absence of the girl’s mother, Mrs. Thomas is sheltering and protecting her. A trunk stands on the landing without.
"The papers were harder on Mrs. Granger than they were on my husband. I don’t know why. I have done Juvenile court work. This is only another case."
In response to a statement made by one report that Mrs. Thomas was one woman in a million, she responded simply with steadfast faith in her sex that removed the mountain of her personal experience.
Treating her as a Daughter
"No. There is nothing unusual. Many women would do the same thing. And why shouldn’t I ? I am old enough to be her mother. If I had a daughter who had acted similarly I would wish some ‘settled’ woman to aid her.
The Mrs. Thomas, with a kindly smile, extended her hands to the reporters.
"I am sorry I cannot say any more. I am sorry to have seemed inhospitable in not asking you in. But it was necessary."
And the door closed on the black clad figure and the tired face.
Herrick’s Play Is Recalled
Some one among the university friends of Mrs. Thomas recalled, in connection with the case, the play of Robert Herrick, like Mr. Thomas’s professor at the University of Chicago. The play was "The Maternal Instinct." And the friend paraphrased a sentence of the heroine to the weakening hero:
"Must I be strong for three ?"
