Chicago Tribune
YOUNGER THOMAS MAKES
TRIANGLE INTO QUADRANGLE
Professor’s Son Attends Mrs. Granger, Too Ill to Go to Court.
The triangle at the home of Prof. W. I. Thomas, where Mrs. Thomas is entertaining the young woman with whom her husband was caught in a hotel room, became a quadrangle last night, when it developed that the professor’s son is acting as nurse to Mrs. Pearl Granger, who admitted her love for the professor after their arrest. The younger Thomas is a hospital interne.
The “scholarly” attentions of the father were replaced by the medical attentions of the son at the instance (sic?) of Mrs. Thomas, who, since her husband, with “absurd childishness,” was caught in the hotel with the lightly clad young woman, has assumed control of the situation.
Mrs. Granger Still Ill.
Mrs. Thomas said last night that Mrs. Granger, the “other woman,” was able to take some nourishment, but that she would not permit her to leave her bed today in order to attend Morals court, where she and the professor are scheduled to answer charges of disorderly conduct. This, despite the statements of Detectives George Carleton and J. W. Murphy that they had received assurances that the professor’s “soul mate” would be in court.
Dr. Henry W. Cheney of 6041 Kenwood avenue was called into attend Mrs. Granger yesterday as Mrs. Thomas preferred to have an outside doctor, although her son, Dr. William A. Thomas, is practicing as an interne. The son, however, is acting as nurse for Mrs. Granger.
Dr. Cheney said last night that the army officer’s pretty young wife, whose escapade with the Chicago university professor has set the Chicago literary work by the ears, is suffering from overwrought nerves, but that she is able to take ordinary nourishment.
Miss Raines Moves Out
The motherly care to which Mrs. Thomas is treating the recipient of her husband’s attentions was extended to Miss Delia Raines, the artist model sister of Mrs. Granger, but Miss Raines left the happy family party yesterday after breakfast. Mrs. Thomas said that she went to seek other quarters.
With Mrs. Thomas in charge of the conversational reins, the professor, accosted yesterday by reporters when he was taking a stroll, declared that he had nothing to say. A cigaret bobbed nonchalantly from the lips of the eccentric writer on sex as he told the reporters that he had not decided whether or not to later submit to the public a statement of his case.
It developed yesterday that the trip taken by the professor and his pretty companion to the room in the Brevoort followed a morning spent in sociological study at the Court of Domestic Relations, where the savant and his attractive pupil listened to the marital woes of others.
Mrs. Thomas Secretive
Mrs. Thomas last night refused to deny or affirm reports that her husband would plead guilty to misconduct with Mrs. Granger when arraigned in court today. It had been reported that he would take such a course to avoid further publicity.
The case, as it affects the University of Chicago, where Thomas holds the chair of sociology, will probably reach a head today with the arrival from Washington of President Harry Pratt Judson. Prior to his departure from Washington last night Dr. Judson refused to discuss the Thomas case.
Mrs. Granger is not a stranger to Chicago, it was learned yesterday. Two years ago she and her soldier husband, then a telegraph operator, lived in an inexpensive rooming house conducted by Mrs. Karoline Jahnson at 1814 North Dearborn street. Her sister, Miss Raines, the artist’s model, also lived there at times.
It was learned last night that operative of the office of Hinton G. Clabaugh, chief of investigations for the department of justice, are still following clews in an effort to ascertain whether Prof. Thomas is guilty of a Mann act violation.
