St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-09-27
DROWNED IN LAKE CHAMpLAIN
A Boston Man and q prominent BurIing-
ton Merchant Drowned.

A. L. Wright, a Boston merchant,
and Van Sicklen, one of BurlingtOn's
leading business men, were both drown.
ed in Lake Champlain last week. The
first intimation of the accident received
by friends in Burlington IA the news
that Mr.. Wright's body had been
washed ashore on the beach near Sand
bar bridge, about 10 miles north OF
Burlington. He went out on a fishing
trip with John Van Sicklen, of the firm
of Van Sicklen & Spaulding, on Tues
day the 18th. Wright's body was
found entangled in netting, and the
boat, which came ashore, was upset
Van Sicklen was also supposed to be
drowned and a search for his body was
Immediately begun, the friends hoping
that he might be found alive on some
small island in the lake, but at the
time of writing the body had not beer
for1d.
The Free Press says that the two
Tuesday for Sandbar bridge IN a hunt
ing and fishing trip. They started in 6
small row boat about IL feet long, in
tending to row there and back, re-
turning Wednesday evening. This il
bnO ldSb LudI TX COIt1iulJ huOWA vi
them. In speaking of the proposed
trip to a friend, Mr.. Wright expressed
himself as feeling some misgivings
about starting out in SO small a boat
loaded as heavily as it would be, and
that he preferred to drive out to the
bridge, but that "Jack" wanted the
row. The boat vas undoubtedly too
heavily laden, and to that fact must
the accident be attributed. Mr.. Van
Sicklen was a good swimmer, thor
Oughly familiar with the management
of all kinds of boats in all kinds of
weather, while Mr.. Wright had but
little experience in boating.
Mr.. Wright had during the past year
or so lost all of his five children by
diphtheria and Mrs. Wright, a con-
firmed invalid, is nOt expected to live.
Among the papers found on Mr..
Wright's body was a letter from his
aged mother at Worcester, Mass. He
"a about 40 years old and was one of
the most successful as well as one of
the most popular commercial travellers
on the road. Mr.. Van Sicklen was a
young man of 81. He was the young
est son of F. M. Van Sicklen, president
of the Howard National bank, his
mother having died about a ear ago.
After leaving the Burlington High
school he entered the University of
Vermont but left college in his sOpho-
more year to engage in mercantile pur-
suits, entering the wholesale grocery
house of his father, the firm then being
Van Sicklen g. Seymour. Two years
ago the old firm went out of business
and John formed a partnership with A.
C.. Spaulding, the firm name being Van
Sicklen 81 Spaulding, and the business
carried on at the 'stone %stOre," as for
many years previous. Mr.. Sicklen
married a daughter of the late Ezra
Mech of Shelburn, who, with three
children, a boy about six years of age,
a girl four and a baby boy, survive
him. He was one of the most popular
as well as prominent young men in
Burlington.
Crowley's Brain.
DR.. Spitzka. of New York, makes
the following report of his examina-
ton of the Chimpanzee CrOwley's
brain {:
Crowley's brain weighed 44O gram
mes, while that of the last chimpan-
zee which l examined weighed only
389 $500 grammes. The average
weight of the human brain is about
1850 grammes, so that Crowley's
weighed nearly one third as much as a
mans. 1t is, in fact, the finest chin
panzee brain L have YER examined and
contains one very peculiar feature
which is noticeable also in the brains
of some idiOts-namely, a c~OnvOlutiOn
of the external faces of each cerebral
hemisphere, which lies in the surface
of the brain of the chimpanzee, orang-
Outang, gorilla, idiots, and some fully
developed negroes.
l found the transverse white streaks
at the floor of the fourth venticle
family indicated. These streaks have
been supposed to be connected with
hearing-that is, with the highest
functions of hearing, among which we
may reasonably assume that the power
of discriminating between words is n
The auditory streaks are not found in
deaf mutes, but l have found them
poorly developed in the brains of i'm
beetles and we'll developed in the
brains of intelligent persons. Natu-
rally, l inferred that they were only to
be found in human brains, but l see
now that Crowley had them, though
certainly very family indicated.
Crowley was mainly defective in
those parts of the brain which control
the upright portion of man. Hence he
walked badly on his hind legs and, as
a rule, helped himself along by using
his arms.
Crowley's vocal cords, too, were i'm
perfect, and 1 am anxious to study
closely the nuclear anatomy of the
nerve that controlled the muscles of
his tongue. Crowley's friends know
that he had a pretty good tongue, but
l don't believe that he could yer have
been taught to talk.
S~heridan's Charges.
Those charges of Sheridan were the
wonder of the army. Grant saw one
at Mission Ridge, and the world knows