Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-26

1t may not De necessary TO repeat the
story as to how these young men started
for the appointed trysting place, how they
failed to find PierSon, but saw his basket
at the abutment of the bridge, and think
ing that he might have been mistaken as
to which end of the bridge he was to have
gone, had left his basket earnest of good
faith at one end and gone to- the other, they
started across to seek him. Then In the
darkness they stumbled upon the mangled
body of their companion.
Went Over the Ground.
I went down that steep hillside from the
stony parapets of Kenyon College, accom-
panied by one of these young men who had
gone out to meet him. 1 went as the
avowed friend and classmate of the dead
boys father. Together we walked over
what we supposed was the natural way
that young Pierson would have stumbled
his dark way down that forest hill with its
frosty carpet of autumn leaves. 1 talked
Pierson, Kenyon, father, alma mater, life's
brevity, eternity, from the celtic cross that
crowns the spot that the first prayer was
ever made on Gambler hill to the spot on
that dreary bridge where Persons body
lay, and I'll stake a life that boy knows no
more of how young Pierson met his death
than I do
Well, let us see what happened next
Yorke, the plighted brother of the boy, nay.
MS most intimate companion, friend and
y
drag the body from the bridge to avoid an
other train
If anybody tied or bound young Pierson
TO that track or left him there. 80 that he
could not extricate himself" as Coroner
scarborough puts 1t, it must have been a
MEMBER OF the Delta Kappa Epsilon frater-
NIFTY. If that was done it must have been
the custom, take it, of the society, and
with the knowledge of adj concerned Grant
them that it was done with the intenfion
only or cruel yet most culpabe horseplay.
II strikes me that in that case the discoy-
eltt Oh the act, whether perpetrator him
ser OF not, would have at once fed to his
fellows In order that he might at least com
pei them to share the result
what happened here? Leaving two COM
panlons with the body. the third. Yorke,
rushed up the college and falls gasping in
the arms of the president of the college
ana tells him ALL Persons watch stopped
at 941 pm. The chimes of the Church of
the HOLY Spirit opposite President Pierce's
nome, were changing 10:15 when the ghast-
~ forke stumbles breathless into his pres
ence and gives the world the first an
nouncement of the tragedy He has
traversed mile of hill work in utter dark
ness In thirty minutes to tell his preceptor
the awful tale.
Members Learn the Truth.
From banquet hall spread with viands
10 complete the festival, after the ritual,
with the word that his son is hurt, Person
the father, and the members rush. Then
President Pierce tells the awful truth.
Pierson himself assured knowing in his
own mind apparently that his son had gooe
OH alone with no suspicion that rumor was
to set the whole countryside afiame by
morning that his son had been murdered by
ms friends, thinking only of his invalid
VIE IN far-Om Cincinnati, demands a. train
and the immediate transportation of the
Hill
hG hz,J,
makes a complete examination and the
question of summoning coroner Is brushed
away IN the anxiety to assauge the grief of
the stricken parents.
But the news Is now af1oat. A free tele-
phone arrangement in the county sends the
word abroad, and before residents of the
college town are aware of the facts next
morning the coroner, with a corps of
deputy sheriffs, Mount Vernon police and
excited reporters, arrive upon the scene
The Kenyon students have tied a man to
the railroad tracks and he was slaughtered.
That Is the first word the Mount Vernon
coroner, and several other phones from
the farmer folk are urging that official to
ayenge the honor of the county.
Then comes the clash. The college au-
thorities resent the assumption. The
coroner takes this as an effort to conceal
the facts. A fervid press adds fuel in
plenty to the flames and the country is in
confiagration.
Talk With the Coroner.
I talked two hours with Coroner Scar
borough in Mount Vernon today. He gave
me the time obligingly, though a deputy
was assuring that he would have another
one for him" in a few minutes. another
one meaning that man had taken NOR
phine and must become the subject of
judicial interest.
Coroner Scarborough has been accused OF
being overzealous. do not think he was
whit overZealous. The mistake was that
the college authorities should have met him
on different grounds. President Pierce says
he tried to do so, but the coroner refused to
hear him.
Whatever 1t may be Town and Gown
are at outs. Be that as II may, after all
my questioning Coroner Scarborougi's basis
for his verdict as near as l can ascertain 1t
is the fact that the engineer Of the train
saw no one on the bridge, and that the
marks of the catastrophe are to be found
on the tracks and brake beam of the engine
wheels, while there are no marks upon the
pilot or cowcatcher. To these he adds the
statement that there were marks on the
dislocated wrists and about the ankles
which all together, to his mind indicate
that Pierson was bound and lying between
the tracks when stricken down.
He says that young Barber the boy who
was awaiting companions from another fra
teTnity at the opposite side of the bridge,
acknowledged that he was tied with a rope
on the track. This Barber to me absolutely
denied having said.
1t seems that the rope which initiates are
required to take with them to await their
doom is used to lead them back to the
lodge. The absorbent cotton is used for a
blindfold under the handkerchief and the
chloroform for scare" Barber says he
had all these appliances and was led away
blindfolded at the end of q rope, but he was
never tied in any way.
Harry n. Halls. a graduate of Kenyon
College, former head of the Kenyon Military
Academy and now the head of Harcourt
Seminary for Young Ladies, is member
OF the Psi Epsilon fraternity, an organiza-
ton which has always been a jealous rival
of the "Dekes" He is positively convinced
that there was no rope used In any way
upon Pierson or upon any student that he
has ever known in twenty-five years of
Kenyon life except TO lead candidate to
his lodge.
History Of Kenyon College.
Kenyon College is not an institution of
mere local fame. 1t was founded as an
Episcopal school by Bishop Chase from
donations given by the most distinguished
people of England. Lord Gambler, for
whom Bishop Chase named the town, was
an English admiral. who presided over the
commission That signed the treaty Of Client
He was the friend OF Henry Clay. one of
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