Evening journal., 1907-09-16
THE AID. VERSUS
SUPERSTITION.
foririnal.l

would be considered to have exhausted
his powers Of inventing reasonable
happenings, and as fact It Is liable to
be put down as tissue Of lies.
In 1912 the then little village OF Man.
chester. Vt, was shocked at the dlsap-
pearance Of one Of it's citizens, Russell !
Colvin. Two young men, Stephen and /
Jesse Bourn, We're suspected OF tho |
murder Just before the disappear /
ance Stephen and Colvln had quarreled |
and Stephen had knocked Colvin down |
with a club. This had been seen by
persons who were ready to testify TO
the fact.
But so long as Colvin had not been
killed, not even seriously injured, this
was not sufficient evidence for his con-
viction, the Bourns were not arrested,
and the excitement gradually died
away. Seven years passed, and tho
mystery of Colvin's disappearance came
to be regarded as one Of those riddles
that would never be solved. Then one
night in 1919 an uncle Of Stephen and
Jesse Bourn dreamed that the ghost Of
Colvin appeared to him, denounced the
two Bourn boys as his murderers and
said they had buried the body in the
cellar. The uncle gave the ghostly
testimony TO the authorities.
A century ago dreams were supposed
to be reliable sources Of information,
and ghosts denouncing their murderers
was not unusual Now we know that
dreams are nothing more than the
working OF the brain IN sleep. and, as
for ghosts. they are principally interest
ing to societies FOR psychical research.
Nevertheless the cellar floor was dug
up, and a knife and buttons were
found that were identified as having
belonged to the missing Colvln. The
Bourn brothers we've arrested.
In time Jesse BOurn, exhorted by his
spiritual adviser, confessed that he
and his brother Stephen and their IA
ther after Stephen had knocked Col
vim down. had carried him TO the cellar
and cut his throat with n jackknlfe.
The next year they managed to remove
most OF the remains Of their victim.
The confession Of one man may turn
out to be false but there was another
confession in this case that precluded
any doubt whatever that the first was
genuine. Stephen Bourn after a time
Z admitted that what his brother had
said was true. The father and the two
] sons were convicted and sentenced to
= be hanged on the 2sth Of January,
d 1890
d Despite the double confession there
G were persons SO obstinate in their
= opinions as to hold that the men were
p innocent and some so hard headed as
to doubt even that Colvin was dead
" Some Of these took It upon themselves
d, to insert advertisements In a number
/, OF papers for the missing man. Ther
n came another Of these chapters Of
s. events. A letter dated Shrewsbury
= N. j., Dec. 6, 1910, and signed by q
e Mrs. Chadwick appeared in the New
r York Evening Post, stating that de
g. ranged man named Russell Colvin hat
d been there Ave years before. The let
n ter was considered a hoax.
n In the Colvin case It was different
;, James Whelpley Of New York, VIII,
- had known Colvin, resolved TO follow
!, up this clew. He tracked the MAJ
~ who had been seen at Shrewsbury 4
Dover, n. j., fifty miles away. Mr.
Whelpley went there and found hi
old acquaintance, Russell Colvin. HI
ze had been there ever since 1913.
The evidence that had determined
lg Colvin to have been murdered and tn
process by which he was discovered
er a singular illustration of the blending
OF Of the superstition Of the century witt
the more enlightened methods Of tn
to eighteenth century. He had beei
40 pronounced dead by n ghost seen in
dream. Those he accused were places
so under that inquisitorial process Il
~ vogue during the two previous cen
turtles. The clergy were still power
and a clergyman exhOrted the accuse
to confess. as those accused of witch
craft had been eXbOrted to confes:
M Then comes in the dawn OF a NOR
= enlightened age the little newspape
ps' OF that period. candle compared wit
o. the searchlight OF today. to cast II
feeble rays upon the victim and light
C. up the truth.
ye Mr.. Whelpley took the murdere
man with him TO New York, and III
"a city council gave him money to go
~. Manchester where he arrived about
month before his murderers were
~ have been hanged. OF course h
by coming had been announced by mai
The prisoners were released, the b
of levers in dreams chimed in with tho'
at who had believed in the Bourns' Il
nocence, and the whole town, Wi
IN with excitement, re-enforced by del
.1s cations from the surrounding counu
prepared TO welcome the man calle
back from the dead. A salute WI
fired from a cannon and small arm
AN stephen Bourn firing the first piece.
-. Since that day the early newspape
or issued occasionally-when the print
eat had nothing better TO do-has grow
est from size no bigger than the lett
lily sheet then used to its hundreds
ace pages daily. It has continued to i
ISL bare the secrets Of the world.
eht lights up dark corners where skel
ny tons would otherwise rot; It brings
- gether parents and children, brothe
and sisters, lovers. who have lost o.
y another: It tells the world Of usef
III articles that save labor and that CO
81 tinually add to our comfort. But II
questionable II 1t has ever done n b.