The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-10-06
&. 4s,se~s~. 5000. 49,: 800:
THE AID. VERSUS
RSTIGION.


happened 1t the beginning of the last
century. If given as fiction the author
would he considered to have exhausted
his powers of inventing reasonable
happenings. and as fact it is liable 70
he put down as 4 tissue of lies.
In 1872 the then little village Of Mau-
chester. Vt. was shocked at the diSap-
pcarance of one of its citizens. Russell
Colvin. Two young men. Stephen and
Jesse BoUsn. We're suspected of the
murder. Just before the disappear
ance Stephen and Colvin 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 the
mystery of Colvin's disappearance came
10 be regarded as one of those riddles
that would never he solved. Then one
night in 1919 an uncle of Stephen anu
Jesse Rourn dreamed that the ghost o.
Co.vin appeared to him, denounced the
two Bouin boys as his murderers ana
said they had buried the body in the
cellar. The uncle gave the Ghostly
testimony to the authorities.
\ century ago dreams were supposed
to he reliable sources of information.
and ghosts denouncing their murdercE~
was not unusual. Now We know that
dreams are nothing more than the
working Of the brain i'll sleep. and, as
for ghosts they are principally interest
ing to societies for psychical research.
Nevertheless the cellar floor was dug
up. and knife and buttons We're
found that were identified as having
belonged to the missing Colvin. The
BoGrn brothers were arrested.
In time Jesse Rourn. eXhorted by his
spiritual adviser confessed that he
and his brother Stephen and their IA
Their. after Stephen had knocked Cor
vim down. had carried him to the cellar
and cut his throat with Il iackknife
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 precludcG
any doubt whatever that the first was
genuine. Stephen Bourn after time
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.
1880.
Despite the double confession there
were persons SO obstinate in their
opinions as to hold that the men were
innocent and some so hard headed as
to doubt even that Colvin was dead.
Some of these took it upon themselves
to insert advertisements in number
of papers for the missing man. Then
came another Of these chapters of
events. \ letter dated Shrewsbury,
n. J.. Dec. 6. 1910, and signed by a
! Mrs. Chadwick appeared in the New
York Evening Post. stating that Il de-
ranged man named Russell Colvin had
been there five years before. The let
ter was considered 4 hoax.
In the Coivin case it was different.
James Nhelpley of New York. who
had known Coivin. resolved to follow
up this clew lie tracked the man
who had been seen at Shrewsbury to
Dover, \. J.. fifty miles away. Mr.
Nhelpley went there and found his
Old acquaintance. Russell Colyin. lie
had been there ever since 1913.
The evidence that had determined
Colviu to have been murdered and the
process by which he was discovered j.
a singular illustration of the blending
of the superstition of the century with
the more enlightened methods of the
eighteenth century. He had been
dream. Those he accused were placed
under that inquisitorial process in
vogue during the two previous cen
turtles. The clergy were still a power
and 4 clergyman exhorted the accused
to confess, as those accused of witch
craft had been eXhOrted to confess
Then comes in the dawn of more
enlightened age the little newspaper
Of that period. a candle compared with
the searchlight of today. to cast its
feeble rays upon the victim and lights
up the truth.
Mr. Whelpley took the murdered
man with him to New York, and the
, city council gave him money to go to
Manchester. where he arrived about n
month before his murderers We're to
have been hanged. OF course his
coming had been announced by mail.
The prisoners were released, the be
levers in dreams chimed in with those
who had believed in the Bourns' in
nocence. and the whole town. wild
with excitement, REINFORCED by dele
cations from the surrounding country
prepared to welcome the man called
back from the dead. A salute was
fired from cannon and small arms.
Stephen Bourn firing the first piece.
Since that day the early newspaper
issued occasionally the printer