Evening journal., 1907-05-07

when he came to Dover yesterday with
his little son John. playmate of
Horace on the fateful day. Prattling
innocently, as If ignorant Of the trag-
edy that befell his little brother.
JolAny Marvin skipped along beside
his father.
And during nearly every minute the
two were in Dover DIR. Marvin did
not release his clutch on the hand of
little John. Hand in hand they walk
ed together as if the sorrowing father
feared to part with the touch of his
little sons hand lest he, too, should
fade away to be seen no more alive.
1t was a picture that touched many
hearts.
Sentiment is Turning
In the absence Of wounds or of any
evidences of violence on the body
of little Horace Marvin that was
found in a pool on the Bay Meadows
Farm marsh sentiment was turning
to-day to the belief that the boy was
not placed in the water after he had
died Of starvation, but that he wan
dered there and perished of cold and
want OF food.
Unless the report of City Bacteriolo-
lgist Robin, of Wilmington, shows
traces of poisoning in the boys stom-
lach, the last peg upon which believers
in the foul play theory have hung their
hopes will have been uprooted, and
nothing will be left but a conclusion
that little Horace strayed away from
play that had ost its novelty on the
haystack and fell through the ice on
the pool, where he froze and starved to
death less than a half mile from the
home in which his unsuspecting father
lived.
Explain His Disappearance
In the light of analysis of the strange
disappearance this seeming conflict in the
natural death theory is easily explained.
The Marvin lad disappeared from the
hay stack on the morning of March 4.
1t was a cold day. but not so bleak as the
frigid spell of several days that preceded
it, Ice was on the ponds and pools of the
marsh, the wells on the Marvin farm were
/ frozen over, and foes lined the Delaware
bay shore along the Marvin estate.
A drainage ditch intervened between the
Marvin home and the pool in which the
boys body was found. He easily could
have walked across that dftch which
now. shorn OF icy covering, would be a
barrier to the lads progress toward the
death hole.
Search Long Deferred
The boy disappeared on the morning Of
March 4, shortly after several wagons
loaded with corn and other articles drove
away to the Woodddan farm. The natural
thought Of Dr. Marvin and others about
his home was that little Horace had
I taken a ride on the wagon. Eight hours
later. when the little fellow did not re-
/ turn a search was begun. Wooddall was
asked if Horace had ridden over with him
but all the drivers said the boy had not
gone with them. and when they left
he was playing on the haystack.
Then it was that a quest had begun
/ for Horace. He had been gone more than
eight hours, and the suppostlon now is
that he wandered out on the marsh, and
fell partly through the ice on the very
| pool IN which his body was found. Help
less. he gradually may have become be-
numbed. Within six or eight hours he
would have digested all the food in his
stomach.
Began at Dusk
It was dusk when the search began in
earnest. and practically impossible TO see
the boy If he lay PROSTATE out on the
marsh. BY morning he probably would
have been dead. and as the warm weather
which came suddenly melted the ice hi.
body could have sunk into the pool which
contains seventeen inches of water
This may or may not be what hap
pened to little Horace, but the eX-
PLANTATION is being given to-day for
what it is worth.
While there has been much talk of
the little fellows body being well pre-
served, as a matter of fact it was not
in such a good condition as the public
would imagine. Tho cold weather
and water would act as a preserva-
tive for it for part of the time, but
decomposition had set IA and the body
was in bad shape for dissection on
Sunday when the autopsy was made
by DIR. Wilson and his assistants. That
the boy had been dead for more than
a month the physicians agreed.