Willmar tribune., 1908-05-06
THE AID, VERSUS
SUPERSTITION.
(Original.]

(Original]
This story illustrates two points
that truth is stranger than fiction and
that superstitious evidence is bad. 1t
happened at the beginning of the last
century. If given as fiction the author
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 disap-
pearance of one of it's citizens, Russell
Colvin. Two young men, Stephen and
Jesse BOurn, were 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
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 knife and buttons were
found that were identified as having
belonged to the missing Colvin. The
A)OulA U4OIAOAo "VAV 0AANoSOu'
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 a jackknife.
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
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. A letter dated Shrewsbury,
N. J., Dec. 6, 1919, and signed by a
Mrs. Chadwick appeared in the New
York Evening Post, stating that a de-
ranged man named Russell Colvin had
been there five years before. The let,
ter was considered hoax.
| IN 1rin r+
James Whelpley Of New York, who
had known Colvin, resolved to follow
up this clew. He tracked the man
who had been seen at Shrewsbury to
Dover, N. j., fifty miles away. Mr.
Whelpley went there and found his
old acquaintance, Russell Colvin. He
had been there ever since 1918.
The evidence that had determined
Colvin to have been murdered and the
process by which he was discovered is
singular illustration Of the blending
Of the superstition of the century with
the more enlightened methods Of the
eighteenth century. He had been
pronounced dead by ghost seen in 8
dream. Those he accused were placed
under that inquisitorial process ir
vogue during the two previous cen
turies. The clergy were still power
and a 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, candle compared witt
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 thu
city council gave him money to go tt
Manchester, where he arrived about {
month before his murderers were t.
have been hanged. OF course hi
coming had been announced by mail
The prisoners we're released, the be
levers in dreams chimed in with thos'
. who had believed in the Bourns' in
nocence, and the whole town, will
with excitement, REINFORCED by dele
cations from the surrounding country
prepared to welcome the man calle.