The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1908-09-11
THE AID. VERSUS
SUPERSTITION.
GOriginal.l

that superstitiouS evidence Is bad. IL
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 il is liable TO
be put down as a tissue of lies,
In 1912 the then little village of Man.
pearance of one of its citizens, Russell
Colvin. Two young mon. Stephen and
Jesse Bourn. were suspected of the
murder Just before the disappear
ance Stephen and CAvin had quarreled
and Stephen had Knocked Colvin down
with a club. This had been seen Ivy
persons who were ready to testify 10
the fact.
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 murierers and
said they had buried the body I'm 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 10 the missing Colvin. The
Bourn brothers were arrested.
In time Jesse Bourn, exhorted by his
spiritual adviser, confessed that he
and his brother Stephen and their fa
Their, after Stephen had knocked Col
vim down. had carried him 70 the cellar
and cut his throat with n 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 preclIdc
any doubt whatever that the FIRST WI:
genuine. Stephen Bourn after time
admitted that what his brother hai
said was true. The father and the two
sons were convicted and sentenced 10
be hanged on the 2Sth of January.
1890.
Despite the double confession there.
were persons so obstinate In their
opinions as to hold that the men We're
innocent and some so hard headed as
to doubt even that ColVin was dead.
Some of these took II upon themselves
to insert advertisements In a number
OF papers for the missing man. Then
came another of these chapters OF
events. letter dated Shrewsbury,
N. j., Dec. 9, 1910, and signed by
Mrs. Chadwick appeared In the New
York Evening Post, stating that de-
ranged man named Russell COlvin had
Deen lneTe I'VE years DelOTes Inc iel-
ter was considered hoax.
In the Colvin case 1t was different
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 70
had been there ever since 1913.
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
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 clergyman exhorted the accused
10 confess, as those accused of witch
craft had been exhorted to confess
Then comes In the dawn OF n more
enlightened age the little newspaper
Of that period, 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
month before his murderers were TO
have been hanged. OF course his
coming had been announced by mail.
The prisoners were released. the be-
levers In dreams chimed I'm 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 n cannon and small arms,
Stephen Bourn firing the first piece.
Since that day the early newspaper.
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