The gazette. (Elberton, Ga.) 1872-1881, June 30, 1875, Image 1

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The gazette., June 30, 1875, Image 1

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Newspaper Page Text■rare is on rm? toh Rowell & /^hesman - Advertising V> Agents, THiKD A CKESTMUT STS., >T. LOUIS, MO. <slfatrt<ra §usuw J. A. WREN, PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTIST, Has located for a short time at DR. EDMUNDS’ GALLERY, ELBERTON. GA. WHERE he isprepaied to execute every class of work in his line to the satisfac tion of all who bestow their patronage. Confi dent of his ability to please, he cordially iuvites a test of his skill, with the guarantee that if he doesuct pass a critical inspection it need not be taken. mch24.tf. MAKES A SPECIALTY OP Copying & Enlarging Old Pictures J. M. 4RFIELD, Fashionable Tailor, Up-Stairs, over Swift & Arnold’s Store, JELBEItrON, GEORGIA. BOOTS & SHOES. THE UNDERSIGNED RESPECTFULLY AN nounoes to the people of Eiberton and surrounding country that he has opened a first class Boot and Shoe SHOP IN ELBERTGN Where he is prepared to make any style of Boot or Shoe desired, at short notice aniwith prompt ness. REPAIRING NEATLY EXECUTED, The patronage of the public is respectfully solicited. ap.29-tf G. W. GARRECIST. LIGHT CARRIAGES & BUGSIES. J. F l . AULD, Carriage ot[ an dfact’ r ELBEKT*Oi\, GEORGIA. BEST WORKMEN! BEST WORK.! • LOWEST 'PRICES! •ood Buggies, warranted, - $125 to $l6O Common Buggies - SIOO. REPAIRING AND BLACKSMITH ING. Work done in this lino in the very best style. The Best Earners My22-1y ETaimiMrai. r\ j. snA.isr^roisr, Saddler & Harness Maker Is fully prepared to manufacture HARNESS, i?ptut BRIDLES, SADDLES, At tho ahortesk notice, in the best manner, and on reasonable terms. Shop at John S. Brown’s Old Stand. ORDERS SOLICITED. H. K. GASFIDfyE.!?, ELBERTON, GA., DEALER IN MY 60QBE, BOCEIII, HARD WARE, CROCKERY, BOOTS, SHOES, HATS Notions, &o* J, Z. LITTLE, CABINET MAKER AXSTO DERTAIIE R Will give close attention to repairing Furniture. Orders in Undertaking filled with dispatch. Shop at Lehr’s old stand. T. M. SWIFT. MACK ARNOLD SWIFT & ARNOLD, (Successors to T. M. Swift,) dealers in DR GOODS, SROCERTES, CROCKERY, AND SHOES, HARDWARE, &T, PtiVlie Square, I3IL<BERYOiV €JA* F. A. F. KOBLETT, mam SEASON, ELBERTON, GA. Will contract for work in STONE and' BRICK anywhere in Elbert county [jcl6 6m THE GAZETTE. ISTew Series. THE BOORN AFFAIR. A Strange Story of Circumstantial Evidence. The Boston Commercial Bulletin has the following : On the morning of the 26th of No vember, 1819, I read in the Rutland (Vt.) Herald this notice : “murder !” “Printers of newspapers throughout the United States are desired to publish that Stepan Boon*, of Manchester, Vefe mont. is sentoncecTFo be ” executed for the murder of Russell Colvin, who has been absent about seven years. Any person who can give information of said Colvin may life of the innocent, by making immediate communication.— Colvin is about five feet five inches high, light complexion, light hair, blue eyes, and about 40 years old. Manches ter, Vt., Nov. 26,1819.” This communication was copied very generally by newspapers, and created a great deal of inter est. Before describing events that followed, let us go back to the year 1812 and to the little town of Manchester, Vermont. Barney Boorn, an old man, had two sens, Stephen and Jesse, and a daught er, Sarah, wife of Russell Colvin, a half crazed, halfwitted day laborer. They were a bad lot, poor, ignorant, and in doubtful repute for honesty. Two mis erable hovels served them for shelter, and a few acres of pine barrens constitu ted all their possession. They raised a small quantity of potatoes and garden vegetables, and eked out a scanty liveli hood by day’s work for the neighboring farmers. In May, 1812, Colvin was at home.— In June ho was missing. At first this occasioned no remark. He was always a tramp, absent from home sometimes for weeks together. But this time he did not come back. As weeks grew into months inquiries began to be made among the neighbors about the missing man. There are no tongues for gossip like those which wag m a Yankee village. One spoke to another. Excitement grew. Wonder like a contagious disease, affect ed everybody. It was known that there had long ex isted bet veeu the old man and boys a grudge against Corvin; it was in proof that the last time the missing man was seen ho was at work with the Booms clearing stones from a field, and that a dispute was going on ; and Lewis Col vin, a boy, son of Russell, had stated that his father had struck ’ his uncle Stephen, and that the other returned the blow, and that then he, the boy, be coming frightened, ran away. Again, a Mr. Baldwin had heard Stephen Boom in answer to the inquiry as to where Colvin was, say, “He's gone to hell, I hope.” “Is he dead Stephen ?” pursued Mr. Baldwin. “I tell you again," replied the man, “that Colvin has gone where potatoes won’t freeze.” For seven years the wonder grew.— Colvin’s ghost haunted every house in Bennington county. There was no known proof that the Booms were guil ty, and yet everybody believed it. A button and jack knife were found, which Mrs. C. believed to have belonged to Russell: dreams, thrice repeated, were had by old women and kitchen girls— and ten thousand stories were in circu lation. Five years after Colvin was missed, Stephen Boorn removed to Denmark, N. Y r ., while Jesse remained at home. Af ter the former had left, sme bones were accidentally found in the decayed trunk of a tree near his house, and, though all the surgeons said to the con trary, it. was universally believed that they were part of a human skeleton.— Of course, then, they must be Colvin's bones. Jesse) was arrested, Stephen was brought back from Denmark, and both were held for examination. Al though all the testimony when sifted was found to be worthless, yet the two brothers were remanded bock to jail, and Jesse was worked upon to make him turn State's evidence. The jailor tormented hi to*' with suggestions, which his wife followed up with womanly adroitness. Neighbors helped. Beset with preaching and prayers, tracts and sermons, religions conversation and pi ous directions—told that there was no doubt in any one’s mind but that Steph en committed the murder—urged to make a clean breast of it and thus save both his body and soul, what wonder that he confessed, or was alleged to have confessed, that Stephen Boorn did mur der Russell Colvin. On September 3, 1819, the grand jury found a bill of indictment against Jesse and Stephen Boorn for the murder of Russell Colvin. William Farnsworth testified that Stephen confessed that he did it, and that Jesse helped him ; that they hid the body in the bushes, then buried it, then dug it up and burned it, and then scraped the few remains and hid them in a stump. Upon this unsup ported evidence the jury returned a ver dict oi guilty against both prisoners, and they were sentenced to be hung on Jan uary 28, 1820. And now the men came to their sen ses. They asserted their innocence.— They said that they had confessed as their last hope. Some compassion be gan to be felt for them. They might, after all, be innocent. A petition for their pardon was presented to the Leg islature. But it availed only to obtain commutation of Jesse’s sentence to im prisonment for life. No more. Steph en was to be hanged. ESTABLISHED 1859. ELBERTOX, GEORGIA, JUSTE 80, 1875. Let the reader now turn to another chapter of this strange history. In April, 1813, there lived in Dover, Mommouth county, N. J., a Mr. James Polhamus. During that month a way farer, begging food, stopped at his door. Being handy, good natured, quiet and obedient, homeless, and weak of intellect too, he was allowed to stay. He said his name was Russell Colvin, and that he came from Manchester, Vt. Not far from Pqyer lies th © little town hamlet. now invaded by the cottages and villas of Long Branch pleasure seekers. Here lived Taber Chadwick, brother-in-law to Mr. Polhamus, and intimate with tue family. Accidentally reading the New York Evening Post, he met, not with the notice of the Rutland Herald, but with an account of the trial of the Booms. C -nvinced that the Bussell Colvin, alleged to have been murdered, was the very man then living with Mr. Polhamus, he wrote to the Evening Post a letter, xvhich was published December 9, 1819., Upon the arrival of this paper at Man Chester it excited but little attention. The letter was believed to be a forgery or a fraud. Had not the best people in the town long believed the Booms to be guilty? Rad not one, perhaps both, of them made full confession ? The bones of the murdered man, a button of his coat, his jackknife—had they not all been found ? Had not an upright judge made solemn charge that the evidence was conclusive, and an intelligent jury found them guilty, and the legislature sane tioned the findings? There was no doubt of their guilt—none whatever; and therefore no benefit of a doubt had been given by jury, chief justice or court of appeal. Mr. Chadwick’s letter was, neverthe less, taken to Stephen’s cell and read aloud. The news was so overwhelming that nature could scarcely survive the shock. The poor fellow dropped in a fainting fit to the floor, and had to be recovered by dashes of cold water. Intelligence came next day from a Mr. Whelpley, formerly a resident of Man chester, that he himself had been to New Jersey and seen Russell Colvin. The members of the jury which had convict ed the Booms, however, hesitated to ac cept anything short of the man's pres ence, and Judge Chase, who had sen-’ teuced them, pointed to Stephen Boom's confession. The third day came another letter. “I have Russell Colvin with me,” wrote Mr. Whelpley. ‘I personally know It us sell Colvin,” swore Jolm Kempton, -‘he. now’ stands before me.” “It is the same Russell Colvin who married Ann Boom, of Manchester, Vt,” made affidavit Mrs Jones of Brooklyn. But it would not answer. Pride of opinion is stubborn. Doubt of opinion dies hard. Manches ter intelligence, not to say piety, was on trial, and it behooved all goo l residents to hold out against conviction to the last. However, Colvin, or Colvin’s double, was on his way. As he passed through Poughkeepsie the streets were thronged to see him. His story was printed in ev ery newspaper and told at every firesidte. At Hudson cannon were fired ; in Alba ny he was shown to the crowd from a platform ; and all along the road to Troy bands of music were playing and banners were flaunting and cheers were given as Colvin passed by. Some men become famous from having been murdered. Russell Colvin was famous because he was alive. Toward evening of Friday, December 22, 1819, a double sleigh was driven fu riously down the main street of Man chester to the tavern door. It contained Whelpley, Kempton, Chadwick, and the bewildered Russell Coivin. Immediately a crowd of men, women and children gathered around, and as the sleigh un loaded its occupants and they took their place on the piazza, exhibiting the last man to view, “That’s Russell Colvin, sure enough. There’s no doubt about it!” came from the lips of scores of the gazers. He embraced his two children, asked after the Boonm, and started for the jail. “The prison doors were unbolted and the news was told to Stephen Boorn. “Colvin has come, Stephen,” said the Rev. Rev. Lemuel Hayes. “Has he ?” asked the prisoner. “Where is he ?” “Here I am, Stephen,” said his broth er-in law. “What’s them on your legs 1 ?” “Shackles,” replied Boorn. “What for ? “Because they said I murdered you.” “You never hurt me in your life,” re plied Colvin. The sequel is soon told. Stephen Boorn was released from prison, as was Jesse also. Russell Colvin returned to New Jersey. But the judge who suffer ed an innocent man to be convicted of murder by the admission of extra-judi cial confessions —the members of the ju ry who deliberated but one hour before agreeing upon a verdict of guilty upon evidence that should not hang a dog— the deacon and church members who urged confession and preached repent ance— and the ninety seven members of the legislature, sitting as a court of ap peals, who refused rehearing of evidence —what became of them ? Governor Walker and General Jubal Early have been appointed on a commit tee to receive the statue of Stonewall Jackson, which will soon arrive at Rich mond from England to be erected on the Capitol grounds. NIAGARA’S TEMPTATIONS. The sombre aspects of the Niagara charm all young and sentimental hearts, a tender and romantic melancholy being the chosen property of youth. Niagara is the pilgrimage of love, as Stratford on-Avon is the pilgrimage of geuius, Mount Vernon the pilgrimage of patriot ism, and Santiago the pilgrimage of su perstition. At Niagara the happy lovers breathe their vows and pledge their ti’oth, in voking the lonely woods, the lashing water and rising clouds of spray, as ■ witnesses of their burning love and Steadfast' truth. At Niagara hapless %wains and maidens, crossed in their af pfsetions, blighted in their prospects wander by tlie isles and banks for one last half hour of bliss, and then, with arms entwined and hearts inseparable go headlong over. Not long ago a young man came across from the American side accompa nied by a pretty girl, and a little child. Ha hired a boat not far above the ra pids, put the lady and tho child into the stem, and throwing his oars into the boat, pushed off into the stream. An old' boatman warned him to beware of going out too far. The young man smiled and nodded, but pushed out into flood. At once the boatman saw that he lost control of his little craft, and shouted to him to edgt, about* as he was in the rush. The rower raised an oar in answer to his cries the shaft was snapped across—but whether done by accident or design, the old uian could not say. t‘God help you!” sighed the boatman ; in few more moments they were gone When friends came to see the bodies it was found to be a case of passion and despair. Loving each other madly, they had fled from home and parents, who opposed their union ; they had sought Niagara, the cure of disappointed love; arid in these waters they had found their everlasting rest. From Table Rock towards Lake On tario sweeps a chasm for many miles through which the rapids race with ave locity to make the eddies of the Danube at the Iron Gates seem tame, the whirl pools of the. Neva round the rock of Schlussel commonplace. This chasm is the favorite grave of hapless lovers and -pairing maids. The mighty fissure 1 lifts eaten it oafr, lire teeth gnawing deep e&in tiie rock from age to age. No man has yet surveyed this bed and told us how far down into the earth these vol unies of descending water plunge. You dare not push your boat into the foam. But on the outer edge of these great cir cles yon may drop your line, a hundred feet, two hundred feet, and'find no bot tom. Many persons dive* into tho deep, but never rise again to tell the tale. Their dive is taken once for all. The bodies are rarely found. Some months ago a lady came along to a hotel on tho American side—a pretty woman, young and well attired, who gave her name as the wife of a Chicage merchant. For a day or two she roamed about tho falls, the cataracts and the river banks. No one noticed her, for pretty woman are seen at eveay turn, and at Niagara every one roams about the falls, I the cataracts, and the river. In the evening of the third day she was miss ing at her hotel. A guide had seen a woman fling herself from the bridge on one of the sister isles, but whether she was drowned or not ho could not say. A telegram was sent to Chicago ; and by noon on the second day a man arrived who said he was the lady’s hus band. The guide could not assure him that the lady missing from the hotel was the woman seen spring from the bridge. He had never noticed her before. The lady from Chicago might have crossed the bridge. When high rewards were of fered for her body, men who knew every stone and gully in the ravine as they knew the logs and ladders of their own shanties, searched every crevice in the roeks, but not a trace of her could be found, and the disconsolate widower had to leave Niagara without securing legal evidence that his wife was dead. For some time she was speechless, but, on coming to her senses she told her mother that her husband has been cross with her that morning, wanting her to take a holiday when she had no mind for it; that she was a little fidgety; and that on seeing the water flow smoothing down, and looking so lovely, she saw a pleasant way to end all her wor ries. The water tempted her. But she was'glad they caught her in the rapids. For, from the moment she began to glide a helpless waif, the waters lost their power, the romance or her life flashed upon her brain—her husband’s trust, her happy home, her parent's dot ing and her children’s love. The heart cried for life—for one more trial of her duty. She was saved. Next year she came to Clifton with her child to look at the ledge from which she had sprung, and thank the guides once more for hav ing saved her life. She neves spoke of the affair again, but every summer she returns to Niagara, and those who know her notice that she lingers for a moment at the ledge, absorbed and grave, as thougflfeer heart was beating with an inarticulate prayer. Too often, it is thought, the motive of suicide is little more than tho weird and solemn tempting of the fall itself. A lady came one day to Clifton from a town on Lake Ontario, accompanied by her mother and her child. She stood on the Table Rock, listened to the boom, admired the buffaloes and fed the bears like other idlers on the spot, and seemed Voi. iv.-is To. a ,as her child, to whom these sights and j sounds were new. As they were looking at a shop window, she turned toward the water, gazed at the falling sheet an in stant, slipped’away from her companion, ran to the water's edge at Cedar place and sprang into the flood. A cry of help was raised. Some guides were [near at hand with ropes and other gear and one of them, grappled safely by the waist, plunged after her, and by a daring effort caught her as she rolled among the rocks, and carried her back to land unhurt. Another case of suicide attempted by a female under nervous irrition, was less fortunate. A woman, living on the spot, became afflicted with a malady as common and aa fatal as consumption— fear of penury. That she had no good reason for this fear her neighbors knew, but it possessed her like a secret and incurable disease. “I can’t bear it,” she used to say, “and some day you will see me go over the fall.” Her neighbors laughed, saying people who talk of suicides are in for length of life. But one day she leaped over the race at Cedar place. A brave young fel low named Davis saw her slip in, but was too far away to catch and draw her back. The lad was used to suicides, as every one becomes by living at the falls. He saw that she would pitch against the ravine wall, some ten or twelve feet un der the rock on which he stood. Peering over the bank, he saw a litthk* shelf of earth just broad enough for a man to light on, and no more. He scrambled down a moment ere the woman came rolling on, put out his hand toward her, caught her shawl and tore' it from her as she floated down, and started in hor ror as the woolen rag hung dangling in his grasp. Tho suicide had kept her promise and escaped from her imagina ry poverty into ctornal sleep. Dr. Richardson describes, in the Lon don Lancet, two interesting surgical ca ses involving the successful employment of an anaesthetic which prevents pain without destroying consciousness, thus supplying a most important desideratum in medical practice. The cases in ques tion were two operations performed by Dr. R for the removal of cancerous tumors of the breas*, both patients being ladies. A spray of [common ether was directed upon tho tumor until it was thoroughly chilled. A lighter fluid, a compound of’ ether with hydrate of amyl, specific gravity 0,720 degrees, was then applied until the whole of the breast was* frozen like a snow ball. In stead of with a scalpel, tho incisions and removal were effected by means of small, strong, sharp and curved scissors—the use of this latterinstrument being consid ered essential to the proper management of the case. Dr. Richardson states that the operations were successful and the healing speedy, without discharge or trouble of any kind.” The golden syrups, sugar drips, etc, are said to be delusions and snares. A professor of chemistry has examined a dozen varietiesjof syrups sold at the gro ceries, and says that all of them are “doctored,” made “sulphuric acid process,” as follows: “A warm (131 de grees Fall ) mixture of starch and water of about the consistency of cream, slow ly poured into a boiling [solution of one per cent, of sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol,) the whole boiled for somo time ; then the acid is neutralized by chalk, and the mixture set aside. When the sediment has settled in the bottom the liquid is dipped off and boiled down to a syrup. This syrup may be boiled down to su gar, forming what is known as grape su gar or glucose.” Instead of starch, how ever, old rags can be and are used very large!} 7 —rags collected from tho streets or wherever they can be found “MIGHTY* ONSARTIN.” On the ferry boat crossing the Missis sippi river recently, were an old couple from Louisiana, coming to visit their friends in Vicksburg. The old gentleman was walking around despite his wife’s predictions that some thing would happen to him, and he sud denly found himself in the river. She heard his yell, and caught sight of him, and leaning over the rail she shouted, “There, Samuel, didn’t I tell you so? Now, then, work your lege, flap your arms, hold your breath and re peat the Lord’s prayer, for it’s mighty onsartin, Samuel, whether you'll land in Vicksburg or eternity.” He landed at the former. In a Paris cafe the other day, a gen tleman gave the waiter a five franc piece, and told him to take it for his glass of hock and oring him the ohange. In this change ho remarked a suspicious looking coin, so holding it out to the man he explained that it was not good. “Ob, that's of no consequence,” said the waiter putting it in his pocket; it does not matter. Thank you, I am much obliged.” So abashed was the gentle man that he did not dare venture to reclaim it. While riding in a stage coach from Ivinderhook to Albany, N. Y., many years since, John Van Buren, who was smoking, asked a stranger in the stage if smoking was agreeable to him. The stranger ans. "<sd, “Yes, it is agreeable. Smoke awa} 7 . 4. have often thought if ever I was rich enough I would hire some loafer to smoke in my face.” Mr. Van Buren threw his cigar out of the window. STICK TO IT. Learn a trade, or go into a business, and go at it with a determination that defies failure, and you will succeed. Don’t leave because hard blows are to be struck or disagreeable work to be performed. Those who have worked their way up to wealth and usefulness do not belong to the shiftless and unsta ble class, and if you do not work while a young man, as an old man you will be nothing. Work with a will, and con quer your prejudices against labor, and manfully bear the heat and burden of the day. It may be hard the first week, but after that, I assure you, it will be come a pleasure, and you will, feel enough better satisfied with yourself to pay for all the trials of a beginning. Let perseverance bo your? motto, and with a steady application to business you need have no fear for tho future. Don’t be ashamed of your plain clothes, provided you have earned them. They are far more beautiful in the estimation of all honest men and women than tho costly gew-gaws sported by some people at the expense of the confiding tailor. The people who respect you only when well clad, will be the first to run from yon iu the hour of adversity. POWER OF BEARING HEAT. It is generally supposed that the hu man frame cannot endure great heat, and if exposed to it will soon sink into ex haustion. This is true in hot climates, to which people have not been accus tomed. But in this case the effect may be due to influences from vegetation or to some disturbances of nature. It is certain that artificial heat far greater than the heat of the sun is in tho Torrid Zone, may he borne without special suf fering or harm. The British Journal of Science says that men in iron establishments work without inconvenience with the ther mometer constantly at one hundred and twenty degrees, and in the pits for mak ing the Bessemer steel at one hundred and forty degrees. In Turkish baths the sliampooers are often busily engaged for four or five hours in succession, with the temperature at one hundred and ten degrees. In the Red Sea strainers the stockhole marks one hundred and forty five degrees; and in enamel works the operators are compelled daily to endure a heat of three hundred degrees. The elastic power of the body to accommo date itself to extremes is wonderful.. WHOSE FARM IS IT ? We are told by a New York Times correspondent that on the night of April 28 there suddenly arose an island near tho mouth of tho Mississippi river with an area of about eight acres, to tha height of eight feet and more. This oc curred in a place where the day before there w T as an unbroken surface of water, without the slightest indication of the occurrence of such a phenomenon. Vol canic action, developing great force deep in the earth, can alone explain the Origin, of islands and continents, whose rock*, loose clay and sand, abound in the re mains“of marine animals and plant*. Tho upheaval of arable|land fromithe sea tells the farmer where soils comes from, and the world of mud that flows down the Mississippi in a century, shows that land may change its geographical position two or three thousand miles in a short time. Nothing is stationary; certainly nothing in aratod fields which send plowed ground enough down the Father of wators to make a farm in one night. The affluents of the Mississippi drain an area of over 1,009,000 square miles. If every farmer who contributed a few par tides of dirt to build up this island, lias an interest in tho estate, how many shareholders are there to the property? How to Count Interest. —Four per cent—Multiply the principal by the number days, separate the right-hand figure from the product and divide by nine. Five per cent.—Multiply the number of days and divide by seventy-two. Six per cent.—Multiply by number of days, separate right hand figure and di vide by six. Eight per cent.—Multiply by number of days and divide by forty-five. Nine per cent —Multiply by number of days, separate right-hand figure and divide by four. Ten per cent.—Muliply by number of days and divide by thirty-six. Twelve per cent—Multiply by num ber of days, separato right-hand figure and divide by three. Fifteen per cent.—Multiply by num ber of days and divide by twenty four. Eighteen per cent.—Multiply by num ber of days, separate right-hand figure and divide by two. Twenty per cent.—Multiply by num ber of days and divide by eighteen. MUHIFIOENT BEQUESTS. Miss Mary Telfair, daughter of Ex- Gov. Telfair, died in Savannah recently, and left, among others, the following liberal bequests: To the Georgia Historical Society about $175,000; Independent Presby terian church, Savannah, SBO,OOO ; Pres byterian church at Augusta, $30,000. The Hodgson institution, Telfairvill© Christian church, Telfair hospitals for females, Telfair Academy of Art and Science, and other institutions are libe rally mentioned. The estate is valued at over a million of dollars. The following remedy is given for blight in pear trees: To half a bushel of lime add four pounds of sulphur, slake to the consistency of whitewash, and, when it is applied, add to each gallon of tho wash half an ounce of carbolic acid. Apply this to the diseased part. Where the bark is diseased, remove tho outer portion before making the application. One reason why base ball clubs are so unpopular in Rhode Island is that it re quires too much to get a requisition from the Governor of Massachusetts for the return of the ball when it gets knocked over in that State.