THE BOORN MYSTERY
-An Episodefrom, the Judicial Annals of Vermont, by Sherman Roberts Moulton '9B. Montpelier: The Vermont Historical Society,
On the banks of the Battenkill anything can happen. But the most incredible story associated with the beautiful, quiet village of Manchester, Vermont, involves the disappearance of Russell Colvin, the conviction more than seven years later, for his murder, of his brothers-in-law, Stephen and Jesse Boorn, and their sentence to be hanged. The Court's findings were largely determined by Stephen's written and minutely detailed confession of the crime. How, the month before the hanging, the body of Russell Colvin was brought back alive to Manchester and how Stephen, still wearing his iron anklets, was taken from jail and permitted, with ungyved hands, to fire the first charge of the fifty-gun salute on an old cannon in celebration of the event form but a fraction of this fabulous narrative. By some miracle, the cannon did not appropriately explode and wipe out all the participants, as a grand climax to the amazing drama.
Judge Moulton has written the definitive account of this celebrated case. The connoisseur of crime should begin on page 81 with the Appendix, which consists of the trial Judge's notes on the evidence, and next turn, puzzled and expectant, to the engagingly lucid narrative itself. In sixty-nine small pages he will learn more about Vermont customs, courts, laws, and superstitions a century and a quarter ago, including the rule of corpus delicti and the law of bastardys than he dreamed possible. He will have been not merely mildly amused, but delightfully instructed and highly entertained.
The learned Judge in discussing the case fails to raise one question which bears consideration. Should there not be some statute of limitation to protect murderers? Let your successful murderer at the end of a reasonable period make a clean breast of the matter and go on living respectably in his community. It would add zest to have among one's acquaintances two or three such exempted criminals.
Since the scholarly author has treated his readers to bits of legal Latin, this reviewer would like to give an Arcades ambo touch by pronouncing on the book the verdict multum in parvo.
The October issue of Yankee contains an article From a Seat on the Sidelhies by George H. Moses '9O.
Antiques in the Milk Cellar by Jason A. Russell '2O appears in the July 17th issue of The New York Su?i.
Arthur D. Holmes 'O6 and others have written a pamphlet Vitamin Content ofOils from Cannery Trimmings of Salmonfrom the Columbia River and Puget SoundRegions. This is published as Investigational Report No. 36 of the U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Fisheries.
Fall Russets (a poem) by Amos N. Blandin Jr. 'lB appears in the October is- sue of Yankee.
Houghton Mifflin Company have just published Vermont a Guide to the GreenMountain State. Some of the general chapters in . this book as well as some of the tours were written by Clifton E. Blake '24.
A Lawyer's Loyalties by Herbert A. Wolff 'lO, an address broadcast under the auspices of the New York Society for Ethical Culture, October 3, 1937, has been published in pamphlet form.
