688 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Oct. 1 



The above gives us a clue to the whole 

 business. The courage that this boy had 

 to go into this terrible business came from 

 ivhisky. Where did the boy of only 19 years 

 get that whisky, not only in the day time 

 but after dark and after midnight, in vari- 

 ous places out in the country and in and 

 around Cleveland ? 



Let us digress a little right here. Our own 

 county (Medina) is dry, and it lies just 

 south of Cuyahoga, where this murder was 

 committed. If I am correctly informed, 

 about 90 per cent of the 88 counties in our 

 State are dry ; but notwithstanding our dry 

 counties, our Medina onicers are kept busy, 

 and there is somebody in jail here a greater 

 l>art of the time, just because there is a 

 wide-open saloon (wide open day and night) 

 a little to the north of us on our electric 

 railway. It is located just out of the incor- 

 jioration of the town of Berea — a pleasant 

 village celebrated the country over as the 

 seat of two great Methodist colleges, Bald- 

 win University and German Wallace Col- 

 lege. The village itself is strictly dry, but 

 this one saloon just outside the corporation 

 keeps Medina and Berea both busy in tak- 

 ing care of the criminals that radiate con- 

 stantly from that saloon. (It makes me 

 think of the shooting stars that are con- 

 stantly emanating from the little speck of 

 radivim I have in my possession.) This 

 young Van Gelder, when he was deprived 

 of the stimulus of whisky, had a conscience 

 after all. He confessed fully, and was glad, 

 so it seems, to make a confession. As there 

 are some morals scattered all through this 

 confession I have decided to copy it entire. 



" Friday, Aug. 2(), the first night we were out, Pen- 

 der and I came into town and bought two guns at a 

 pawnshop on Ontario St.," said Van (ielder. " For 

 one we paid S2.00 and for another Pender put up his 

 watch and another 11.00. From there we went out 

 to Rockport, and in front of the schoolhoiise — it 

 was darlc by that time — we met a farmer and fired 

 two shots at him. He was going toward town and 

 whipped up his horses and got away. At Columbia 

 station shortly after, we met another and shot at 

 him. One of the shots went through his stifl hat. 

 but he drove on and escaped. 



"A little later we went up to Harrington Road and 

 met a man that I now think was Ellis Harrington. 

 We saw him coming near his home and then decid- 

 ed not to hold him up, but waited until he was 

 unhitching his horses, and then Pender asked him 

 if we could sleep in his barn. He told iis that we 

 could not, and ordered us off. We went up the 

 road a way, and Pender said that we would get 

 him. 



" After he had unhitched we went back to his 

 barn, hitched a horse into a rig and tied the other 

 horse in a shed. Then I drove to the road and 

 pretty soon Pender came out and without a word 

 we started to drive away. After a while Pender 

 looked back and said: 



" ' Do you see that light ? ' 



I looked back and said that I did. 



" 'That fellow will have to work. I set his barn 

 afire,' said Pender, and we both laughed. Then we 

 drove to the corner of Highland Av. and Madison 

 Av., where we left the horse and buggy. We then 

 went home and it was abovit 4 A. M. 



"Saturday night, the night of the killing of Mrs. 

 Rayner, Pender came to my house. I got shaved 

 and we started out once more for Rockport. 



" ' I know a fellow who has lots of money, and it's 

 easy to get,' Pender told me. He meant a Mr. Coll- 

 brunn. On the way out. we stopped at Kundtz's 

 saloon and got a drink. Then we went west to the 

 Rockport club, and tried to steal a rig out of a sta- 

 ble shed, but we were frightened away by someone 

 who heard us. Then we went back to the car barns 



and got a drink at Wyatt's ^aloon on the way, and 

 then turned back east toward the tracks. 



"We saw a fellow coming, and started to hold 

 him up. but we concluded that he had a gun, and 

 so we didn't try it. but walked on back toward 

 Darmstatter's saloon, where we sat for a while on 

 the watering-trough and then we walked east. It 

 was then that we heard the rumble of the big cov- 

 ered market wagons returning from Cleveland. 

 We waited at the side of the road until the first 

 one, Dunford's, came along. 



" When he got opposite us, Pender grabbed the 

 horse by the head and I pointed my gun at the 

 driver and told him to give up his money. But he 

 whipped up his horse, and broke away from Pen- 

 der. I fired, and the shot tore through the side of 

 the wagon. 



" About 100 feet back came a second wagon, Ray- 

 ner's. He had heard the shooting and was trying 

 to turn his horse back east. But we both ran out 

 into the road, and started shooting at him. We 

 didn't tell him to stop, or give up his money — we 

 just started shooting. I don't know why, only we 

 had been drinking all night, and I guess we didn't 

 know what we were doing. 



" We fired two or three shots and then started to 

 run over through the race-track. As we stumbled 

 along Pender asked me if I heard that groan. I told 

 him that I did not. We did not know then that 

 any one had been killed. 



" We ran through the race track, over to River- 

 side Av.. and there Pender went into a barn belong- 

 ing, I think, to a man named Christian.son, and 

 hitched up a horse. Then we drove through the 

 fields and over some roads to Lorain Av. 



"As we came out Lorain Av. we met a man 

 whom I now think was Charles Harrington. We 

 stopped and talked with him. Pender was nude- 

 ing me all the while to hold him up, but I was cold 

 and chilled and sick with the whisky and I didn't. 

 We both started on, and before we had gone more 

 than a few feet Pender wanted to go back and get 

 him. ' He may have half a dollar,' he told me. 



" We did start back, but Harrington was out of 

 sight." 



Harrington saw them coming toward him and 

 hid in the bushes by the roadside. 



" We then drove back to Kundtz's saloon and 

 had a drink. It was then 2:15. T stayed in the bug- 

 gy and Pender brought me my drink. There was 

 another rig standing there and we talked of wait- 

 ing until its owner came out, and holding him up, 

 but we decided not to. Then we took the rig down 

 to Minut's barn, where it was found." 



In reading the above, one asks how it is 

 possible for those two iDoys, in their right 

 minds, to go ahead in that way and hope 

 to escape. My answer is, they were not in 

 their right minds. They were made crazy 

 and kept crazy by getting drunk in saloons 

 that are scattered all along the line of the 

 electric railway between Cleveland and 

 Kamm's Corners, near where the murder 

 occurred. When they asked Mr. Harring- 

 ton if they might sleeji in his barn, .and 

 were refused, out of revenge Pender set the 

 barn on fire. This unreasonable and pre- 

 posterous anger was instigated by whisky. 

 It is a fair sample of a drunken man's way 

 of reasoning. When they saw what was 

 done they both laughed — another example 

 of a drunken man's — not "brute sense," 

 but lack of all sense. 



Please note the names of the different 

 saloon-keepers in the confession, and where 

 these men got whisky at any time, day or 

 night, when they happened to call for it. 

 These hot-beds of crime are mostly started 

 and kept going by some foreigner who is too 

 ignorant to understand the mischief he is 

 doing our country and our nation, even if 

 somebody should try to explain it to him. 

 Please consider that this man Ravner was 

 a law-abiding citizen. He had done no- 



