TTEW________n_____TH-owl ElMJATU1DAY,
OCTOBER 12, 1935
Mrs. Rowland
Admits Plot To
Kill Two Girls
Hangs Self After Confessed Drowning Of Girls
Couple Planned De
Wife's Father Bu
Up Perpetrations
ath Of
t Gave
PONTIAC, Oct. 11.-(/P)-
Mrs. Elizabeth Rowland confes-
sed '-ie Friay to Prosecutor
TheoiTre G. Bowler, of Clare
County, that she and her hus-
,: ,who hanged him-
self in a Pontiac jail cell Friday
morning, had plotted the deaths
of her two children and her fath-
er since July, 1934.
The plan to kill her father,
Herman Voss, 68 years old, was
abandoned, Mrs. Rowland ex-
plained, when the couple decided
that he was so feeble that "he
would not live through the winter
anyhow, so what was the use?"
Mrs. Rowland was not told of
her husband's suicide.
Mrs. Ferrins confession was
made in the jail in Harrison, seat
of Clare County, after several
hours' questioning by Bowler and
Sheriff George Bates.
"We thought we would be hap-
pier alone," she told Bowler. "We
couldn't go places on account of
the kids. He kept nagging at me.
More than a month ago, I gave
in. When I agreed he decided to
act at once. I kissed them good-
bye when he took them away,
because I knew I would never see
them again."
. I
-Associated Press Photo.
Ferrin Rowland (right), after confessing to St. Louis police that he
had drowned his two little step-daughters, Katherine Woodin, 6 (upper
left), and Virginia, 2 (lower lcft), in a lake near Flint, hung himself in
his jail cell yesterday. He fashioned a noose from the cover of his
mattress.
Early History Of University
Featured InLibrary Exhibit
PONTIAC, Oct. 11. - () - Ferrin
lgWland, stolid, 36-year-old carpen-'
ter-woodsman-farmer, who had con-
fessed to the brutal slaying of his two
small stepchildren, executed a self-
inposed death sentence by hanging
himself today in a jail cell.
Left alone in a temporary cell for
a few minutes afterahe had been
photographed and fingerprinted, he
ore the cover from the underside of
the mattress on his cot, and twisted
it into a noose.
Then he tied the improvised hang-
mans rope to an upper bar of the cell,
and jumped to his death.
Died Instantly
His neck was broken by the fall and
Dr. Burton Mitchell, who examined
the body, said death was instantan-
eous, although the, drop apparently
had been little more than six inches.
Rowland had been alone only 20
minutes when Deputy Sheriff Louis
Burt, returning to take the prisoner
into court for arraignment on a mur-
der charge, found him dead.
Attempted resuscitation with an
jihalator was futile, and Coroner J.
Lee Voorhees pronounced him dead
tit 9:45 a.m.
Rowland, who was to have been
raigned on a murder charge this
,fternoon, acted swiftly during the
few minutes he was alone.
Left Two Death Notes
Not only did he make the prepara-
tions for ending his own life, but he
wrote two notes, directing how his
property should be divided.
One, addressed to Elmer Rowland,
his brother, who lives in Grand Blanc,
l'4ich., included an unfinished sen-
tence which said: "The $249 of my
share of the estate is to be buried
with-."
That note also contained a request
that he be buried in the Evergreen
cemetery at Grand Blanc, and added:
"I hope that the one-half of the lot
has not been sold yet where father
and mother are buried."
The other note was unaddressed,
but apparently was intended for his
wife, Elizabeth, the mother of the two
slain children by a former marriage.
It stipulated that an item of $151
should go to his wife, then gave an
inventory of his property with the
preface: "Here is a list of a few
things that may help you to know
the value that you may ask for
things."
'Bothered A Little'
Rowland, who said in one of the
two signed confessions he made that
he had been "bothered a little" by
thoughts of his deed, apparently had
cpontemplated suicide during the week
that he was sought.
When officers, who had traced him
through a letter to Elmer Rowland,
entered his hotel room in St. Louis,
Mgo., Wednesday, he attempted to
shoot himself with a pistol that was
under his pillow. The officers wrested
the gun from him. Later, he said he
had taken the pistol along for the
purpose of killing himself.
Students Resound
With 'Beat Indiana'
(Continued from Page 1)
has gained tremendously in the past
week. Tonight is another indication
of that spirit.
"Enthusiasm creates momentum.
And momentum is what is needed to
beat Indiana," he concluded.
And when the great fire had died
down just a little and the formal
ceremonies were concluded, the stu-
dents still kept up their howling.
rl'hu 1narcal nn, crs - the didn't
By . S. SILVERMAN
"When Michigan Was Young" is
the current exhibit in the cases lin-
ing the main hall of the General Li-]
brary. It commemorates the centen-
nial of Michigan and the ratification
of its constitution. It has been pre-
pared by Ella M. Hymans, curator of..
Rare Books, and is of especial in-
terest and importance to students
and residents of Ann Arbor.
The high point of the exhibit is the
case showing the early records of
the "University of Michigania," as
it was once known. It contains let-
ters hinging upon the dispute of
lands between the University and the
State of Ohio. A photostatic copy of
Many Enrolled
In Case Clubs
Of Ljw School
95 Per Cent Of Freshmen
Class Joins Groups For
Argumentation
Three hundred students ,including
95 per cent of the first-year class,
will work in research and argumen-
tation in five Law School case clubs
when the School's major extra-cur-
ricular activity begins within a few
weeks.
The cases that will be presented in
case club trials are hypothetical ones
written by the Law School professors.
In each case argued there is a clash
of definite issues, enabling each side
to present a strong case. Two law
students comprise the counsel on each
side, presenting their cases before
the case club tribunal.
The public in gener&1 and pre-law
students in particular are invited to
attend the trials.
Because of the large enrollment in
case club activity this year, the fifth
club, named in honor of Justice
Cooley, Michigan's famous jurist and
commentator, has been organized. Its
membership is comprised entirely of
freshmen, while the Holmes, Mar-
shall, Kent, and Story clubs have
both freshmen and juniors in their
membership. All freshman law stu-
dents, together with juniors who have
distinguished themselves in their first
year of case club activity, are eligible
for one of the five clubs.
Patrick J. Quealy, '36L, is chairman
of the case clubs and chief justice of
the court. Associate justices are
Marion Yoder, Frank R. Barnako,
Donald Quaife, and Erle A. Kighlin-
er, all senior law students. Prof.
John B. Waite, Prof. John E. Tracy,
and Prof. William W. Blume are the
faculty members serving on the ex-
ecutive board of the clubs.
The Henry M. Campbell case club
prize is awarded each year to the
two students who best present their
case in the finals of competition on
Founders Day. A leading jurist is
asked to sit on the bench to judge
the finals. To compete for this award
a case club member must be com-
pleting his second year of participa-
tion.
an old but carefully preserved diary
of the Reverend John Montieth, the
first president of "Michigania," ex-
plains the bill establishing the Uni-
versity, as does a rough draft of the
official act, dated Aug. 26, 1817. Con-
cerning this act it is noted, "The edu-
cational scheme which the act out-
lined was one of the first plans in
America for a complete educational
program to be supported by the peo-
ple of a state."
Other informative pieces in this
case includes "First annual report of
the University of Michigan, 1818,"
and the official document appointing
'Lucius Lyon as a regent in 1839.
How Town Was Named
Another case centers about the
legend of the founding of the name
of Ann Arbor. It has been common
gossip that Ann Arbor was named
fox the wives of its first two settlers,
John Allen and Elisha Walker Rum-
sey, both women being called Ann.
Furthermore they lived for a time in
an "arbor," hence the name Ann
Arbor. The exhibit displays letters
written by Ann Allen to her son
Thomas in 1841, the contents of
which is unfortunately familiar to
every student. "I have been waiting
for the last four months very pa-
tiently to hear from you or John.
What can be the cause of your long
silence I cannot make out -I some-
times think you are sick . . . in my
last I wrote you, I mentioned I want-
ed answer as soon as practicable."
Of interest to law students would
be the case containing volumes on
the laws of the Territory of Mich-
igan and the State of Michigan and
the proceedings of the constitutional
convention.
Tell of Boundary Fight
Letters and books relating to the
Michigan-Ohio boundary controversy
occupy another case while the Direc-
tory of Detroit for 1837, an extremely
thin volume, and letters and peti-
tions relating to the establishment
of a postal system in Detroit assume
important positions in another dis-
play.
The anti-slavery movement took
root in Michigan as early as 1835, in-
fluenced by the settlers from western
New York, and an entire case is de-
voted to material on this subject
which has been loaned to the library
for this exhibit. Several copys of
the "Signal of Liberty," the official
organ of the Michigan Anti-Slavery
Society, dominate this display.
Risdon's map of the surveyed part
of the Territory of Michigan in 1825
and money bills of 1, 2, 5, 10, and
rare 3 denominations from the Bank
of Washtenaw, dated 1835, are other
important features of this enlighten-
ing exhibit.
Educators Try
New Plan With
Prison Inmates
Professors Find Convicts
Enjoy Own Writing Most
In 3-Year Study
Unique and interesting edu-
cational problems have been met by
University instructors in their three
years' work with inmates of the Mich-
igan State Prison, according to Prof.
Louis W. Keeler of the School of Ed-
ucation who, with Prof. Clifford
Woody of the same school, has been
teaching adult illiterates at Jackson.
The work was begun at the re-
quest of prison officials.
"After it had become clear. that
the material ordinarily used to teach
desirous of citizenship was unsuit-
able," Professor Keeler explained,
"we discovered that prisoners are
interested in themselves and their
fellows, and that activity might bet-
ter begin within the prison than with-
out.
"The final result," he continued,
"was the decision that reading ma-
terial should be created by the in-
mates themselves. The stories writ-
ten by these men for their own use
are published in a series of small
books."
Each book is centered on the ac-
tivities of the adult, Professor Woody
explained. These activities provided
the first criterion for the selection of
the vocabulary, he said.
"Vocabulary lists have been care-
fully checked with the frequency of
use in the Thorndike list of common-
ly used words," Professor Woody stat-
ed, "almost every new word is ac-
companied by a pictorial representa-
tion, and frequent repetitions and re-
views are stressed.
Call Night Session
In Kidnaping Trial
LOUISVILLE, Oct. 11.-(P)-
After brief rebuttal testimony by the
government, both sides rested finaly
late today in the trial of Thomas H.
Robinson, Sr., and Mrs. Frances A.
Robinson on a charge of conspiracy
in the $50,000 kidnaping of Mrs. Alice
Speed Stoll. A night session was
arranged, with arguments scheduled
to start.
Instructions of Judge Elwood Ham-
ilton to the jury will follow closing
arguments. Indications were that
the ease will go to the jury early
tomorrow afternoon.
The government's rebuttal wit-
nesses, C. C. Stoll, oil company pres-
ident and father-in-law of the kid-
naping victim; Bernard Fitsimons,
W. A. Rorer and C. H. Carson. G-
men testified briefly about certain
details of the ransom negotiations.
Council for the defendants, on trial
for complicity in the kidnaping for
which their son and husband, Tho-
mas H. Robinson, Jr., is hunted,
rested without putting in evidence
character depositions taken in Nash-
ville for Robinson, Sr.
Hamilton Refuses
Aid From N.Y.A.
CLINTON, N. Y., Oct. 11.- ()-
Fearing "close control of education
by the Government," Hamilton Col-
lege, through the current issue of the
publication "Hamilton Life," let it be
known today that it has declined
to accept financial aid for its stu-
dents, offered by the newly founded
National Youth Administration.
The publication said that "the feel-
ing was expressed by Dr. Frederick C.
Ferry (the college's president) that,
since the Government has such a
heavy financial burden, any means
of lessening Federal expenditures
would be appreciated."
FIRE DAMAGES CHURCH
REED CITY, Oct. 11.- (MP)-Fire,
believed to have started in a defective
chimney, caused damage estimated
at $15,000 to the Congregational
church here Thursday. The loss in-
cluded a $3,000 pipe organ.
Explorer Near Death
-Associated Press Photo.
Major General Adolphus W.
Greely, 91-year-old former Arctic
explorer and army officer, was re-
ported near death in Washington,
D. C.
Mice 'f Many
Colors Owned
By University
Rodents Housed Near The
Coal Yards In Genetics
Building
(Continued from Page 1)
ing carried on is not at all concerned
with the preservation of the mouse
clan. Hereditary characteristics carry
over in mice as they do in humans
and since mice are plentiful and in-
expensive to maintain, they afford
the observer an opportunity to watch
phenomena which it would be impos-
sible to observe in larger and more
slowly developing animals. All this,
Dr. Clark hopes, may lead to discov-
eries which will benefit man.
Yet mice do not occupy the com-
plete attention of the laboratory. For
outside the main building is a small
wooden coop. It is unpainted and
faded but one's spirits will rise upon
entering it, for on a ledge which
circles the room, one will see two
very surprised owls. One will also
leave immediately if one's acquaint-
ance with owls has been limited, since
the birds are unchained and they
have a habit -of clacking their bills
and looking unfed. But the geneti-
cists maintain that they are harm-
less, so one will probably leave any-
way.
These two play a part in Dr. Clark's
work. For, he explained, it has been
the theory that animal's colors tend
to change to that of their environ-
ments -green grasshoppers in grass,
striped animals in the jungle.
Dr. Clark is going to let some black
and some white mice loose in a large
cage on the bottom of which will be
spread black soil. In another he will
free the same species of mice but the
soil will be very light in color. Then
he is going to loose the two owls
into the cages and see which color of
mice suirvive on their respective soils.
The object of the experiment is to
show that animals of colors contrast-
ing to their environments are most
quickly eliminated and that because
of this the blending animals survive.
The place, on the whole, is not un-
pleasant. It is a little quiet out there
at times, but there are always the
chirps of the white, the tan, and the
pink mice to break the silence.
i
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The above rates are for 7% point
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WANTED
WANTED: Student brber. 617 E.
Williams. Varsity Barber Shop
Call 23552. 54
LOST AND FOUND
LOST: Black notebook and book of
Shakespeare's pays Tuesday or
Wednesday. Call Robert Cooper,
3590. Reward. 56
Giant Reflector Is
Almost Completed
A new reflector disk for the Ui-
versity's Ann Arbor observatory is
now in the final stages of 'comple-
tion in the Corning Works, the as-
tronomy department revealed recent-
ly. It is constructed of pyrex, and is
87% inches in diameter and 16 inches
thick. This innovation in astrpnoW-
ical circles is expected to increase tie
efficiency of the University telescope
at least 100 per cent.
Dr. Hebert D. Curtis, director of
the observatory, will leave Ann Arbor
sometime next week to inspect the
disk, and pass on the reflector before
it is installed here. Leading astron-'
orners of the country who have viewed
the disk are in unanimous agreement
as to its symmetrical perfection, and
efficiency of design.
It has been in the process of cooling
for over six months, and will be com-
pletely polished in a month. It will
be installed in the Observatory as
soon as possible, for by its use, new
fields of exploration will be opened
to scientific research, according to Dr.
Curtis and his associates in solar and
astronomical study.
ART CINEMA .LEAGUE
presents
"The Best Picture of Year"
-Nat. Board of Review
Man of Aran'
Gaumont British Production
"Awesome in grandeur, terrifying
in beauty, fascinating in its real-
ity. A cinematic epic" -Regina
Crewe, NewYork American.
Also TWO SHORT SUBJECTS:
"TERRYTOON COMEDY" and
"SPOTTED WINGS"
A "Battle for Life" Series Short.
LYDIA MENDELSSOHN
THEATRE
Tonight and Satrday
October 11-12 at 8:00
Tickets 35c-All seats reserved
I
,1
3j
onl111,y once!.
WILL CONVINCE YOU !
FRATERNITIES and SORORITIES
Try our ice cream for your Sunday dinner. With each quart
purchased, you may obtain four cakes for only 10c each.
Each cake serves eight persons.
FLAVORS
Vanilla Peppermint Stick Orange Sherbet
French Vanilla Chocolate Chocolate Chip
Michigan Theatre Bldg. Dial 3644
F
F.
- - -.._....
II',.
ALL MUSICAL SUPPLIES FOR STUDENTS
Pianos to Rent Repairing of All Musical Instruments
Schaeberle Music House
II
New Location: 203 East Liberty St.
40 Years in Ann Arbor
Phone 6011
A
_ II
Last Times Today
"AFTER THE DANCE" "CHAMPAGtJE FOR BR EA!(FAST"
W iT EY STARTS SUNDAY
5.1 FIRST ANN ARBOR SHOWING!
A Mad, Me'ry Measure of Nonsern1t
After the.Game,
or anytime you feel the
need of Light Refresh-
ments, drop in at
LA CA SA
302 South Main
'ne --.vL1.. 1
SHOWS TODAY PRICES
2:00 -- 3:30 ~ tir ii Matinee .
7:00-- 9:00 uru w WEIC Eve .alc :
!- ~Eve. Main.
NOW Child-en--.
THE BIG PARADE OF MUSIC, SONG and LAUGHTER
25c
25c
35c
loc
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Cart Laemmle presents
ZAS PJTTS
HUGH,#
O'CONNEI4 L
in Universal's Laugh Rot
/u r 4r
TED LEWIS and HIS ORCHESTRA
VIRGINIA BRUCE I ( TED HEALY IL
&: , ~ .
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t7sa<\
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