Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1893-12-09
A PSYCHOLOGICAL PUZZLE.
Carelcssness In CoOl-Headed Men Lead
ing to Costly Blunders.

Carelessness in Cool Headed Men Lead
ing to Costly Blunders.
Here is psychological puzzle for the
experts. What made that brakeman on
the Wabash line turn the switch and let
the express train plunge into the waiting
freight which stood on the siding2 Tho
accounts of the disaster all agree that
Thompson, the brakeman. was min OF
experience in railroading, "a trusted man.
and OF more than ordinary intelligence"
says the Associatd Press dispatch. His
experience had included recent repeti-
tions OF the same conditions which existed
on the fatal night. He had frequently
stopped ut the same siding to let the
same train 60 by, very often in two
sections, and never before had failed in
his duty. The night of the wreck he
knew that the express was in two sec
tions; he let tho first section by, and
then opened tho switch with the second
section almost in sight. Why did he do
it, Not to wreck the train and kill the
passengers. His mind wandered for
moment, he forgot his duty, forgot
where he was and what he was doing,
and before he came to himself the mishap
was done. The mystery is that this
mental failure should come at such
time, when all the conditions conspire to
produce unusual elertness.
Any one can recall multitude of such
instances, some of them in his own ex-
pcrience. We have all known of cool
headed, vigilant men who have made
costly blunders in the familiar routine of
their duties-blundcrs which were uncx-
plainablc by any ordinary relation of
cause and effect. Business men whose
shrewdness and foresight unaccountably
desert them, athletes whose GOODNESS and
skill depart WREN in the performance of
a familiar feat, cautious hunters whose
care in handling their guns is provcrbial,
who forget all this care in an instant,
and other instances innumerable. 1t is
not so many years ago that such con-
tradiction of habitual caution cost
young business man, with a promising
career before him, his life at O railroad
crossing. He had crossed the track at
that crossing and at that hour times
without number. He knew that a train
passed at this time, nearly always met it
and waited to allow it to pass, but the
night of his death he stepped on the
track with tho train almost upon him
and was killed. The sentinels of his
brain, which always until then had
warned him of danger, were apparently
OFT duty that evening.
Carelessness is hardly o complete ex- :
PLANTATION of these lapses, for there is the
careleasness itself to he accounted for.
Why were these men who had never
been careless before careless just at this
fatal moment9 Men are not prone to
carelcssness when they know, as that
Wabash brakeman must have known,
the probable consequences of neglect.
is poor explanation, and
itself needs to be explained. For what
is it that sends mems wits wool gathering
when most needed at home to superin-
tend an accustomed task? Does our
mental machinery suddenly fail at these
times and leave our consciousness empty
Of impressions of outside things and our
selves oblivious of our surroundings2
Let somebody wiser than we answer
New York World.