San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-09-29
JUMPERS In THE WOODS.
Curious Nervous Affection Found
In Northern Lumber Camps.
How the Big Burly woodsmen Poster
and Nag Their Victim Into an Tn
happy Condition Bordering
On Nervous Insanity. E&M


the northern part of New Hampshire
and Vermont the hardy lumbermen are
glad to escape from the isolation which
has been forced upon them for several
months and delight to get out into the
world and mingle with their fellows. In
this way the people of northern New
England occasionally become acquaint-
ed with specimens of a very curious and
pitiable class of men known as Jump
ers." Jumper" is a sufferer from a re-
markable nervous disease that seewz
confined exclusively, or nearly so, to
baclwoodsmen. 1t is almost an axiom
that every camp contains a fiddler and a
jumper. If the men, rough, inconsid-
crate and uneducated fellows, fail to
find jumper in the camp when it is
organized for the long, hard winters
work, they proceed at their earliest OPP
portunity to produce one The instant
a man exhibits signs of possessing an
unusually nervous temperament they
pounce upon him as their legitimate
prey. He is pestered and nagged in
every possible way. Cook pots andwater
basins are flung at him, he is suddenly
jabbed in the ribs and frightened by
loud yells close to his ears. 1t doesn't
take many weeks of this kind of treat
ment to rob a poor fellow of what con-
troll he had over his nerves, and great,
strong lumbermen become completely
under the control of their fellows.
Let anyone point finger at him and
the jumper will bite his own hand near
ly to the bone. At an unexpected COM
mand he will strike at anything that
happens to be near him. If it should
be the side of house his hands may be
badly bruised as result, for he will
deliver the blow as though he was fell
ing an OK. Whatever jumper is told
to do he does to the full extent of his
powers, and the worst of it is that he IL
perfectly conscious of how he is being
imposed upon and suffers agony, but
he is powerless to help himself. A YER
mont newspaper man tells of jumper
who was once walking in single file with
a company of choppers. Each man had
his AK over his shoulder. Some one out
side of the line threw a stick at the
| jumper. The latter started and brought
down his sharp AK on the head of the
man in front of him, and nearly ended
his companions life then and there.
There appears to be something of a
hypnotic element IN the disease, says
the New York Sun, which makes the
| sufferer completely lose his own will
and puts him under the control of an
| other. 1t sometimes happens that one
particular man has more power than
! others over a jumper and is as COM
pletely his master as he would be of a
dog. Let him point his finger at the
| jumper and the latter will come straight
to him, and sometimes will follow the
movement of the finger like a mesmer-
lied person, and will jump, shout, or
run at the word of command. One of
the features of such cases is that the
victim apparently seldom gets angry.
When he has ceased to serve as sport
for his fellows he will look very sheep
ish and hang his head, but it never seems
to occur to him to attempt to retaliate.
Jumpers are usually French Cana
dams by birth and ignorant, animal
like specimens of humanity. Their i'm
mense size and strength would seem to
make them dangerous adversaries in
fight, and yet very diminutive person
can conquer them. They constantly
carry their lives in their hands, for any
unthinking person looking for amuse-
ment can cause them to leap from
moving log train, jump into the river
from log boom, or commit any other
hazardous deed. IF they are let alone
they can get along comfortably enough,
but their infirmity becomes known
sooner or later and then life is a burden.
All sorts Of tricks are played upon them.