The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-05-15
THE CAMP JUMPER.
Fun For His Companions, But Misery
 Unto Himself.

From the Boston Transcript.
 Up in the woods along the Canadian border during the long months when deep snow covers the ground and the dense stiffness is broken only by the sharp ring of the woodman's ax, the time hangs heavily on the hands of the crews of the logging camps. For miles in all direc- tions there is an unbroken expanse of trees and snow. The great world outside rushes on, but these men know nothing, of elections, strikes, disasters and horrors on land and sea until months after they have occurred.
 They are buried in the wilderness and sometimes they go mad or fall Ill or melanchola, but for the first part they spend the time when their labors are over in devising some new form of diversion or variations of amusements that have become traditional. like that of com polling a new hand to climb tree, after which they proceed to chop the tree down. permitting the unhappy victim of their sport to make sudden descent>into some convenient snawbank.
 If, however, camp is provided with Jumper" the men never feel called upon to look further for means and source of amusement. Now a Jumper in the woods is about as luckless a specimen of humanity as walks the earth. He Is sell dom found far away from the woods, be- cause 1t is in their shade that he first be- gins his jumping career. To start with, he is simply a man whose nerves are ab- normally sensitive. There are many such among the half-breed French-Canadians.
 Ordinarily, they would simply be very nervous men, but when such one Is discovered in logging camp, drastic and persistent measures are taken to de- velop him into a full-fledged jumper by which Is meant one who has so lost control of his muscles that they will act involuntarily at the command of an- other.
 This result Is secured by constant nag
 ging and eeaseless petty annoyances un- til the nerves of the victim becomes com petely unstrung, as the saying is and he is helpless in the hands of his tormentors. The luckless logger straightens up from his work and a stick from some unknown source strikes him in the back. He goes to bed at night and no sooner Is he asleep than a shower of boots and shoes beat down upon him. A string is tied to each toe and he dozes in his bunk one string pulled at time until his foot seems to be burning up. He gets no peace by night or day and before many months his ner- vous system has become completely shat tered and the camp has secured its
 Jumper" the butt of all its jokes and the cause of boundless hilarity.
 A full developed Jumper" Is as help less as a baby in the hands of strong willed man. A shout send him high into the air A poke in the ribs sends him almost into mysteries. In order to control himself he often resorts to biting his fin- gers and l have seen jumper with hands bleeding and raw from constant gnawing. Point a finger at the unfortu- nate man and he will beat his hands fiercely against a board or a stone wall
 Sometimes jumper acts like a man hypnotized. He will sway from side to side or go in any direction indicated by the motion of a hand. He will even beat another with his fists when commanded, but being perfectly conscious of what he Is doing although powerless to help him self, will crop out piteousy. T can't help it. don't hit me-
 Sometimes a tragedy follows an at- tempt to have sport with one of these un- fortunate individuals. It Is related that several choppers, among them a jun per-" were once walking through the woods in single file, their axes over their shoulders, when some thoughtless fellow threw a stick of wood which struck the Jumper" The latter sprang into the air and brought down his keen-edged ax with great force. cleaving the skull of the man walking in front of him. More often 1t is the Jumper himself who is injured, for the men of the lumber camps are not in- clined to think first before playing their jokes on their afflicted comrade, and may cause him to come tumbling down from pile of logs or even jump into the fire. It all seems very pitiful for the life of a jumper" must be one of the utmost misery He is always an ignorant man, however, and knows of no way to escape the thraldom. Perhaps as a rule his in- tellect is not very strong to begin with. | Probably in nearly all cases his mind be- comes affected after a few years. He gets neither sympathy nor help from his fel- | lows, for they can not understand his | weakness, and their support is nearly al- ways rough. His antics make them laugh | and relieve the tedium of a long and lone | ly winter, far away from civilization Eatr