Perth Amboy evening news., 1904-02-29
LOGGING amp %"JUMpRRs"
WOodmen Who Start Up and Jump
Upon the slightest Suggestion
n ProvOcatiOn.

t deep snow covers the ground and thu
dense stiffness is broken only by the
sharp ring of the woodman's ak, thu
time hangs heavily on the hands Of
the crews of the logging camps. Fol
miles in all directions there is an un.
broken expanse of trees and snow
The great world outside rushes on
but these men know nothing of cleo
tons, strikes, disasters and horrors
on land and sea until months after
they have occurred, says the Boston
Transcript.
They are buried in the wilderness
and sometimes they go mad OF fall i'll
of m~elancholia, but for the first part
they spend the time when their la
bors are over in devising some new
form of diversion or variations of
amusements that have become tradi-
tional, like that of compelling a new
hand to climb a tree, after which they
proceed to chop the tree down, per-
hitting the unhappy victim of their
sport to make a sudden descent into
some convenient snowbank.
If, however, a camp Is provided with
a Jumper" the men never feel called
upon to look further for a means and
source Of amusement. Now a Jump
er" in the woods is about as luckless
a specimen of humanity as walks the
earth. He is seldom found far away
| from the woods, because 1t is in their
shade that he first begins his jumping
career. To start with, he is simply a
man whose nerves are abnormally
sensitive. There are many such
among the half-breed French-Cana-
dams.
Ordinarily, they would simply be
one is discovered in a logging camp,
drastic and persistent measures are
taken to develop him into a full
iedged Jumper" by which is NEAR
n who has so lost control of his
muscles that they will act i%nvoluntar-
lily ut the command of another.
This result is secured by constant
nagging and ceaseless petty annoy
ances, until the nerves of the victim
become completely 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 on the back. He
/ goes to bed at night and no ooner is
he asleep than a shower of boots and
shoes beats down upon him. A string
is tied to each toe as he dozes in his
bunk and one string pulled at a time
until his foot seems to be burning y
| He gets no peace by night or day, a
before many months his nervous s.
tenn has besome completely shatte'
and the camp has secured its jun y
err" the butt of all its jokes and tt
cause of boundless hilarlty.
A fully developed Jumper" is as
helpless as a baby in the hands of a
| strong-willed man. A shout sends him
high into the air. A poke in the ribs
sends him almost into Mysteries. In
order to control himself he often re-
sorts to biting his fingers and | have
seen a Jumper. with hands bleeding
and raw from constant gnawing.
Point a finger at the unfortunate man
and he will beat his hands fercely
| against a board or a stone wall.
Sometimes a Jumper" acts like a
man hypnotized. He will sway from
side to side oil go in any direction in
dicated 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, al
though powerless to help himself, will
cry out ~piteously: Il can't help 1t,
/ don't hit me-"
Sometimes a tragedy follows an at
tempt to have sport with one of these
unfortunate individuals. 1t is related
that several choppers, among them a
Jumper" 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 k~een-edged ak with great
force, cleaving the skull of the man
walking In front Of him. More often
1t is the Jumper" himself who is in
jured, for the men of the lumber
camps are not inclined to think first
before playing their jokes on their
afflicted comrades and may cause him
to come tumbling down from a pile OF
logs Or even jump into a fire.
1t all seems very pitiful, for the life
of Jumper" must be n of the ut
most misery. He is always an ignor-
ant man, however, and knows of no
way to escape the thraldom. Perhaps
as a rule his intellect is not very
strong to begin with. Probably in
nearly all cases his mind becomes at
fected after a few years. He gets
neither. sympathy nor help from his
fellows, for they cannot understand
his weakness, and their sport is near
ly always rough. His antics make them
laugh and relieve the tedium of a long
and lonely winter. far away from CIV
ilization.
Clerical Joke.
c-aoav Cnnith once dared Sir Arehf-