The Opelousas courier., 1904-05-07
MAN KILLING HUNTERS.
FOREST EXPERTS STUDY A PROB
LEM IN PSYCHOLOGY.

Guilty of This?
The accidental shooting OF human
beings in the wood9 by hunters OF big
game engaged the attention OF The
North American Fish and Game FRO
Association at it's recent meet
ing in Portland, Me-, says the ne"
York Sun. ]. F. Sprague of Monson
read an interesting paper on the SUD
ject, and H. r. Virgin, president Oh
the State Senate and author OIL the
law providing for the punishment u
those who negligently or carelessly
shoot or wound any human beng
gave his views on the question.
Only a few cases of accidental shoot
ing in the woods were reporter Ill
Maine during the recent hunting sea-
son, though there were a large mum
Der of deaths from this cause IN each
of the three or four preceding years.
and it is a question with the State
Game Commissioners whether the I'M
provement is due to the passage OF
Senator Virgins law or to the non
resident license law, which during the
last season has brought 10 the~Ffetfr'
a more experienced and trained class
of hunters.
The most interesting feature of the
debate related to the peculiar mental
processes by wlicha deer hunter mis-
takes a bush, or perhaps some only
partially seen moving object, for a
deer, while the moQ<e hunter is ap-
parently unaffected by the forces by
which the deer hunter is so often in
fuenced. A partial explanation OF the
phenomenon was attempted, with
some show OF reason to support it.
For a long time past the game laws
of Maine lave imposed a heavy penal
ty for killing the cow moose. 1hose
who attempt to account for the TACT
that most of the accidents in the
woods are caused by deer hunters
argue as follows:
The moose hunter goes into the
woods in quest of moose, knowing that
he must stop to determine, before he
fires, whether it is a bull, a COW, a
spike horn or a. calf, and he pauses
long enough to ascertain, and seldom
mistakes a moose for a His
mental processes must have uncon-
sciously led him into a deliberateness
in pursuing the moose to which he is
a stranger when hunting the deer.
The normal nan when he enters
upon a chase for either deer or moose
is possessed OF no idea whatever that
he may kill a fellow being. Such a
calamity is not consciously or uncon-
.sciously any part of the workings of
his mind. -
The excitement of the chase is in
tense with him, especially if he is a
beginner at the sport. This undue
and abnormal excitement subjects him
to distorted visions, mental and per-
haps optical illusions.
In his unnatural vision he sees
something. The bushes move, the
color of the animal is there. He ar
CUES that the plan was for his COM
rade and guide to be on yonder noun
tain side, far from this spot, and no
latent mental forces suggest the pos
sibility of a man being near.
He has not that unconscious and
mysterious incentive to be deliberate
which he might have were he looking
for a moose In his mental vision he
sees a deer. 1t is real to him, as &C.
tual as are the objects in the delirium
OF q sick brain, yet it is only an IL
He fires, and the one thing which
he was SO positive the other day that
he could easily and certainly avoid,
when ne was reading Of the last acct
dental shooting, is done.
If he had been hunting a moose he
would not have stopped and looked be-
fore firing because he apprehended
he might see a a That frag-
ment of thought would be absent from
his mind in either event.
But, yet, while not thinking of a
man when hunting the moose, he was
and thoughtful because there was
something-a grain of thought which
Dasseth nderstanding-marvellously
somewhere in the %ecess of
ais mind, that ne might mistake a 10Y
FOR a bull. While hunting for the deer
ne had no such mental promptings,
Tor the law has allowed him to kill
both doe and buck.
There has been no inexplicable pro-
less unconsciously at work to cause
him to ponder, with care, before fir
.ng, and the danger of mis- killing a
man had never operated upon his
mind. He had always believed that
the careless killed men in the
woods accidentally, and the belief that
ne lever had been and never could
careless at such times was a part
II his being.
The popular theory is that these
accidents are invariably the result of
gross carelessness, and this belief is
o general that, being false, it may
# itself be the great of them.
When hunting for the deer he is
certain that he cannot by any
nance be careless enough to kill a
nan, and having had no brakes putt
n his senses regarding the deer he
oses mis- mental equilibrium at the
moment and the tragedy is
.thwart his life.
1t appeared to be the sentiment of
convention that the COW moose
aw has served to draw from the
moose hunters background of con-
.ciousness," as John Fiske calls it in
lis essay OF Inspiration" an Impulse
t the right moment to be deliberate,
Hhicn is SO much needed In all modes