Omaha daily bee., 1906-12-16
HUNTERS FATAL BLUNDERS
One Hundred Men Shot BY Mistake Every
Year in the Woods.
EXCITED SPORTS WITH HAIR-TRlGeER GUNS
Bulk of the killing and wOundInE
Done During open Season for Big
Game-CrIminaI Folly in Use
of Firearms.

There is admittedly some occult infu-
ences in politics which ofttimes forces de-
cent men engaged In it TO lose ali sense
Of decency-at least so far as the practice
Of the art political is concerned. And all
men are agreed that there is that about
horsetrading that divorces honest men
from honesty, at least while engaged in
that scientific pursuit And, after many
years residence in a northwestern frontier
country, the writer has about arrived at
the conclusion that there is something he
knows not how to name it. about the hunt
ing Of big game that divests all men of
common sense, at least while the blood-lust
Of the chase is ip their hearts, and. 80 IA
as the bulk Of those engaging In 1t are
concerned, for the time between their
reaching the hunting grounds and leaving
them. For on no other ground can the
undisputed fact that every year at least
100 men are killed or wounded In mistake
for deer or moose, or slain or mangled as
the result of criminal folly in the use of
firearms, in the states of Michigan, Min
nesota and Wisconsin, be accounted for.
The bulk of this killing and wounding is
done while the open season" for big game
is on in the states, but isolated instances
are by no means infreuuent in all three at
other times. And the doors Of these deeds
of blood are by no means solely of the
"tenderfoot' class. Time and again they
prove to be men OF old use and wont as
hunters, and who would be thought to have
learned caution as well as skill in the use
OF guns. But on them the obsession OF the
| big game hunt seems to work as fully as
on the veriest tyro. Else how can several
following cases in point. as the lawyers
say, be accounted fort
Thought IL Was a Deer"
Several years ago a party of gentlemen
from Indiana came into northern Min
nesota for a deer hunt. two Of them being
sportsmen who had hunted all over the
west for years, fast friends and terminates,
and accounted deacons OF woodcraft. Tho
/ second Gay after their arrival at their
hunting ground one Of them stood in the
dooryard Of their farmer host and shot
the other, who was coming through some
/ thick brush not eighty rods away. The
stricken man was dead before the friend
who had shot him. and who learned OF
his awful mistake through his companions
death-cry, could reach him, and the only
explanation the killer could give was that
he thought II was a deer" The slayer,
/ by the way, Is an incurable maniac today
! Common sense would have told him that
no deer could possibly be where he thought
/ ne saw one buJ' as was said before, conf
mon sense and big game hunting go not
/ together.
And again: A mighty hunter OF deer
/ from a western city was a guest Of lum-
/ herman at the latter's camp in the Min
nesota pineries, and carried a loaded rihe
into the camp one evening. II was a ham
merless, high-pOwer gun. and ipeveral Of
I the men passed II about for examination,
| finally laying il on the dining table, on
one side OF which the host was sitting at
/ supper. The owner Of the gun picked Il
up 10 put It away, and shot his host
through the heart. killing him instantly.
/ He could give no explanation whatever OF
= how the gun was discharged. and was
/ heart-broken over the accident, Of course
/ But common sense would have forbidden
/ him under any circumstances 10 take a
| loaded gun into a house, or to point one.