Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-01
Greatest Number Of Fatalities Due to
Mountain Climbing - Automo-
billing and Hunting Enter q
Strongly
RECORD OF FATALITIES


More than 400 persons met their death
during the last year from causes di-
rectly due to sport and with almost
every one there rose the every burning
public clamor against the dangers of
some game or other.
Of the various branches football was
the most criticized as usual, and it is
dangerous, since eleven weeks built up
total of fourteen fatalities, with
something over 100 cases of more or
less serious injury, but a glance at the
items of deaths creating in the various
fields of sport since January shows
that mountain climbing leads.
In the first eleven months of the
year 191 adventures lost their lives
in that hazardous pleasure" Auto
mobiling has accounted for ITO deaths.
and seventy-two hunters have been ac-
cidentally killed. 1t is quite a drop
from such figures to the fourteen fa-
talities of football, with, following In
order, baseball, eight; marine, four;
and two each for boxing, wrestling and
horse racing.
Mountain Climbing
Mountain climbing this year reaches
| it's "furthest north of deaths. 1.-THE
sport of only the very few" has been
said of mountaineering. But Swiss
statistics show approximately 100000
| making one ascent or another each
season. and this covers only the Swiss
Alps, saying nothing of the outlying
portions of the chain or of the great
ranges.
Moreover. only 10 per cent of the
mishaps are laid to what may be held
as unavoidable causes-falling stones,
etc. Only eight of the 191 unfortunates
| To-, It,,,11n Nd npIxy
| forty-eight of the accidents occurred
among the highest and most dangerous
peaks.
The nationalities of the dead
strangely enough led by the Swiss
themselves-follow In this order: Ger
mans, Austrians, English, Italians and
Americans.
The "Red Devils" and "Galloping
| Ghosts" and white Whizzers' Of the
years have left dreadful trail behind
them. January recorded but one
death, and February added only two
to that, but November closed with the
total raised to ITO. July (the worst Of
the eleventh months) accounted for
Twenty-Five.
Hunting ranks clearly third in the
annual sporting Deaths" Wisconsin
seems to have the blackest portion Of
the list to show, for her first days reo-
ord tells of thirty-nine casualties
Ghirteen of them fataD; but Main
reported for the first forty-eight hours
of the season six killed and seven
wounded, so that the CHASTITY total of
seventy-two fatalities and seventy
seven other casualties for the entire
country exhibits a reasonably divided
responsibility.
Several Killed on Diamond
The death roster, in so far as its
items fell below footballs fourteen, is
headed by eight fatalities on the dia-
mond field of the national game. OF
these, two were spectators, struck in
the one case by ball and in the other
by a bat, which had slipped from the
batsman's hands on swing. Pitched
balls again accounted for the deaths
of five players-Casper Musselman of
Allentown, Pa; Thomas r. Burke of
Boston; Teller Marina of Brooklyn,
Charles Mcdonald of Camden and
Jesse Robertson, sailor in Uncle
Sans navy, who was playing at Nor
| folk, Va The death of F. r. Mckee,
near Rolla, Mo-, in October. was due
to a collision with another member of
his team while both were running for
a foul ball.
These facts and figures have been
gathered with no thought of bringing
discredit upon any of the sports re-
ferred to. nor has there been any in
tention of "bolstering up this much
talked-of football record by dwelling
upon the hazard of other outdoor
games. The element of danger in
sport exists wherever there is fasci-
nation or popularity.
| 1t exists more markedly for the call
low boy than for the man of expert
ence properly trained to meet the con-
ditions in question. And it would seem
only fair that the critical public should
bear something of this sort in mind
| in commenting upon one sport or the
other-should have some eye for the
whole field. and so speak with a view
| to all the facts.