Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1910-08-04

F"After ALL" Groener said carelessly,
"what does it matter? Go ahead with
your little game. 1t rather amuses me-"
The test began, Hauteville speaking
the prepared words and handling the
stop watch, while Coquenil, sitting be-
side him, wrote down the answered
words and the precise time intervals.
First they established Groener's av-
erage or normal time of reply when
there was no emotion or mental eff
fort involved. The judge said milk
and Groener at once by association of
ideas said CREAM" the judge said
"smoke." Groener replied "fre;;" the
i,1dna said ''early." Groener said
slate;;" the judge said "water," Groe-
ner answered %'river;;" the judge said
tobacco" Groener answered pipe"
And the intervals. varied from four
ifths of a second to a second and a
fifth, which was taken as the prison
ser's average time for the %untroubled
thought process.
Hes clever!" reflected Coquenil.
"He's establishing a slow average"
Then began the real test, the judge
going deliberately through the entire
list, which included thirty important
words scattered among seventy unim-
portant ones. The thirty important
words were:
/, Notre Dame; 2, eye hole; 8, watch
dog; 4, photographer; 5, guillotine; 6,
Champs Elysees; Z, false beard; 8,
Brussels; 9, Gibelin 10, sacristan; II.
Villa Montmorency; IL, Raoul; 10,
dreams; II, auger; Is, jiu jitsu; 16,
detective; II, Brazil; 1S, canary bird;
10, fire; 90, red sky; 81, assassin; %,
boots; %, Mary; "a, coaching party;
25, Japanese print; 26, charity bazaar;
27, footprints; %, Margaret; %, red
hair; 80, Fourth Of July.
They went through this list slowly,
word by word, with everything care
fully recorded, which took nearly an
hour; then they turned back to the
beginning and went through then list
again, so that to the hundred original
words Groener gave two sets of an
swering words, most Of which proved
to be the same, especially in the sew
.enty unimportant words. Thus both
times he answered darkness" for
eight" "tea" for 'coffee' and "clock''
for watch" There were a few ex-
.ceptions. as when he answered salt
for sugar" the first time and ''sweet"
for sugar the second time.
It was different. however, with the
important words, as Hauteville point
ed out when the test was finished. In
over half the cases the accused had
answered different words in the two
~questionings.
"You made up your mind, Groener,"
said the Judge as he glanced over the
sheets, shat you would answer the
critical words within your average
time Of reply, and you have done it.
but you have betrayed yourself in an
your desire to answer quickly you re-
peatedly chose words that you would
not have chosen if you had reflected
longer; then in going through the list
a second time you realized this and
improved on your first answers by
substituting more innocent words.
For example, the first time you an
swered hole when l said 'auger,' but
the second time you answered ham
mer.' You said to yourself, Hole is
not a good answer because he will
think I am thinking Of those eye holes,
so I'll change it to hammer" which
means nothing And when l said
watchdog you answered first scent
and then tall when I said Brazil
you answered first ship and then
coffee You tried deliberately to get
as far away as possible from associa-
tons with the crime"
"Not at ALL" contradicted Groener.
81 made the changes because every
word has many associations, and I fol-
lowed the first one that came into my
head. When we went through the list
a second time I did not remember or
try to remember the answers I had
given the first time"
"Ah, but that is just the point" in
sisted the magistrate. "In the seventy
unimportant words you did remember
and you did answer practically the
same words both times. Your mem
DRY failed only In the thirty important
words. Besides, in spite Of your will
power, the test reveals emotional dis
turbance. 1t is true you kept your
answers to the important words with
In your normal tone Of reply, but In