The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-11-15

greater cOmmOtion, 80 he fhOt again.
The first bullet Went through the right
and left arms Of The victims. Crow
ley pumped his rife and fred again,
This time the bullet went through
the abdomen Ct the father and son.
The boy died within few hours and
the father died the following day
There is little variation in the de-
tails of these stories OF shooting men
in mistake for game. Some one sees
bush move and fires; some one fan
1 cies he sees a deer In the cleaning,
and fires; some one spies bear in
a tree, as he thinks and shoots and
down falls a man In every case
where a man Is killed by mistake for
a dear, waiting a few seconds or even
a moments hesitation, would reveal
the act that the movement is caused
by a man and not by game. The one
who does the killing is so afraid that
he will miss killing deer that he
takes a chance of killing a man rath-
er than take a chance of losing deer.
The very fact that man is mis-
taken for a deer proves that the per-
son who does the shooting did not see
clearly-and there are men going III
10 the woods now who have killed
men In that way and who take the
same chances they always did. There
is one ardent hunter who has killed
two men accidentally" and there IS
no way in law OF preventing MIN from
killing a third AS usual after Killing
man "he goes almost crazy with
u grief
Two things make for the killing OF
men in mistake for deer. One OF
these is the physiological phenomen-
on known as "buckfeyer The hunter
is at a high tension Of expectancy.
Guides have stuffed him full OF yarns
about how hard 1t is to get a deer.
The result is that when he hears a
noise he jumps, and when he sees a
3 bush move he shoots. He Is so ex'
cited at the prospect of killing a deer
that he forgets there are other hun
GERS in the woods.
Then there Is the cold blooded and
selfish man. who knows just what he
, is doing. lie goes hunting to get
meat He knows that there are hun
tiers on all sides He realizes that
some one may be within a few rods
of him. but that does not matter He
/ feels, perhaps, that he is much more
likely to see a deer than man. In
any event he sees what he knows may
be a man, but Is likely to be deer.
He shoots for luck" AS he is cold
blooded about it, he aims truly, and If
, it is a deer well and good he gets
the meat he wants.
But there are accidents in the
woods which result in the killing Of
men, and in which no blame can lie.
, One OF these is the fact that a man
shooting at a deer may accidentally
kill some one who is behind the deer
but in range Of bullets. These bullets
/ seem to drop down out of the sky in
some cases In Canada a year or so
ago such a bullet struck woman
dead, though no shot was heard The
/ high velocity smokeless bullets trav-
ell for miles-two or more-and one
, cannot tell where they will land.
; No class OF men is exempt from
shooting accidents. The victims may
be the most careful men in the world,
, and IL often happens that those who
, are most solicitous for the safety OF
others are the victims Of fools in the
/ woods II seems likely. although the
, statistics are especially difficult TO
! compile, tlt' more than 80 per cent
, of the shootl accidents follow drunk
en- carousals la the camps from which
2 the careless man started There is
no commoner or more significant state
. ment in the account of a shooting acct
I dent than the one I'VE had killed a
q deer the day before. or 1--WE had just
n killed a deer" That often means
!. that when the deer was killed all
!. hands proceeded TO drink whisky
One Adirondack hunting custom is
/. that when the first deer is killed
!. every one gets drunk" They begin
/. 10 drink at the deer's carcass. and
a they drink till midnight. The next
I day those who are not too sick to &c
r hunting, and halfblind. halfdrunk, ut
terly reckless, proceed to kill one an
5 other by accident Not one party in
!. a dozen but takes liquor by the quart
or gallon into the woods and the
q hunts often degenerate into drunken
n sprees.
The effect OF this great number Of
n accidents is to keep hundreds anC
O probably thousands of men and WON
g en- out OF the woods every year anC
q have cost the guides and hotel keep
, ers thousands OF dollars in trade an,
v unnumbered persons are deprived O
their pleasure on outings because O
y fools and topers in the woods.-Nev
= XnrL Ts.tI,.