the envied narrators are not conscious. The repeating habit is so fixed that they tell the stories several times to the same persons. Therein lies their success-and failure. Repetition fixes the stories, but no effort is made to remember those to whom they have already been related.

Memory, then, is not the capricious, freakish process that it is sometimes thought to be. It is subject to law and order. Some of its laws have been determined by the investigations to which we have referred. Associations-not artificial ones but those with meaning in them—we have found to be the compelling force through which ideas are recalled. The problem of memory therefore resolves itself into getting the right associations and "fixing" them.、 It is with the "fixing" process that the investigations contained in this chapter deal. In selections to be committed to memory the associations are given in the text. Here, the "whole method,” with as rapid reading as clear comprehension permits, should be the plan. When, however, one reads, and tries to get the import, associations reach out further and include all related thoughts. In this case, getting the full meaning with all its implications and organizing the knowledge thus obtained are the foundation for remembering. But here, also, repetition should not be neglected, and in repeating new meaning will be discovered.

Although the impressionability and retentiveness of nerve-cells probably cannot be improved directly, indirectly they may be influenced by severe attention to what has been selected for retention. Training counts for much, and also knowledge of one's personal memory deficiency, with care for the methods of improvement. Darwin says of himself: "My memory is extensive, yet hazy: it suffices to make me cautious by vaguely telling me that I have observed or read something opposed to the conclusion which I am drawing, or, on the other hand, in favor of it; and after a time I can generally recollect where to search for

my authority. So poor in one sense is my memory that I have never been able to remember for more than a few days a single date or a line of poetry."1 Montaigne also speaks of his poor memory, but neither with him nor with Darwin does the defect seem to have been a serious handicap in what they set themselves to accomplish. They organized their minds and work to retain the information they needed. And the more humble man with smaller tasks may do as well, if he will only apply the principles upon which a serviceable memory is built-and think.

1 Autobiography.

CHAPTER VIII

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TESTIMONY AND

RUMOR

THE accuracy of reports of what has been seen or heard is a matter of wide interest. In courts of justice it decides the liberty or life of the defendant, and in the social world the narration of conversations or events often disrupts a community and destroys the happiness of all concerned. Assuming an earnest desire to relate the facts as they occurred, what are the chances for a truthful narration, and does the feeling of accuracy assure a reasonably correct reproduction? These questions are fundamental to court testimony and to social intercourse; and in the answers are revealed some interesting peculiarities of human psychology. Perhaps these questions may be best approached by a concrete case.

A few years ago the writer's attention was directed to a rather remarkable criminal trial. In 1871 Alexander Jester started east from Kansas in a light spring wagon with canvas top, drawn by two small pony horses. While fording a stream near Emporia, as the horses were drinking, he fell into conversation with Gilbert Gates, a young man who was returning from homesteading land in Kansas. Young Gates was travelling in what was then known as a prairie-schooner drawn by a pair of heavy horses. Jester had three young deer in his wagon, and Gates a buffalo calf. They decided to travel together and give exhibitions with their animals to meet expenses. When they reached Paris, Missouri, Gates had disappeared. Jester's explanation, at the preliminary hearing, was that he became homesick and sold his outfit to him that he might hasten

home by rail. Jester was seen leaving Paris driving Gates' heavy team with his own lighter team tied behind. Later he sold the heavy horses and various other articles known to have belonged to Gates, but which he claimed were purchased. It is not the purpose of the writer to decide the merits of the case, but rather to call attention to certain exceedingly interesting psychological features.

Jester was soon arrested but escaped, and was not brought to trial until 1901. Thirty years had therefore passed since the events concerning which witnesses were called upon to testify. Besides, there was a blinding snow-storm at the time when the crime was supposed to have been committed; and, of course, this would have interfered with accurate observation. Further, when the witnesses "saw" the things which they related they were not aware that a crime had been committed. Two preliminary questions thus suggest themselves: First, would any one note, as carefully as the subsequent testimony indicated, the peculiarities of a chance traveller on the road, especially in a blinding snow-storm, and at a time when no reason existed, so far as known, for unusual observation? Second, would observers, under these circumstances, be likely to remember, after the lapse of thirty years, the minute details of what they had seen? The incidents were of the unimportant, uninteresting sort that were frequently experienced at that time. Even the prairieschooner could hardly have been exceptional enough to attract special attention, since, as will be seen later, one of the witnesses was taking his wedding-trip on horseback, with his wife behind him on the same horse. But let us turn to the testimony.

When the trial was held, two women described the size and color of all the horses, the harness of the heavy team, the figure and appearance of Jester-height, a little over six feet, weight about one hundred and eighty pounds, with a hook-nose, gray eyes, powerful physique, and large

hands. They further testified that, looking into the first wagon as it approached, they saw lying in the bottom the outlines of a human form with a buffalo-robe thrown over it; and they gave this testimony confidently, thirty years after the crime, notwithstanding they were twelve and fourteen years of age, respectively, when the events transpired, and though they were riding at a canter in the face of a heavy snow-storm, with veils tied over their faces, and the horses which they met were travelling at a fast trot when they passed in the storm. A farmer swore that the buffalo-robe was covered with blood, and still another witness that, while helping Jester start his wagon, the canvas blew back and he saw the body of a man with his throat cut. The description of the body was that of young Gates.

A man who had just been married, and was taking his wife behind him on his horse to their new home, described the horses attached to each wagon, the wagons, and the dog; and this in spite of the fact that his own horse was going at the "single foot" gait, that Jester's horses were trotting past, that it was snowing hard, and that, being on his honeymoon, other thoughts and interests would seem to be occupying his mind.

A man of thirty-six, who consequently was six years of age at the time of the crime, testified that later, during the thaw and heavy rains of spring, he and his father saw the body of a young man of eighteen or twenty years of age floating down the stream. He described the color of his hair and complexion, and said that he had on a bluechecked shirt and blue overalls. His description of the shirt agreed with that of Mrs. Gates of a shirt which she had made for her son. It is interesting to note, in this connection, that neither the father of the six-year-old boy nor the girls who saw the outlines of a human form in the wagon, nor the man who helped start Jester off, said anything about their observations until Gates' disappearance and Jester's arrest had been published.