WHAT IS YOUR PET FEAR?

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLII, Issue 12823, 15 April 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

WHAT IS YOUR PET FEAR?

TIJK TERRORS OK .Sol WERS AND CIVILIANS.

•'Out ol' the night that covers me. Black as the pit from pole to pole. I thank whatever gods may be For mv unconquerable soul. —W. E. Henley. Astonishing stories of the strange fears of soldiers at the front and civilians at home are. told by the writer of au absorbing article m the' Philadelphia "North American" entitled "\\hat are you afraid of?" 'Hie writer's thesis is that everybody has a "pet" fear, front the timid -to the bravest of the. brave, which is either an outcropping of heredity or the re-, suit of some childish impression indelibly stamped on the brainThe persons in whose lives fear plays, no part may, lie thinks, count themselves abnormaL rather than normal—.they are one in ten thousand. ""The secret fear—more terrible than the secret sorrow—that which terrifies- aiiii fascinates, which benumbs the mind and chills the blood, is the bane of mankind." It >eems to be the inexorable law of nature (and present education) that there shall be in the life of every man and of every woman a hidden tear —a grotesque horror, or~~an absurd obsession—the uncontrollable terror wliich unexpectedly obtrudes itself into ones' thehghts. The writer says:—

•• ;iiut what have J to be afraid of?' queries one. And from another, • uny should 1 be afraid or anything:- I don't see—in fact, I'm sure, 1 have no special fear; but—' Is it a cat, a black cat, that i.>> the bane of your lire:" Another woman is terrified at the mere sight of falling snow. Neither pleading nor cajolery can induce her to go out into a snowstorm. There is nothing so urgent nor a social duty so pressing that will cause her to bra'.e a snowstorm.

"The reason ': She. is afraid of being buried alive in the snow —« death of suffocation. She has a deadly horror ofh eing Diiried alive under a miniature avalanche which may unexpectedly sweep from the roof of some house and completely engulf her. "True it is that to the disinterested observer these fears may possess a far-cical-tragical appearance; but remember, the evident comedy in the life of one is sure to be the bitter tragodv of another."

ON THE BATTLEFIELD. An eminent neurologist, having just returned from foreign battlefields, finds the soldiers possessed of fears which, to the civilian mind, may appear ridiculous, and even preposterous—that is, if one forgets his own "pet" fear:— "One little French lad, as debonair a youth as over donned uniform, had an immense horror of being found with ins clothing in wild disorder. Even in the midst of a skirmish or a battle, he would stop and arrange his clothing as il ho were expecting a visit from royalty. Most pathetic of all was his death, wliich occurred in a slimy bog, cleverly concealed by the enemy. "However, his comrades, imbued with an idea as to the fitness of things,, recovered the body, cleaned it thoroughly, and laid it away on the crest ol a near.by lull. It was, indeed, a striking instance of carrying one's ' pet' fear to the grave. "Then again, a. soldier" whom I met was always dreading" that his charcoal burner would be "smashed to bits bysome stray shell. So great was his fear that such a thing would happen that he placed his burner in the most sheltered spot in the trench, but himself took the chance of being 'smashed to bits.' He was in the thick of the fight any number of times in the. Maine re. gion; but his chief aim in life seemed to bfc getting back to the trench and watching over his little burner. "Still another soldier was terrorised by the. mere sight of a broken lace in his shoes. Cavalry possessed no fears for hiinj snipers phased him not a bit; asphyxiating gases were almost the bane of his life, but he would combat even them: but a loosened shoe-string —well, chat was different. His fear wa» that he would trip and break an arm or leg, if not his neck. The mere fact, of which he had abundant proof, that he might at any time be blown to atoms, seemed not to worry him in the least.

"Another soldier, one of the best scouts in Northern France, had a horror of being crushed beneath a falling tree. And, for that reason, he never would traveMhrough or skirt the edge ol a lorest. .jtill another soldier—and, by the way, while there are legions of tliem, this mania is not confined entirely to them, but is also practised by niany civilians—spent a great aeal oi bis leisure time writing his name and address on odd bits of paper which he secreted about his person. He was in mortal terror lest he be buried in a nameless grave." WEIRD INSTANCES.

A man who, because of .the nature of his business, is compelled to visit rooms on the upper floors of tall buildings is held in the grip of a horrible obsession. Ho will resort to any artifice so that he may not be caught between another man and the window. He is fearful lest the other man will turn maniac and throw him tlu'ough the window. The sight of an ironworker riding astride a beam which swings perilously on its upward voyage to the topmost floors of some, .skyscraper in the making is enough to inspire even the devil-may-care with a spirit oi awe. But the writer cites the ease of a man si ho has been engaged in that trade for years and never turns a hair, but who is. nevertheless, absolutely sickened by the more sight of ants, centi. pedes, and insects of any description, and he is not in the least afraid to confess his "pet" fear.

As to the origin of these fears many theories have been, put forward. The writer observes:—

"Modern psychologists arc almost unanimous in denying that there arc such things as inherited or instiuctive i>ai\s. They maintain that that which is inherited is an innate capacity for motor response to certain stimuli. If ihoso .stimuli are painful, they cjaim, ihoy will give rise to fear reactions; luu there is no knowing in advance which stimuli produces pain and which do not; therefore, there are no innate fears of objects as such. Among the sensational fears we find the fear of wind, fire, water, thunder, and lightning, of animals, eyes, teeth, nnd fur, feathers, and even stars. One man, ♦■specially is driven into hysterics by the sound of wind playing along telegraph wires, while another cannot sleep while there is a high wind, but walks about in sleepless agony. A woman who has- never experienced the terror of being caught in a fire is in continual dread Test one break out in her home, and is virtually a nervous wreck from the unwarranted strain on her nerves." There are other strange fears, too. That "to some the fur of a muff or stole should prove a source, of terror is no more remarkable than the fear of. those who jump at the sight of a strayfeather which may happen to pass their wav. , . , There is the fear of death, which to manv is the most awesome of all fears, but there is one fear which can claim more unwilling worshippers than all others: combined —that is the fear of solitude.- There are legions of those who dread the ordeal of visiting unfrequented spots, of staying ui an otherwise empty house, of travelling m the streets late.at night. Happy those who, also in the words of Henley, can say. ■-'• \nd yet the menace of the years | Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.