Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1853-09-09
Suicides s-Mistal1sn Sympathy.

The suicide Of two young females, in
one of the New England States, has crea.
ted an unusual excitement among the
newspapers of that region. The journals
in question come to US with column upon
column Of narratives, specuiations, and
comments on the occurrence. The histo-
ry of the erring creatures is rehearsed from
their childhood their personal appearance
IS minu;ely described; the disappointed
attachment which led TO the catastrophe is
expatiated on fully; their letters are pub
lished; their proceedings on the day of the
suicide elaborately depicted; in short, no.
thing is omitted, which can bring notorie-
ty to tie victims or arouse morbid SYM
pathy Nor amid all this excitement, is a
word uttered about the folly and crime of
suicide. Had it been the design of the
New England press to render sclf-destruc-
ton romantic, the course followed in this
instance would have been exactly that
most proper to adopt.
Surely this is not right. There is dam
ger, if the press acts thus, Of awakening
sympathy to such degree for suicides,
tha. the horror which the crime should
awaken is forgotten, to the ruin Of weak
minded persons. The victims in this vc-
ry tragedy afford an illustration of this.
We wish to speak as tenderly Of the dead
as our sense of duty will permit. But we
cannot help saying that these two young
females appear to us to have been extreme
ly silly, and by no means to haye mcrited,
by their misfortunes, the sympathy ex-
pressed in their behalf. Thousands, nay
tens of thousands of females, in all coun-
tries and ages, have endured, with silent
fortitude, similar disarpointments of the
heart. Nor does their appear to have
been any circumstances, in the cases Of
these two girls, to aggravatc peculiarly
their fate. On the contrary, the neglect
Of their lovers seems to have been attend
ed with less mortifying concomitants than
is usual in such .desertions, while in one
Of the instances it is by no means clear
that the attentions of the young man had
warranted the expectations that were sub
scquently disappointed. The tragedy, we
greatly fear, had its origin in morbid
scntimentality, encouraged BY the tone of
society in its sympathy for suicides.
These girls were apparently victims Of
foolish sensibility, combined with want of
proper fortitude, and possibly attended
with scarcely acknowledged belief that
suicide would make them Leroines in the
eyes of lovers as well as of the public.
We blame not only editors and news
mongers, but authors, and some even of
high repute. The popular literature of the
day, such at least as is found in many
weekly newspapers at the East, but especi-
ally in those which circulate among factory
operatives, almost entirely ignores the
great fact that life is battle manfully to
be fought, and not romantic tragedy,
to be finished scenically, by broken-heart
or suicide, at the first rebuff. All the
heroines, IN the fictions that fill the jour
mails in question:. are deluged in woes,
which rise, by climax, to some grand cat
astrophe, that is painted sentimentally as
the only proper conclusion. Not one Of
them conquers sorrow, by learning, from it,
that trouble is for discipline, and that the
worst disaster vanishcs, like specter,