The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-28
PRovIDENT SUICIDES.

PROvIDENT SUICIDES.
From the NJ Y. Tribune
The plan of raising the wind by stopping
ones own has ceased to be merely CHASTITY
Joke. desperate gamester is said to have
sold his head to an anatomist for money
enough to play final stake, and, after losing,
was Judged by jury of honor among his
friends to have committed gross violation
of all the cOn0enGnces by blowing a hole
through piece of property to which he had
no longer any claim. The suicides of the
present day exhibit equal deliberation and an
equally confused perception of legal and
moral obligation. Several men of late have
taken the last relics of their scanty fortunes
and effected an insurance upon their lives,
and then have killed themselves for the
benefit of their families. In all cases 80 far
the courts have held the companies liable for
the amount of the insurance, regarding suicide
as an accident of insanity, and one among
the accidents against which this provident
measure is designed to guard. If, however,
these affairs exhibit tendency to reproduce
themselves too frequently, it may we'll be
seriously considered whether some legisla-
ton is not necessary to restrict the response
bility of the companies, so that an institution
so useful and so beneficial shall not become
an encouragement to self-slaughter.
One of the most singular cases of this kind
named Spears, a small shopkeeper, who had,
by the close and sagacious application for
which his race is remarkable, accumulated
little property worth some $4,000, in an unfor-
tunate hour was induced to gamble for a
small amount, which he lost. Not being able
to endure the thoughtof losing money without
an equivalent, he went on for some months
with the fatal idea that luck would turE and
Of course lost all he was worth. He took the
nrenautiOn tO insura hia life for q S00O for ba
benefit of his wife, and then went through to
the end of his means. On the last day of his
life he asked his wife for some money. After
demonstrating with him for his course of life
she gave him five dollars, with which he
trudged away to the den where his happiness
had been squandered, and played for some
time with unusual success but at last the coil
was tightened upon him, and he was penni-
less. On his way home at night he stopped
at a tavern and wrote heart broken letter to
his wife, in which the sordid little cares of
business are curiously mingled with bursts of
passionate grief He sends tender farewell
to his "good and true wife, and his brave
boy Bennie, and takes care to say that he
"owes Mr.. Baldwin five dollars" against
which he offsets "a show case, some bed-linen,
and the large dolls" ''Now 1 see, he cries,
''what loving and good wife is. was the
villain; can answer before God? But, dear
wife, it is better for you" Here he reverts to
the monetary standard of valuation. ''If die,
then you receive $4,000; but should have lived,
our whole capital would have been but $780,"
This is an alternative in the face of which
there is no possibility of hesitation. Although
his heart is bleeding at the separation, it
would not be possible to resist such bargain.
''Zum letzten Male, lebt wohl! lebt wohl!
/ have paid the rent up to the 14th of July"
With this strange letter in his pocket he went
home, and in the morning was so unusually
gay as to excite the surprise of his family.
He had swallowed poison, and was as excited
as a child at the prospect of his journey; he
died apparently without regret.
There is widespread confusion of moral
perception in regard to such performances,
which is not only the predisposing cause to
most of these suicides, but also Influences the
general feeling of sympathy for the survivors
as against the defrauded corporations. 1t goes
beyond that natural and whimsical fancy of
the boatman who thought himself drowning,
and whose last reflection as he went under
was that it was good joke on the insurance
companies. 1t tends to place the insurer and
the insured on the footing of hostility, in
stead of cooperation, where they really
stand. An Arkansas gentleman tersely ex-
pressed this distorted view of the case when,
declining the overtures of an agent, he said
he 'had played about every game there was
on the cards, but woul dnt go into thing
where he had got to die to win" There is
no other idea in the wretched mind of poor
Spears, as he prepares to perfect his title to
that five thousand dollars, which he considers
his own. His death is only necessary for
mula to enable him to draw the money. ai.
The disregard for life which, in Oriental
countries, finds its highest expression in
duels by hari-kari and in vicarious executions,
has long been regarded as marking the most
radical point of difference between the East
ern and the Western mind But if we are to
go on in the way which has been indicated in
the last twelvemonth-young metaphysicians
taking poison for purposes of discovery,
lovers who fear separation killing themselves
with no settled arrangements for housekeep
ing anywhere else, and steady fathers of
family committing suicide in the interests of
their bank account-how long will it be that
we can look with wonder or disgust upon our
antipodes, where, as recent traveller re-
quests us to believe, the height of practical
jestipg consists in a suicide on neighbor's
property, so as to give him the amusement
of trial for murder? L1.l. t
ENGLAND AND GERMANY.
From the NJ Y World.
1t seems to be admitted by the leading press
IN A