Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1871-07-22
THE ~ rRE4SB or CRIME.

der, arson, snicide, and robbery.
while the crimes themsclve are al
so varied to suit the tastes Of the
different actors. No locality is ex.
empt from these shocking annals
and the rural population heretotor,
supposed to possess a certain i'm
munity from the worst class of hu.
man sins now furnish some OF the
most extreme and exaggerated
forms of human wlckcdness and
Indebtedness.
Take y million of our rural PEG
pie, and give publicity to the shock
ing details of guilt that might be
gathered among them, and New
York itself with the same popuIs'
ton crowded together, with every
incentive to crime in its teemlng
hive would scarcely furnish a paral'
lei to the number, or the masni'
tude and malignity of the deeds Of
OF the former. Most Of these cases
of murder result from the donor
aliEation Of woman, or OF men By
women, The fearful record cXhlb'
its the devilish ingenuity of thOst
who practice murder rs q fine art
the horrible butchery Of the savage
who with the blind terocity of thc
instinct of tiger, or bloodhound.
rushes into murder as q glutton
rushes to n feast. The analysis OF
these records would furnish u Strik.
ing c1posc Of the inducements that
lead to crime, ofthe different modes
in which men creep up to murder,
the various and often ingenious
plans devised for "shutliing off this
mortal coil'-0nd these statistics
would be Il sad commentary on the
moral saucness Of our people.
Within the last few years the in
crease of suicides has been alarm
ingIy apparent, and the South has
furnished its full share, though il
falls behind the North in the excess
of the moaner and more revolving
deeds whose disgusting details ill
every Northern journal. 1t is
strange that in self-murdcr people
adopt so many modes ofdeparture
there seems to be no hSbrite OF
universal method Of killing ones.
self, and the problem Of the easiest
death 10 die appears as yet nm
solved. 1t perhaps, depends Oh
temperament, that few seem to
wish to die alike; the pistol, the
knife, poison, asphyXia, and strang-
ling with the rope, drowning, each
number their thousands of silent
advocates, but they give no sign Of
the comparative ease with which
they died, and suicides will contin.
ne to differ in the modus opefend
by which they seek refuge from
real or imaginary Ills in death. The
most potent causes Of selt.destruc
ton are disappointed love, and pc
cuniary embarrassment these vii
most often indnce in badly balanced
minds a moral insanity that only
stops at death. 1t would be abs
lutely impossible for a man whose
physical and moral natures arc &C
cordant with the laws intended tt
govern them, to commit suicide
There is no doubt the subsidenc,
and reaction Of the war feeling ha
done much to fit men for the de
pressing action of mi fortunes an
disappointed hopes and the alarm
ing increase Of suicide is traceabl
to this fact. Especially in tn
South, where this crime, if crime i
is, was comparatively rare befor
the war, this effect is Singularly ap
parant in the increase and freQucn
cy of its victims. We have almOs
become a nation Of suicides; man.
who dread the sharp and decisiv
remedy Of the pistol or poison ar
slowly and deliberately quenchini
their lives, breath by breath, bu
no less surely. We must all die
but all of us do not know how t
1.-Two hro