Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1871-12-22
Suicides,

IT would be nice question for the
moral philosopher to determine whether
horrors tend to propagate horrors; wheth-
er the great disasters by fire and Hood,
which have been sweeping across the
country, and indeed the entire world, this
wear. have been the immediate cause OF
the smaller and more individual disasters
which have broken out in almost every
village in the land. We refer particularly
to suicides France has long enjoyed the
rather unenviable distinction OF setting
suicide fashions for the world, but during
the past year, the United States, in proper
ton to population, will certainly far surpass
that country. We have not yet arrived at
the esthetic nicely of the Partisan. With
his fastidious instincts, he must go " de-
Gently and in order" and with a certain
degree of ecldt and cJdn attending his
taking of. With our more practical no
tions and characteristic hurry we . stand
not upon the order of our going, but go
at once" helter-skelter, and in all manner
of bizarre and coarse exits.
Hitherto, these unnatural methods of
closing up accounts with the world have
! been confined to a certain few OF the most
miserable of mankind, who had been re-
duced by liquor to insanity, or who had
been driven to the verge of madness by
an incurable disease, escape from which
could only be found in the outlet of death.
But at present the most trivial cause
is made the pretext for suicide.
| 1t is almost impossible to take
up the most remote village paper without
| finding in it an account of local suicide.
| Country towns supply more OF these vio-
lent deaths, proportionately,. than INC
| cities, whereas, previous to this year, the
reverse was the case. A short time, since
| q man hanged himself because Darwin
! had proved mans descent from the mon-
! kew. and thereby unwittingly furnished a
! striking eXemplifcation of the truth OF the
| distinguished naturalist's theory of the
| origin of species Several cases have oc-
| CURED, recently, where children of tender
! are have killed themselves because they
/ were corrected by their parents. silly
/ Indiana schoolgirl, the other day, took
| poison because she failed in one of her
/ tasks. Two young misses in Maine,
week or two ago, without any apparent
reason whatever, embraced each olher on
the brink of Lewiston Falls and jumped
over. A woman in the interior OF this
state the other day, took poison because
her husband forbade her going to ball.
Another one hanged herself because
her husband didn't want her to
sing at concert. Poor men kill them
selves because they are poor, and rich
men because they arc afraid they may be
moor. Women are killing themselves from
reasons of desertion, deception, love-sick-
ness, dry goods, millinery, dancing
schools, and absurd whims of every de-
scription, while children, scarcely out OF
their pantaletts and pinafores, ape the
fashions of their elders, and, on such
small Juvenile reasons as they can muster,
cut off the scant threads OF their lives.
Undoubtedly, our fast and reckless man
ner of living furnishes the clue to a ma
iOrity of these cases, but what snail be
said of those numerous other cases, where
no remedy exists? The epidemic grows
alarming. Life is cheapening at a. rate
which will soon make it drug In the
existing condition of things, no one can
rise in the morning with the certainty
that his next door neghbor is not hanging
uugracefully to a beam, because his beef
steak was burned We have been visited
during the past few months by several stl-
pernatural personages; among them inc
Ice Fiend, and the Fire Fiend, and the
Flood Demon, and the Wind Fury, and
the Plague Spectre. Has that mythical
personare, the Fool-killeT, also come?
Ne can imagine no other theory
which will account for this insane tenden-
CIV to hurry to ''that bourne" etc. Do
But is there not remedy for this moral
disease? The mania is spreading, and the
worst feature of ii is that it attacks, ap-
, parentlv, good, sensible, steady men, who
have never been supposed before. to have
suicidal tendencies. There is always a
certain class in the community who may
he expected to 90 off in this violent man
; ner; but cannot something be done to
stay sensible people from such an aD
surdity? Is there not panaceaf i'll oul
, ruins? If Il man is tired of his life let him
come here an begin it over again. If Z
man finds suggestions of nooses. and colo
! poison floating in his imagination there il
! nothing so effectual as sinking the imag
. ination and getting down to hard facts
/, There are plenty of hard facts in ou
= ruins to be resolved into realities by hare
: work. We offer, therefore, an inviting
:, field for erratc individuals contemplating
suicide Let them take to the trowcl an(
-, saw, and plane, and see how quickly al
= their troubles will disappear, Work il
. the antidote of misery as we'll as nonsense
:. In the case of children, we do not SCI
: how these youthful idiots can be pre-
= vented from escaping from this wicked
:, world. In the case of women, it woulC
4 be useless, for when a woman will, sh
v will, 'and there's an end On'tP But an.
, man who can work is ineXcusable, in tn
4 light of our ruins.-Chic050 Tribune.
!, -
N VALUE OF ACoRNs.-Perhaps it ma,
" not be generally known, says a Californi
~. paper, that acoTns command good pric
y y twenty dollars per ton-in Stockton
u and quite a profitable business has bee
=. done by several parties gathering acorn
u and disposng of them at that price. On
- attention has been drawn particularly t
~ one instance wherein an industrious an
energetic farmer, who resides in the fan
inc district on the west side of the Sa
Joaquin River, who, during the season
10 gathered acorns sufficient in amount t
" realize money enough to pay his take
= and leave in his hands surplus of tweI
,e ty-five dollars, or, as he expressed i
O. 'ttwenty-tive dollars ahead of the hounds.
n. From these acorns, gathered from tn
@ large trees bordering on the river, an
lv which are said to be of excellent quality
i. twenty dollars per ton is price readil
ne obtained from parties in this city, wh
lv use this product for fattening hogs.
q -
to In the early days of the London Tim
ne it was the custom, in announcing ma
he riages, to state the amount of the dowry-
as 100000 or e300, whatever it might be-
no and in looking through the ladies colum
he one morning at breakfast, Mr.. walt