The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1871-05-13
MONROE, LOUISIANA, SATURDAY, MAY l3 1871.
Suicide and Its Causes.
IN the Memphis Appeal.1


From the Memphis Appeal
The great increase of suicides Is at
tracing much attention throughout the
country. a few years since suicide
was an unusual occurrence. But of late
years it seems to be Il mania, which un
fortunately, prcvades all classes of So
ciety. Several have been committed
in Memphis during the past twelve
months, three have been announced by
telegraph during the past week ,and our
people are becoming rs noted as the
French for their suicides. Does n young
lady lose her lover, in the first paroxy ysm
of grief she runs to tho laudanum bottle
or pitches herself headlong into the
river Is a man sighted by the idol of
his affections, he immedially thinks of
revolvers, and probably ends the chap
ter OF his earthly troubles by means of
u bullet. Then, too, how many, over
como by rcmorsc, fall a prey to the Sc
cret gnawing of Il canker which eats
out of life all there is of enjoyment.
The victim of sin in such cases ends Il
life of misery in the faint hope that the
future can be no more bitter than tho
present. The mania which Mt one time
existed in France for committing sui
citles was thus stigmatised by Napoleon
in the following order of the day, which
has been chronicled by his biographers:
ORDER OF THE DAY.
ST. CLOUD ODD FLoREALl
10TH EAR OF THE REPUBIC. (
Tho granadier Goblin has committed
suicide, from II disappointment in love. He
was in other respects n worthy man. This
ia the second event of tho kind that has hap
pcncd i'll this corps within Il month.
Tho First Consul DIRECTS that it shall bc
notified III tho order of tho day guard:
hat fol kpNNx 1,DNx to-
como tho grief and melancholy of his pas
sions;
ing mental affection manfully. as in remain
ing unmovod under tho fro Of IL battery;
To abandon one's self to grief, without
resisting, and to kill ono's solf in order to
escape from it, is like abandoning tho fold
OF battle before bcing conquered.
Countersigncd BEssIEnEs.
If the reader will rccur to tho files of
tho Appeal for the last two weeks, it
will be seen that nearly every day q
suicide is announced. There must bea
cause for all this mass of human mis-
cry. 1t must lie deep, too, in the very
heart Of our social system. There can
be no doubt that one Of tho palpable
causes Of tho vast decentralization around
us is to he found in corrupt and
| vicious literature. Thrcc-quarters of
the novels written and published rep
resent false and diseased conditions of
human society. They inculcatc erro-
neohs notions Of life, stimulate the pas
sions and encourage just such desperate
ends as suicide and murder. The week.
ly papers, which furnish the mental
pabulum of half the young women in
tho city, arc unfit for respectable pcO
pie to read. The Sunday papers arc in
the habit of publishing stories which
actually make tho blood run cold to
glance at. Such vulgar vice, such inef-
fable bascncss, such horrible examples
of depraVity jumblcd together in such
Il frightful pile of horrors, corrupt the
| minds of the young, and add fuel to
tho flames of passion burning in tho
| breasts of others.
If we add to such fictitious literature
the "publishcd intcrvicWs'' in which
vice and lewdness arc painted off in
their most alluring cOlors, we have two
streams Of pollution quite enough to
poison thousands of minds. After tho
mental system has once been disturbed,
there arc Il hundred chances to one that
the person will go on from bad to worse
until the original tsint brings forth its
natural fruit of open shame and crime.
How unlike to Old-f;,shioncd times is
such an artificial way of living! If
fancy never usurpcd the place of rca-
son, if passion were curbed by whole
some restraints, and the latent germs
Ofvirtuc stimulated into activity, there
would not be so many fatal wrecks
along tho highway of human life. In
sober old days, when few good books
constituted the library, when siclSly
novels had not como into vogue, life
was comparatively free from these
shocking occurrences which now Startlc
| us day by day, until vice actually loses
its natural horror, and virtuo almost
becomes byoword and rcproach.