Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-12-28
Suicides.

d IT would be nice question for the
noral philosopher to determine whether
brrors tend to propagate horrors; wheth-
the great disasters by fire and flood,
5hich have been sweeping across the
buntry, and indeed the entire world, this
Ear, have been the immediate cause of
e smaller and more individual disasters
thich have broken out in almost every
lage in the land. We refer particularly
suicides. France has long enjoyed the
ther unenviable distinction of setting
cide fashions for the world, but during
past year, the United States, in proper
pnto population, will certainly far surpass
ut country. We have not yet arrived at
esthetic nicely of the PaFisfstif. With
fastidious instincts, he must go de
fntly and in ORDER" and with certain
gree of eclat and clan attending his
king Off With our more practical no
pms and characteristic hurry, we "stand
upon the order of our going, but go
once, :" hclter-skelter, and in all manner
bizarre and coarse exits.
Hitherto, these unnatural methods OF
Osing up accounts with the world have
Zen confined to certain few of the most
iserable of mankind, who had been re-
heed by liquor to insanity, or who had
ZEN driven to the verge of madness by
incurable disease, escape from which
build only be found in the outlet of death.
ut at present the most trivial cause
made. the pretext for suicide.
is almost impossible to take
the most remote village paper without
hding in it an account of local suicide.
Ountry towns supply more of these VIC
&nt deaths, proportionately, than the
ties, whereas, previous to this year, the
yerse was the case. A short time since
man hanged himself because Darwin
ad proved mans descent from the mon
Pey, and thereby unwittingly furnished a
rking exemplification of the truth of the
lstinguished naturalist's theory OF the
rgin of species. Several cases have 0c-
Flrred, recently, where children of tender
ge have killed themselves because they
ERE corrected by their parents. A silly
Indiana schoolgirl, the other day, took
POISON because she failed in one of her
sks. Two young misses in Maine, a
eek or two ago, without any apparent
tason whatever, embraced each other on
le brink of Lewiston Falls and jumped
yer. A woman in the interior OF this
tate, the other day, took poison because
ef husband forbade her going to ball.
mother one hanged herself because
er husband didn't want her TO
nag at concert. Poor men kill them
Ewes because they are poor, and rlch
zen because they are afraid they may De
oor. Women are killing themselves from
tasons of desertion, deception, love-slck
s, dry goods, millinery, dancing
thools, and absurd whims of every de.
fiption, while children, scarcely out OF
ier pantaletts and pinafores, ape the
shlons of their elders, and, on such
mail Juvenile reasons as they can muster,
" OH the scant threads OF their, hves.
ndoubtedly, our fast and reckless man
TOT living furnishes the clue to ma
Pity OF these cases, but what shall De
aia OF those numerous other cases, where
remedy exists? The epidemic grows
Earning. Life is cheapening at rate
nich will soon make it drug. In the
Als!lng condition of things, no one can
IN the morning with the certainty
vat MS next door neighbor is not hanging
lg,acefully to beam, because his peer
eak was burned. We have been visited
arlhg the past few months by several SUI
crhatural personages; among them the
e. flend, and the Fire Fiend, and tne
,o9d Demon, and the Wind Fury, ana
1e riague Spectre. Has that mytlcai
kTTr'onage, the Fool-Killer, also come!
can imagine no other theory
ucn will account for this insane tenden-
70 hurry to that bourne" etc. 49,,
nut Is there not remedy for this moral
eo ease? The mania is spreading, and the
orsl feature of it is that it attacks, APP
a,ehuy, good, sensible, steady men, VINO
N.Y. 1,e never been supposed before to nave
4'iaal tendencies. There is always a