National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1872-04-05
Suicides OF Children.

Within the last two weeks an epidemic
Of suicide among children has passed
over the country. One child steals O
small sum of money from his stepfather
and in an agony OF shame kills himself
rather than meet the eye Of his mother
Another boy who had committed like
fault in the shop where he was employed
puts pistol to his head and blows his
brains out, after writing childish
pathetic letter, in which he bids every
body goodbye, and tells his father he
"is not going to make trouble in the
house any more" These are but few
Of many instances where some assign
able cause could be given but the last
is that OF boy who, without any rea-
son, cheerful, merry little fellow, in O
happy home, puts an end TO his life
very probably because he had heard the
others did it.
There is, as all Psychologists know, a
contagion OF crime; governed by rules
and referable to them, as any contagious
physical disorder. Suicidal maniaa
have, at different times, passed over
certain towns and districts until the aid
of the law was needed to arrost them.
The women of Lyons, during certain
period, drowned themselves in such
numbers that Government interfered,
9nd, by the pablo exposure Of the
bodies, put summary stop to the prac-
tice. In Versailles, this mania, without
any cause other than that of the con-
tagion OF example, reached such hight
that the number OF suicides during one
year was 1900. Other epidemics Of
crime such an incendiarism, poisoning,
the tarantula fever, winch in the SIX.
teenth century dro'e thousands Of the
Neapolitans dancing into the sea, have
all ragged principally among children,
hysterical girls and excitable boys The
causes of such mental diseases are not
hard to find The unhealthy condition
of public thought, from religious to po-
litical action, the morbid state of mind
produced by lack of any education, Of
over forcing, and, more than all, the
perpetual suggestion Of any certain
crime by the press, to brains already
thus diseased-every one of these causes
operates in the case Of our children
They are born, to begin with, of nerv-
GUS race, half OF whom are debilitated
by over-work, or the use OF tobacco or
liquor. The climate is exhausting, as no
other the ordinary pace o. life that Of
race-course. The child of middle
class family land it is in the middle class
these abnormal cases have occurred)
knows nothing of the seclusion of the
nursery; the frequent holidays, in
which he thinks all the world joins the
hlasoaI <bnk 10 Il,
and German child's life in Eden, where
his soul and body may grow strong and
healthy together. The American boy
eats his share of his fathers knowledge
from the time he can SIT at the table.
Murders, social evils, are no mysteries
to him they fill his ears at every meal
and his eyes whenever he looks into
paper. There is usually no attempt to
hide from him any depth of human de-
gradation or vice. Even worse than
this the troubles of the family-debts, |
disagreements--are laid upon
the little shoulders with cruel careless
ness, at an age when he should not
know there was such thing as trouble
in the world. American homes are sad
and mirthless beyond any others. The
n Hti iCdu ClHi rs DoIu, III ulue CtSth
out of ten, to an inheritance of utterly
causeless gloom his Woodworking
father and head-aching mother are 80
occupied in striving for money or posi-
ton for him that they forget the care
less sunshiny happiness which is his
birthright, and which their selfish
troubles have no right to cloud. His
own brain, especially if he be a boy of
any promise, Is forced and overwrought
he is taught to read MS soon as he is
parents, teachers, public opin
ion, spur and goad him thenceforth
without ceasing; if he is to go into trade
his chance for education usually stops
lt fifteen ; at twenty, If he is to enter
he professions; into these years he
must crowd a smattering of all sciences,
and arts.
Nothing but n sound body and the
tonie of a perpetually happy, mirthful
home-life could support him through
this, and produce rational, strong,
helpful man to take his part in the
world, at the end. When so many of
our children have neither, there is little
reason for wonder that they are willing,
'or the slightest cause, to turn aside and
shirk the road, which from the begin
ling has been made too hard for them.
N Y. Paper.