Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1873-06-05
CuriOSities of Suicide.

In regard to suicide not few superb
cial observers, and especially those prone
to theorize about the growth of society in
depravity, have lately been inclined to
comment upon the increasing frequency
of selfmurder, and to ascribe it to the
recklessness of life engendered by the late
war. But the fact is, as is shown by the
statistics referred to above for the census
year 1870, that suicide has not increased
in frequency during the past decade. The
total number of suicides in 100000 persons
was only 3.5 in 1870, against 3.2 in 1860
and 21 in 1850. This shows very favora-
bly,, and proves that while the absolute
number is slightly greater the ratio of in
crease is 80 per cent. less than it was in
the previous decade The apparent fact
of large increase in the number of sui
cides is probably due to the wider public
ity such acts have gained, in common
with all other news, through the increase
of the press in enterprise and the growth
of the people in cosmopolitan sympathies.
The telegraph and the daily papers have
made us all neighbors and given each one
of us staple of interest in the fortunes OF
all the rest. Another common opinion,
which we believe the statisticians them
selves first set aeog, is measurably explod-
the farmer class is most given to suicide.
as to insanity. The tables we have com
piled show pretty conclusivcly that sui
cides, like the other most destructive dis
eases, tend to intensity themselves in and
around the great cities, and especially the
centres of speculation. 1t is not rust but
wear and tear which produces the sort of
madness which hurries man forward to
that bourne whence no traveller returns.
The suicide rates of New York, Illinois,
California, Massachusetts and Missouri,
compared with those Of Alabama Georgia,
Indiana, Kentucky and the Carolinas, and
taken in connection with the respective
populations of these States, conclusively
prove this.
The tables of monthly rates completely
dispose of the old notion that the depress-
ing effects of the weather tend to develop
the suicidal mania. 1t is shown that the
months of April and May are largely
ahead of the other seasons in suicides, and
that May especially has more than fifty in
excess of any other month. This circum-
stance, in connection with the facts de
veloped in the tables of sex and age, goes
to show how large share love has in
producing those forms of melancholy
which predispose to selfdestruction. In
the spring the fancies of both young men
and young women lightly turn to thoughts
OF love, and if disappointment comes, as
lightly glide Oft to contemplations of the
bare bodkin, the lascivious twinings of
the gentle rope, the cool depths Of the
duck pond, or the remedial virtues of the
poisoned bowl. Yet gentle woman, with
all her facility in loving and her prone
ness to let the canker of disappointment
prey upon her damask cheek, is remarka-
bly, tenacious of life. Care hurts but does
not kill her. Men die of love, of business,
of tedlum rite, just as they die of small
poX or measles; but women live on, smil-
ing at grief, perhaps because they are bet
ter & Juainted with it and have greater
patience. Be this as it may, certain it is
that for l 060 men suicides there are only
2S5 women TO wander with them in trans
Stygian solitudes
The ages of suicides is a most interest.
ing study. Strange as it may seem, in
1870 there were two boys committed sui
eide who were under ten years old, and
nine boys and three girls who were under
fifteen. Emphatically these were not lives
=" it's but piece of childhood thrown
away" Between the ages Of fifteen and
twenty "a boys and 80 girls committed
suicide. This is the only age at which
the females approach the males in their
amount Of folly, and it is probable that
immature love, which is as indigestible as
green apples, was at the bottom of it, At
any rate, as soon as the years of discretion
are reached the girls abandon all attempt
to rival the boys in suicidal mania. Be
tween twenty-five and thirty there were 102
men suicides to 33 women. From forty
to fifty, when women are generally settled
in life while the craze of business is at its
height with men, the women suicides are
only 43 while the men suicides rise to 239
As they grow older, women, who naturally
tend to survive men, continually increase
in tenacity of life, while the relative num-
Der of male suicides regularly increases,
until approaching seventy, when
there are only 25O,OOO male sur
vivors and 100000 females; the
men make way with themselves nearly
at the rate of 25 in 100000, or eight times
the average of all ages, while the women
only take their lives at the rate of 3 in
100, 900. AT ninety, when there are only
So poor veterans left Of 100000, five men
suicides can still be found, but not one
woman, though at that age the female sex
is in the majority.
The sex of the suicides and the season
of the year in which the deed is commit
4 Il IL u IL