Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1873-09-15
SUICIDE.


by trouble or influenced by delusion
of mind, commits suicide, except among
few friends, the deed is looked upon
with pity mingled with contempt. But
whatever may have been the cause of
the unnatural act, it ought to challenge
pity; for the sorrow or hallucination
that overcame him, might have been l
more than we could bear. The cruelty,
the wickedness, the sorrow, that this
crime causes, ought to be enough to
drive the thought of it from every mind,
and we believe that in nearly every
case it is committed in state of tempo
rary or partial insanity. But the frequen-
cy of these sad events is such that we
know the idea is constantly entertained
by many that death will end scene, or
life of trouble. If there is one who
seriously entertains the thought of self
murder in any event. let him remember
that the trials of earth are of short du-
ration, and are in no way to be compar-
ed with the retribution that will be WIS.,
tied upon the murderer in world to
come. But we took up the pen to write
of different class of suicides than the
ones named above; for we know of no
argument or no persuasion, that can
equal the horrors which must be pictured
to every soul that would end life by the
atrocious crime of self murder. We
think it safe to say, that one, half of all
who die between the ages of eighteen
and sixty years. hasten the day of their
death by neglecting and abusing ma
lures laws; hence that portion of the
living is great, which to-day is bringing
itself to a premature grave. Scientific
men who have made this matter study,
have made computations so exact, that
they can tell very nearly the amount of
vital, nervous, and mental forces possess
sed by healthy individual and if they
tell us correctly, our lives ought rot to
end, if we preserve and husband our
strength, until we are eighty or one
hundred years old. Violence or intern
perance may destroy our vital forces at
any period in our career but the same
prudence that we exercise in other mat
tiers, would preserve for many years. the
health and the strength that we are now
abusing and destroying. Could the full
power of our vital forces be reduced to
weight or measure, and the amount re-
quired to carry us through severe mus
cular effort, day of inordinate mental
labor or a nights depaucn be known,
how fearful would be the sight to our eyes,
when we saw such slice, cleft from the
length of our days by one rash act
AS there is just so much power that
can be expended by one physical frame,
it is extremely foolish to waste it, or to
use it all in the first twenty or thirty
years of our lives, so that the remainder
shall be spent in inirmity and prema-
ture old age. Very many men have
labored so hard, and have endured SC
many exposures, that they are complete.
ly broken down at the age Of forty years
and must spend the remainder of theil
days, suffering and decrepit. Others
have succeeded In killing themselves al
an earlier age. We have little pity fol
that class of sufferers, who in their
scramble for riches, bring pain and mis-
cry upon themselves by Incorporate la
Dor and foolish exposure; nor for thai
larger class, which suffers from the eff
fects Of Incorporate and self-abusiy'
habits. Nature will not be cheated
and whoever gets indebted to it. mus
soon or late, pay principal and interest
The loss Of sleep; the want of rest. eth
er in the brain, stomach, muscles, O
nervous system; the undue stimulation
produced by liquors, tobacco, tea. opium
or anything else, viii all tend to under
mine health, and defraud nature. |
we do not wish to commit crime NOR
heinous, than that committed by the or
binary suicide, let us not knowingly an
deliberately destroy or shorten our days
by subjecting our systems to anythin
which the plain laws of nature forbid
A temperate, busy, cheerful, virtuous
spending Of the early part of our live
will ensure a happy and useful old age