Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1873-04-03
Fashionable Suicide.
BIT MAY WHITNEY.


olate our once happy homes, q proportion
Of at least twO-thirds are women. This
estimate does not include the unnumber-
ed multitude of women who die yearly,
victims of long-continued attempts at
selfmurder, over whose bodies the rites
of Christian burial are performed at
whose graves sorrowful friends bewail
/ the special dispensatioHs which removed
| them from earth in the flower of youth
and womanhood, no one knowing that
their daisy-decked mounds conceal the
awful secret OF suicide.
We see them everywhere, those fading
blossoms which the frosts of death will
blast, ere their fair lives reach the
day of golden fruitage. Or If the frost
delay little, vauquished by the un-
QUenchable summer in the veins of youth,
and the fruit grows fair and shapely to-
ward maturity, the hidden worm which
| gnaws ever at the life-center, triumphs at
last, and it falls shriveled to the dust
How numerous they are, those blasted
lives, whose insidious disease no skill can
discover, let the tear-swollen eyes, and
quivering lips, and sob-shaken breasts all
over the land reply.
| II cannot imagine what ails my daugh-
ter" father once said to me; ''she was
as strong child as one could wish to see.
She had no transmitted disease of any
full training, physically; yet, within few
years, she has lost all her bounding, beau
tifying health, and lies on her bed most
Of the time, just wasting away"
| "What does her physician say?"
"He seems unable to help her. At
first, he called it general debility then
it was spinal Affection then her heart
was the cause Of the disease; then her
| lungs seemed to be the offending mem
bers; now believe he calls it 'consump-
tion of the bowels My opinion is, that
he does not know achdt ails her"
"Well, my dear SIR" said, firmly, 81
know what ails your daughter. She is
committing suicide"
| The afflicted father lifted both his
| hands, and stared at me in open-mouthed
| horror.
II know what I say. She made the
| first attempt at Madame Boullard's Semi
nary ten years ago. l saw her do it my
self. have since seen it repeatedly, and
I am certain it is the cause Of her present
| condition"
"Why, in heavens name, did you not
tell her mother or myself" he gasped.
| "You would not have believed it posi-
| Ulc. ustO dil uly luuucuCc W uISSuduO
her from the deed, but to no avail. Come
to her room, and I will prove what ]
say"
The pale sufferer still insisted upon
robing herself each day as usual. She
half reclined upon low couch, trying to
rise as we entered, but sinking back ex
hausted She looked wondrOusly beau
tiful at that moment. Her golden hair
| f1oated about her like waves of sunshine;
her luminous blue eyes were full of weird,
unearthly brilliance; a rich carnation
bloomed upon her cheeks and lips-an
ominous flush like gorgeous sunset
which precedes night Her dainty, white
dress, with its lace-edged ruffles, was
| "faultily faultless;" her feet were encased
in the tiniest of slippers. Altogether, she
| looked quite the reverse of self muir
derer. The father looked into her face
and disbelieyed it instantly.
| took from the table one of her school
books-a hysiology-turned to the dia-
| gram showing the natural form of a
healthy chest and the proper position Of
the organs it contains, with the opposite
plate, showing deformity caused by COM
preston. l read from it:
''It is of the greatest importance that
| the motions of the chest and abdomen
should not be interfered with. Freedom
| of action is absolutely essential here,
where the lower portion of the lungs,
| liver, spleen, stomach, etc, are located.
The important organs of respiration, the
diaphragm, is also here. Compress these
parts, and the diaphragm is hampered in
its action, respiration is partially stopped,
the lungs and heart compressed, the stom
ach and liver either forced out of place,
| n hat 10 int hol a
space they would naturally occupy The
portal circulation is obstructed, and the
viscera become the seat of venous en-
gorgement.
THAT is precisely the condition Of your
daughter, my dear friend" said. "Look
at her even to-day, weak as she is, diff
cult as her lungs would find this labor of
publication at any time, or her heart its
enormous work of forcing out through
| its ventricles three ounces Of blood at each
stroke, doing daily work equal to lifting
one hundred and t,centy-threc tons one foot
from its level, she has compressed the
room in which they labor to almost half
its natural size, crushing the heart against
its walls, entirely closing at least one-half
of the lung cells, and deluging her bowels
with impure blood, which produces con.
gestion and inflammation. A natural
waist for woman of her size would
measure from twenty y-eight to thirty four
inches, if never artifcially compressed.
Cora, what is the size OF your corsets?"
Eighteen inches," he answered Ian.
guidly, signing.
From ten to fourteen inches less room
in q chest not grain too large for the all
important organs contained in it! No
wonder she is dying, sir. This l call
| suicide Z"
The poor father was shocked indeed
He had "Never invaded the sacred pre-.
cincts Of feminine mysteries )" he "Sup.
posed her mother ought to know" And
so ought all mothers to know that with the
first half-inch Of compression about the
waist-none too large when natural fol
either beauty or life-their daughters be-
gan the crime Of telo de &C. How many OF
item do know the fact? How many OF
them realize that disease of liver, dys
pepsia and consumption are Legitimate
results of such compression! That de-
fomities of the worst character are pro
duced in that manner-deformities o1
shoulder. Of spine, of hip; deformities OF
!, temper and mind-for impure blood flow
ing to the brain will cause all varieties OF
derangenlents-all physicians know, al
last Why ,csY not mothers and daughter!
be convinced.
We are told on every side that q slen
, der waist is beautiful. Who has made i
SO? Not the All-wise Artist who createt
. | the human form and made II the mos