The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-04-21

suicTDE III FzeF= And THEoSE4 .zlE] 168oss,
readers of the newspapers cannot 20
ported in the dispatches HE Did peo!
nla-those who believe HAk kka. world.
was batter in their youth Stssl Sas, that
there has been IN alarming inoreasa I'M
crime, including suicide, Of lat6years.
Whether the number has really increased
beyond proportion to population, to the,
moral effect Of mnssing humanity, to the
facilities for hearing ofeevsty thing that
occurs nnywhere-in q word, whether
crime and suicide prevail among ns to
such dn extent MS TO be anomalous in the
experience of the world, is question
that has not yet been satisfactorily ex-
planned, either by the mornlist or the
statistician. But whether there has been
my unexnmpled increase or not, We NIL
know that there are great mnny suicides
In our times, and in commenting On some
of the phases Of the practice very recently
we had to confess that the best informed
seemed to know very little of the cnuses
that might bring a man to the condition
of mind when he could overcome the
natural repugnance to death and take his
own life. We referred to what seemed
to be some of the popular and scientific
fnllacles concerning the inducements to
suicide, and q chance glance or two over
the news files tells us that there nre
other failncies quite as transparent when
the light OF reason and experience il
thrown upon them.
| The statistics inform us thut in France
one out of every 2,700 persons kills HIM
self; while in England and America only
one out of every Is. 900 persons is guilty
of what appears to be most extreme folly
| to all Of lis who have no desire to die.
Apparently, there Ia something in ma
tionnl temperament; but why does this
one American individual, surrounded by
| 1899 persons, all anxious to live, and
striving constantly to protect themselves
from harm, come to the conclusion thnt
the world is no place for him? Here is n
standard authority on morals that will
say, concerning suicide and the habits of
youth, that if young men are idle and
diSslpated, those who are saved from the
ravages of disease stand IN excellent
chance Of dying by their own hands
That has been said n thousand times, and
is being said now in the pulpit and i'll
works designed especially for religious
and moral instruction. But the verificn-
ton is rather slow, and our ingenious
youth look about them and see torInented
friends waiting anxiously for years for
some interposition of Providence that
will relieve them of their idle and tiissi-
pated and immoral and gambling connec-
tons. We admonish our well-menning
young men to be industrious and saving,
and that as it is we'll to have purpose
in view, to take that of making fortune,
and note how such and snch m one is
doing And the first thing we know,
the industrious and saving and upright
1 SIlch 0nH S1rh "A nv,l,
tired of life, and there is funeral, and
the idle and dissipated fellows, who, by
all tho rules of moral teachings, should
have killed themselves long ago, wonder
what could induce any man to commit
snicide.
But let lis see what the newspapers tell
us of the present condition of the suicide
market. Any day will do, anil here it is
Of most recent date. man in Hobo
ken jail took off strap and hanged him
self to beam. He had been arrested
for-disorderly conduct; so here is an
idle, dissipated case to begin with. The
next is n man who had been IL weigher in
II custom house. He was thrown out of
employment couple of months ago. and,
being Industrious, he has been seeking
employment His wife went out for an
hour or two, and on her return found
him dead, with his pistol to his head
Here Is magistrate, ''hus been IL justice
OF the peace for many years, and wns re-
marknble for his courteous and mnnly
bearing in the discharge of his dnties ;"
Business becoming slick, and his de-
mands pressing, he thrust II knife steel
into his heart Here, again, in distant
city, constable levied an execution upon
the establishment Of citizen who had
become involved, and the proprietor
stepped out and took dose of arsenic.
In fnr-Off New Hampshire, where every
one Is industrious, passenger, from the
equally as industrious and moral State of
Vermont, took a seat in n RAILWAY car,
took pistol out of his trnveling-bng and
shot himself through the head. Near
the same time, the ferry -boat ran over
from Jersey City to New York, and on
the passage, n young person of the n),-
pcarnnce of II wcll-lrpsscd working
woman, in search of employment, run
ont of the ladies' cabin and sDrany over
board.
These are only few random cnntcml-
pomncous cases. They seem tn have
grown out of business troubles, and the
unfortunate drunk and disor,lcrly indi-
vidual who tried to hang himself mt Io-
hoken is the only one OF his class to he
found mt least for dnys in the suicide
record. Does business troible lead To
snicidc? Is that the sought for ne essary
cOncomitant? Now, who ever heard OF
II 'lonGshoremnn killing himself? Look
at NIL these strikes, with their attendant
suffering; these men do not kill them.