The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-03-27
THE SUICIDE EPIDEMIC.

: That there are contagious diseases of tn,
mind is just as well established fact as tina
there are epidemies and plaques, and the
number of unfortunate beings who have put
an end to their own existence in this city
within few months past suggests the
idea of moral contagion, and should
be investigated on the same prin-
ciples which govern physicians when they
seek for the causes of the wide-spreading
maladies which periodically consign so many
people to untimely graves. AS putrid atmos-
pherical carnations are recognized as the
source of the latter, an IN healthy state OF
public morals, or what might be calleda species
of socialnabaria, may be regarded as one of the
conditions precedent of the suicide mania
which has lately broken out in this commu
nifty.
The enormous destruction of property and
consequent material distress inflicted upon
our people by the results Of the war did not
have that effect. The men who returned
to their desolate homes, after going through
the fiery ordeal of battle, and the equally
trying fatigues and desttution of toilsome
marches, and dreary bivouacs, shed no una
vailing tears over the past, but set themselves
bravely to work to repair their ruined for
tunes.
There were proportionately many more in
dividuals who committed telo de Sc in the |
victorious North than in the PROSTATE South, |
and the decentralization produced by the enor-
nous development Of the widest kind of
speculation, and the sudden and often ille-
gltimate acquisition of wealth by men hereto
fore little removed from absolute poverty.
associated as they were with frequent and
sudden commercial revolutions, involving the
ruin of thousands-the lucky individual who
went to sleep over his fancied millions waking
up IN the morning to find himself a beggar,
and the thousand innocent persons who, with
saw their means swallowed up and their pros
poets blasted forever through the folly or the
dishonesty of others-these were the classes
n which suicides took place with fearful fire.
iuency and virulence.
The blighting influences under which our
State has been gradually impoverished
md the rapid spread of demorali-
alton among people made desperate
~ want, and allowing themselves
o be seduced from the straight path by the
spectacle of successful vilainy in
ugh places-the callousness to public opir-
on exhibited by these legalized banditti, and
he scandalous conformation Of their misdeeds
y many of those upon whom the better class
f our people were accustomed to look for 1
dvice and for good xample-these inevita- :
lie and deplorable consequences of the l
.adical misrule of Louisiana have had r
luch to do with the mania for self L
estruction, of which we have seen so PC
ANY instances. When men cease to believe m
the honesty and good faith of their neigh e.
ors and friends, they have not far to 60 to
sc confidence in their own selves, and if the
angs of domestic or even of commercial mis-
rtune should happen to throw deeper
DOM on their Respondent feelings, the III III
mptation to "take up arms against sea of to
oubles, and by opposing, end them the :
orbid desire to escape from call the ills
at flesh is heir to-" and to seek
livion and relief in that sleep which hath Ne
awakening, becomes nearly irresistible, and Gle
is easy to understand how men not made of
,rner stuff than the great majority of their ,
low creatures become self-immolated vic lie
as Of chaotic and disorganized system of Ma
,iety. AM