New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-05-14
The Philosophy of Suicide.
The Boston Post saws:

| through this country again from one end OF
| it to the other. No sooner have the warn
spring days unlocked the ice-bound rivers
! and lakes than hundreds of weary mortals
hasten to consign to their kindly depths all
| earthly troubles. Or it their preferences az
| to the mode of .feio de Sc take different
| turn, the pistol, the vial or the razor is
brought into requisitiOn upon the first bill
liOus attack. A person Of sound body,
sound mind and clear conscience can stand
up under heavy burdens of trouble without
once losing that no oefulness which never
admits death as an alternative to endur-
ance. When the aggregate of self
destruction is swollen to the extent we now
see it, one or more of the three conditions
named must be alaymingly depressed, ar d
what can the cause be Doubtless the
weather has something to DO with it. The
apparently low state Of public morals
might be held responsible for part of the
situation were it not for the fact thai those
who are guilty OF the grossest offenses are
about the last ones to shoot or drown them
selves. We must come back upon our
original premises that the suicidal mania is
an epidemic, and an inexplicable one,
whose force, it is to be hoped, will soon be
spent.
Whether We regard it as an epidemic or
as an extraordinary disease varying only
with the changing seasons and circum-
stances of each year, there can be no doubt
that suicide is increasing at an alarming
rate in this country, and will soon become,
if indeed it is OF already, fixed rational
popularity. We are not only Outrunnirg
France in the number cf suicides, but IN
the horrible character OF them; though
France has heretofore been considered the
region where seli-murder had been reduced
nearest to science and prevailed to the
greatest extent. The latest phase of the
American form of the mania ia what may
be called ''the hOmcidal attachment" Not
satisfied with killing themselves, our sui
cides now insist upon killing some body else
as preliminary, probably in order to have
company in the dark journey they have
resolved to take In most of these cases
the first victim has been PAS 'iOnately loved
by the second, and is murdered by him be-
cause che has changed the location Of her
affections, with or without good reason. Yet
in some instances it is impossible to ex-
plain the double crime on this ground. We
can understand how the youth Of nineteen
who shot the ballet dancer at the Comique
a short time ago-and then shot himself
through the head without seriously dis
turbing his brains-was crazed BY the in
difference of the object OF his temporary
idolatry; but it is harl to believe that
Cooper, an Eng'ishmsn of fortv-tive,
slaughtered poor MOllie Dean simply be-
cause she firted him. Men who have reach
ed forty five rarely die from disappointed
love themselves, and still more rarely do
they force others to die with them. Posi-
bly, Cooper was tired Of life and wanted
his young sweetheart to join him in facing
'the great Perhaps" But be this as it
may, it is certainly very dismal and sug-
gestiye development of the suicide business
which requires homicide as q prelude; and
now that the fashion has been fairly started.
it will doubtless be generally adopted, SO
that soon a suicide without homicide will
be a remarkable occurrence.
Two centuries ago self-destruction was
regarded as the intelligent act of the indi-
vidual, for which he or she was responsible
at the bar Of human as we'll as divine ius.
tice. Consequently all suicides were de-
MED Christian burial and inferred at the
crossroads, usually with stake driven
through their hearts as an expression Of
cody Indignation. The stake accompani-
ment was dropped long since, nor are there
any more interments in the public high
way; though we have heard Of strong OBJ
jections being raised to the burial Of sui.
cides in consecrated cemeteries. Public
opinion then went from one extreme to an.
other and announced that self-murder was
proof positive of insanity. Until quite re
Gently corOners' verdicts all Rested on this
theory, and read thus: "Died by his own
hand while suffering from temporary alb
erration Of mind" Good people, such as
cOroners and cOroners' juries always are,
could not comprehend that any man or
woman, boy or girl-for juvenile sui-
cides are q feature in the American
nstitution-might be IN the tu!l possession
OF reason and yet deliberately go out of the
world by short cut. This delusion, too,
has passed away, and now the verGicts siu.-
ply state the facts, and leave the reader to
make his own explanation and comments.
Except where insanity is plain and palpa-,
BILE, public opinion looks upon the suicide
as an intelligent act of the individual. but
one for which he is responsible only to his
Creator. Some life insurance companies.
however, insert clause in their policies to
rid them OF liability if the insured marty
leaves the stage without being sent for.
The courts, we believe, have verv properly
refused to recognize the legality of this
l0ophoie; for surely if q man pays a heavy
price IN the shape of premium, and q etiil
heavier price IN the shape of his own blood.
ne ought to get what he bargained for,
defalcation or discount.
In that wonderful book, Buckles .His-
tory of Civilization" this passage occcre:
ihese being the pecuiiarities OF this
astonishing fact. that all the evidence wa
possess respecting it points to one great
nclusion, and can leave no doubt on our
minds that suicide is merely the produot of
he general condition Of society, and that
he individual felOn only carries into eff.c,
what is necessary consequence of preced.
ng circumstances. In given state of a..
'iety certain number of persons mnst mt
IN end to their own life This il the gen.
,rai law; and the specific question a. to wao
mall commit the crime depends, of course.
N sPeci9o laws; which, however, in their
o y acuon, must obey the larger social law |
% wnicn they are all subordinate. And the