The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1877-04-27

| sumcieut NUMBER OF horrors TO satisfy the
most morbid of natures. Simple murders
are tho most common. place of occurrences,
aud SO We are to be congratulated on the
extraordinary number of extraordinary
crimes, which are constantly occurring. II
| we seek parricide, there is the case of Geor.
gel, who murdered his mother the other day
in the Rue dc Ia Providence. He was a
lazy ne'er do-weel, who, after taking all his
mothers money away from her and spend
ing it in a nights debauch, out her throat
because she had no more to give him. Louis
Piguo has just killed bis brc ther for calling
him "gamiu." The disposition which
murdcrers make of the bodies of their vic.
tims-such as cutting them into minute
pieces, burning or distributing themIover a
great AREAS also notable, but even what,
with apparent lightness, is called "laffaire
Billoir," or ''raffaire Moyaux" although
the French do not connect with the word
"affaire" the lcvity which attaches to the
English "affair"-is far outshone by the
epidemic of suicide which has Of late set in
and assumed most remarkable proportions
Lc Gaulois newspaper considers itself justi-
fed in saying that befor. long, if things con-
tinue as they are at present going, the jour
nails will have to issue supplements which
shall be devoted simply to chron;clng the
number of selEmurders that are committed
from day to day. Here is notable case :
Day before yesterday respectfully dressed,
white haired gentleman, apparently about
sixty years old, presented himself at the
tower entrance of Notre Dame, and asked
the concierge if good view of Paris was to
be obtained from the tower on clear day.
Of course he was answered in the nfirma.
tive, and so, giving the keeper fifty CEN
times, he mounted to the gallery and ut once
threw himself tseadlong into the parvis, hor-
ribly crushed aud man gled by the fall
Formerly suicide was mainly confined to
the great cities, and especially to Paris, but
now it has extended its works into the rural
districts and is noticed in all the telesraphic
dispatches to the newspapers. The suicides
leave behind them such notices as IL kill
myself because life bores me-" and they de.
sert the ranks of life for the most trivial
and inconscquent of reasons, except the
'spleen" which came to us from England
with Jockeys and water-proofs. A rich
young fool falls in love with an actress, and
spends money on her. Presently he learns
that she is unfaithful to him, so he purchases
nicely mounted revolver, goes to her home,
makes speech as near as possible like one
!aes taken esss fs9@ s. novel by Dumas 6A. bursts
pentance, and blows his brains out. A
young girl gets into tiff with her family,
and anon is found hanging from beam in
her fathers barn. Another falls in love
with man who in his youth has been con-
demued by some magistrate as thief She
pardons his youthful indiscretion, and the
two are happy as doves. Then the father
discovers the truth about his proposed SON
in.law, and naturally enough objects to hav-
Ing in his family a forcat libere. The lovers
do not hesitate; they kill themselves. Such
are the true stories of the day, and doubt
very much that this recklessncss of life is
due to books like "Joseph Noirel's Revenge
and to the sensational plays, SO much as it
is to the levity with which nearly all the
journals deal with the most serious matters.
An atrocious murder is the cause of puns
and jokes, and every crime is treated in the
same way. 1t is to be hoped that before
long snmo ruaoone will he found to stop ihA
epidemic of crime, and especially of suicide,
even if the measures of the Middle Ages
should be called in.-N y World