Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1877-07-14
IMPULSIVE SUICIDE.


Murder.
1t is impossible to take up newspaper
without encountering the particulars Of
some revolving suicide. At the present
time there is an average OF three self
murders per diem in this city, while the
number Of cases o harmless insanity is
about as great. 1t is the fashion to at
tribute the suicide mania to the despair
and distress beg9tten Of poverty and
hard times. Undoubtedly these exert an
appreciable influence, but there is a
growing conviction among certainmediCal
specialists that the harvest of suicides
and the cropot lunatic. will not end with
the existing business depression, In
other words, they maintain that there
are certain abnormal conditions being
gradually and persistently introduced
into the business life OF the city which
will insure a perennial crop of insanity
and selt-destruCtion. These conditions are
architectural. The rage for tall buildings,
it is alleged, has exercised a most perni-
cious effect upon the operatives who have
| to labor at such tremendous elevations.
1t is we'll known that hundreds of people
are so organized that they cannot look
from any considerable height without
feeling nausea, giddiness and mental de-
moralizatiOn. There are scores of people
who dare not trust themselves to even
look down from 4 great elevation they
know that they would be seized by a
mania of self.destructiOn Many men and
women employed in the dizzy heights OF
New York's business houses wresle with
this impulse day after day, week after
week, year after year, till they find relief
from their anxiety in the lunatic asylum
or the grave.
Said thoughtful and experienced
we,t.side physician TO the writer few
DAYS since "The gencalogy of great
deal of this insanity and suicide is 10 be
traced to the tall towers men and women
are now compelled to work in. Steep.e,
are very well for churches, yet we see
that novelists attribute to men who have
to he up there certain superStitious be-
lels and general weakness of intellect
These writers were simply exhibiting q
law of which they were unconscious, Ar
architectural elevation like the Tribune
produces mental depreciation. | knew s
score OF clever writer's and thinkers who
could no more work in the tail towel
than they could fly. | couldn't WORK
up there myself. 4 certain feeling o
anxierv would haunt me; and the powel
OF banishing anxiety has an immense
deal to do with mental soundness ant
longevity 1t is a fact that "manage
ment of the mind - is, as Johnson tolC
Boswell, "a great art, adding that whel
n man is anxious or miserable his diges
tive functions are para,yzed, To b
compelled to labor at a great elevation
demoralizes certain brains. Not ever,
one is equipped with the balance to fl
, him for an aeronaut. There is something
in early training. MasoDs and brick
LAYERS have often cool heads at dizz
heights, yet when the Mcssrs. Townsend
of Glasgow, Scotland, had the immens
5 chimney built Tor their chemical work.
three men developed melancholia an
were unable to proceed above four hun
: dred feet. The total height of the in
, mense chimney is four hundred and sixt,
> eight feet. Tenant & Co.'S tall Gimme,
t also in Glasgow, four hundred and fit
5 feet, and the chimney of Grossly, Il
S Halifax, Yorkshire, carpet weaver, abol
:. four hundred feet, were built withor
j, loss of life, but by the loss of reason
e over a dozen persons. -,
/. "If YOU look at the returns OF tn
e ayerage duration of life exhibited in cei
IS tain trades and professions you will Sc
o That the elementofelevation isapparent
d Trades. Average. Trades. Ayerag
a Coopers. .......5S years Bakers.."...43 yea
!. Haticry. years Printers.,.."S6 yen
y Masons.......r4S years Editors....."~S1 yea
3 Tailors ......,4i years
!. "Now, why should the average lol
gevity of printer be less than that OF
/ baker, who works in cellar among til
most obnoxious sulphur iumes, exceE