The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1878-08-08
The Increased Suicide Rate.

| sAaS AuHiDok VI bulCiucS III LILLE COuubf y
is evident on reading the records as pub.
lished in the daily paper. Every day
the dispatches chronicle the suicide Of
from three to FIVE persons, whose promi
nence or the circumstances of whose
death make the announcement of general
interest. During one month of the
present year the weekly average of such
suicides was over twenty, and possibly
the average has been nearly as great for
all the months. The reported cases take
in all grades OF society, and include young
people as well as old; people prosperou,
and in good health, as well as people dis
appointed and nick
A correspondent of the Inter Ocean
expresses his opinion that the increase
in the -uicide rate is owing to the pub
lication of the particulars of every case
Of suicide, and the throwing about the
act, in 80 many instances, the atmos-
phere of martyrdom or heroism. Be
lieying that the publication of such
cases exercises an unwholesome inAu.
ence on persons of morbid Imagination,
leading them to adopt, for the sake of
notoriety, the methods of the suicide,
this correspondent asks that all suicide
items be omitted, at least from the
weekly edition of the Inter.Ocean.
This appreximates to theory Of sui
cides that has many advocates. As a
hayward and disappointed boy takes a
melancholy satisfaction la doing me-
thing that will make him sick, and
p cture The remorse and grief of his pa
rents when they see him sick unto death,
so it is argued that person suffering
from disease or worried by disappoint-
ment and trouble, turns to resort that
promises relief from all, and to an act,
while it stops all reproaches. arouses the
sympathy of friends and appeals to the
charity OF enemies.
Has man been wronged, he imagines
that seE-destruetion il some way makes
the fact prominent, and that his self-im-
notation makes tbs public the instru-
ment for representing and Furnishing
those who have wronged him. A man
who thinks he has not been understood
or appreciated is apt to fancy that his
sudden taking off in mysterious way
will open the eyes of the world to the
talent and ability that was allowed to
perish with him, and, animated by this
thought, he takes his revenge ON the
public by an act which he hopes will
tear their hearts with remorse.
The letters left by many suicides show
that in some such spirit they csntem-
plated self-destructien. Others write as
though they were simply tired of life,
and disguised with their own infrmities.
Others, again, write not at all, but carry
all clew as to motive with them into the
beyond. While the public looks upon
suicide as oowardly, it is easy for the
person who has determined on suicide to
convince himself that his act Ia In some
sense heroic. Certain it Is that such
thinking on suicide makes men mad, and
in seeking causes for the increased rate of
self -destIuction, we may find the princi.
pal one in the fact that with the change
in public opinion toward the suicide has
come disposition to dwell more on the |
and peculiar features of suicide |
cases.
In the old time the suicide was counted |
Ia the list of outcasts. The act itself |
received the severest condemnation OF |
the church, and was looked upon with
horror by the people. There was in
public print and common conversation
no disposition to excuse and no tendency |
TO justify the act by an array of causes,
Or by enlarging upon the troubles and
trials of the deceased. There was no en-
to dwell on the subject in
secret or public, but popular sentiment,
custom and tradition all were 40 many in
auences to direct mems minds away from
he subject. The sentiment In the
churches, the attitude Of the church itself,
md the feeling among the people at Large, |
ii have changed, there Is now more
,harity for the act, and more considers
ion for the person who commits suicide,
han formerly, and the means Of direct
M. x,r,hlin fhnuo.hf to such econ rancaa