St. Landry democrat., 1878-07-06
The Increased Suicide Kate.

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is evident on reading the records as pub
lished in the daily papers. Every day
the dispatches chronicle the suicide O
from three to five persons, whose promi
nence or the circumstances of whcst
death make the announcement of genera
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 TO,
all the months. The reported cases take
in all grades OF society, and include young
people as well as DID, people prosperou;
and in good health, as we'll as people dis
appointed and sick.
A correspondent of the Inter Ocean
expresses his opinion that the increase
in the suicide rate is owing to the pub.
LEGATION of the particulars of every case
of suicide, and the throwing about the
act, in go many instances, the atmos-
phere of martyrdom or heroism. Be
lieving that the publication of such
cases exercises an unwholesome infu-
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 81
melancholy satisfaction in doing seme-
thing that will make him sick, and
picture the remerse and grief of his pa
rents when they see him sick unto death,
so it is argued that a person suffering
from disease or worried by disappoint-
ment and trouble, turns to a 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 selt-destruction il some way makes
the fact prominent, and that his self.im-
notation makes the public the instru-
ment for reproaching 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 centem-
plated self.destruction. 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 cowardly, it is easy for the
person who has determined on suicide to
convince himself that his act is 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-destruction, 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
romantic and peculiar features of suicide
cases.
In the old time the suicide was counted
in 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 DO tendency
to justify the act by an array Of causes,
Or by enlargipg upon the troubles and
trials of the deceased. There was no en-.
couragement to dwell on the subject in
secret or public, but popular sentiment,
custom and tradition all were so many in.
fuences to direct mems minds away from
the subject. The sentiment in the
churches, the attitude of the church itself,
and the feeling among the people at large,
all have changed, there is now more
charity for the act, and more censidera-
ton for the person who commits suicide,
than formerly, andathe means of direct
ing public thought to such occurrences
having greatly increased, are used with
out seruple. In this change of public
sentiment we may find one reason for
the increase in the suicide rate.
Supplementary to this is the fact that
suicides find apologists and defenders in
many brilliant and cratic writer's. An
article is published, written years ago
by John M. Buckley (who is said to
have committed suicide a few days
sinoe), which is in effect a strong plea
for charitable judgment on the suicide. |
II Mr. Buckley did commit suicide, he
applied to the disappointments of his
career the reasoning common to diseased |
minds, and the article written in former
years shows that his mind had BEEN
lwelliDg on the subject, and that he had
AIKEN the first step in that direction of
LANCER.
Many seek causes in the numerous
suicides in the hard times and incident |