St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-04-13
Life'S Real Meaning.

Lies Real Meaning.
A startling feature of the month Just
closed was the number of suicides
which occurred in it Throughout this
country, including men and women of
all ages and conditions, from the starry
ing old scholar of eighty to the over
worked schOOl-bOy who gave up the
fight at sixteen. A physician in Phila-
delphia has just published monograph
on suicide with statistics concerning
its extent and characteristics in that
city during the decade ending in 1881.
From it we find that of the l., ,936 cas-
es of death requiring a cOrOner's inquest
in that time, 636 were suicides, and
that the proportion borne to the popu-
lation was from AZ to 10y per cent. 1t
is difficult to make any just estimation
of the causes which lead to self-mur-
der. Two facts, however, are proved
by the statistics referred to, that sui
eide in this country is almost exclu-
sively confined to the classes which
have received some degree of cultiva-
ton; and that, like disease, it bears IA
fixed and marked proportion to differ
ent ages. Thus, of the 636 cases Just
|
fifteen and twenty; from the ages of
twenty to thirty the number leaped to
no; during the next ten it increased
to l49 ; after that age the decrease was
as abrupt as the increase, ending at
three between eighty and ninety, when
one would suppose all appetizing flavor
would have faded out of life, and out
of the vast horde of the decrepit and
| t,,l ~,
lOOsehinged gates of death many
would be tempted to push them aiar.
Another fact hints suggestively at
the cause of suicide which is, that this
crime is more common among the
French and Americans than among any
other nations, while i'll this country it
is more frequent among men than
women, and among whites than the
colOred races. In other words, the man
whose ambition and imagination have
been stimulated by the chance set be-
fore him in life, and whose nervous
temperament is least able to bear the
disappointment of this ambition, is
most likely to commit self-murder
The cOlored races here, and the natives
of countries in Europe, where ranks
and grades are fixed and inhexible,
have little to hope for and are there
fore unlikely to make risky ventures
which end in despair. The age al
? which suicide usually occurs here alsu
f proves this to he the principal cause
From twenty to forty every American OF
average intellect is hOtly engaged in
the race toward some high goal, either
l of fame or fortune or colossal achieve
. ment. He never limits himself to a
moderate success. The great prizes
are open to every man why should
he not be the one to win them At if
ty he knows his mistake and measure
himself more justly. Disappointment;
has taught him self-control. He is not
likely to put pistol to his head at that
age, even if he recognizes the fact that
he will always be poor man, or insig-
niticant or unloved in his home. Again
. the classes to whom this kind of phil.
OsOphic self-cOntrOl is taught in you'll
are not found among the lists of self.
, murderers. Who ever heard of Qua.
ker suicide The Quaker's religion i,
no more powerful or deterrent against
! ill-doing than that of other men, but
his Imagination has been held in check
he has been taught from babyhood t.
; set his ambitions low, to harden hi,
= moral skin against all wounds. WON
en-, too, while deficient in the courage
r of Drawing ill, are greatly superior t,
men in the courage of enduring it
= Their domestic affections also are keen
D er and more unselhsh, and they ART
= more likely to remember the addeC
weight of horror and grief which thel
let fall on those who are left when they
creep cowardlv into the grave to hid,
e from pain.
q The readiness of Americans to leaJ
into the dark beyond is the symptom
of some national weakness of charac
ter, and if we go to the bottom of tn,
= matter we shall find that to be the uni
o versal and increasing habit of pursuing
o the material things of life as the Objec
of our existence, instead of happy liti
u itself. We call the man successful VIII,
n has gained nOtOriety or a million o
Il two, or "A nomination for president
These are the goals we set before on
boys from their birth. Who notices tn
man who knows how to love, to max
g the most of his little chances, of hi
|. days and hours, so as thoroughly to us
5 and enjoy them Leaving the dutie
and comforts and joys of the Christian
|
Is it is indisputable that the successful
e man is the satisfied and cOntented one
# The owner of a hundred millions or
brilliant reputation may be satisfied o
he may not be; but the man who's
Is tastes are clean and simple, who ha
IF been taught to take a pleasure in hi
Is friends, i'll nature, in music and i
books, whose temper is under control
and who, above all, has capacity 70
II steady hard work, and a cOnscientiOu
II delight i'll doing it, must be Statistic
"a and cOntented. He is successful
4 though he end his days poor mechan
ic. He wears coarse clothes, he carrie
u his tools to the last, yet he has learne
tie how to live, to press out of each mO
- ment as it goes the best wine for him
II self and others. No defeat of circun
stance will ever drive him to the pistC
I or the rope. We Americans are know
y as morbid, money getting and prefer
Id tious ill our aims, yet we have the ricl
il est heritage in the world to leave ou
children if we would teach them til
~ meaning of life and the real meaning
I'd success, no people ever born would |
is qualified to do noble work SO nObl,
A. / New York Tribune.
A Chinese prOverb says: "FOrg'
g, the services that you have done to Otl