The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1883-06-02
LIES Real Meaning.

closed was the number of suicides
which occurred in it throughout this
country, including men and women of
all ages and conditions. from the starv-
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
1t we find that of the 1886 cases of
death requiring Coroner's inquest in
that time, 636 were suicides, and that
the proportion borne to the population
was from AZ to 10y per cent 1t is
difficult to make any Just estimate Of
the causes which led to self-murder.
Two facts. however, are proved by the
statistics referred to, that suicide in this
country is almost exclusively confined to
the classes which have received some
degree of cultivation; and that, like
disease, 1t bears q fixed and marked
proportion TO different ages. Thus, of
the 636 cases Just cited, twenty-four oc-
CURED between the ages of fifteen and
twenty; from the ages of twenty to
~
the next ten it increased to 149; 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 unsuccessful crowding
close to the loose-hinged gates of death
many would be tempted to push them
ajar.
Another fact hints suggestively at the
the cause of suicide; which is, that this
crime is more common among the
French and Americans than among any
other nation, while in this country it is
more frequent amongmen 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 before 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
inflexible, have little to hope for, and
are therefore unlikely to make risky
ventures which end in despair. The
age at which suicide usually occurs
here also proves this to be the principal
cause. From twenty to forty every
American of average intellect is holly
engaged in the race towards some high
goal, either of fame or fortune or colos-
sal achievement. He never limits him
self to moderate success. The great
prizes are open to every man; why
should he not be the one to win them?
At fifty he knows his mistake and meas
ures himself more justly. Disappoint-
ment 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 insignificant or unloved in his home.
Again, the classes to whom this kind of
philosophic self-control is taught in
youth are not found among the list of
self-murderers. Who ever heard of a
Quaker suicide? The Quaker's religion
is 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 to
set his ambitions low, to harden his
moral skin against all wounds. Women,
too, while deficient in the courage of
Drawing i'll, are greatly superior to men
in the courage of enduring it. Their
domestic affections also are keener and
more unselfish, and they are more likely
to remember the added weight ofhorror
and grief which they let fall on those
who are left when they creep cowardly
into the grave to hide from pain.
This readiness of Americans to LEAP
into the dark beyond is the symptom OF
some national weakness of character,
and II we go to the bottom of the mat
ter we shall find that to be the univer-
sal and increasing habit of pursuing the
material things of life as the object Of
our existence, instead of happy life
itself. We call the man successful who
has gained notoriety or million or two,
or a nomination for President. These
are the goals we set before our boys
from their birth. Who notices the man
who knows how to love, to make the
most of his little chances, of his days
and hours, SO as thoroughly to use and
enjoy themp Leaving the duties and
comforts and joys of the Christian faith
out of the question for the time it is in
disputable that the successful man is
the satisfied and contented one. The
owner of 800, 0O0, 900 or brilliant rep
utation may be satisfied. or he may NOT
be; but the man whose tastes are clean
and simple, who has been taught to
take a pleasure in his friends, in nature,
in music and in books, whose temper is
under control, and who, above all, has
n cauaf.ifv for steady hard vvork and q
conscientious delight in doing it, must
be satisfied and contented. He is 'ssuc.
cessful, though he end his days poor
mechanic He wears coarse clothes, he
carries his tools to the last, yet he has
learned how to live, to press out of each
moment as ii goes the best wine fol
himself and others. No defeat of cir.
cumstance will ever drive him to the
pistol or the rope. We Americans are
known rs morbid. money getting and