The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-09-10
Suicide.

ever since his desperate end the catq-
logue has assumed grim protracted-
ness worthy of Dante. 1t is curious to
recollect how comparatively modern
and how completely Western is its es-
tlmaton as crime. Not word in
Old Testament history condemns if,
In Hindoostan "suttee" still obtains.
nor is the happy dispatch extinct in
Japan. In Greece suicide was inflicted
by the law In the later Roman En-
pre- 1t became almost identified with
patriotism and Independence; but.
under the more humane DEVELOPMENT
of Christianity, life assumed a sacred
aspect, and to kill was to murder ones
sell; and so, though pathological and
other considerations avoid generally,
by their influence on Coroner's iuries.
such terrible consequences, blythe COM
mon law felo de Sc forfeits his prom
erty, his will becomes void as to his
personality, and Christian burial IS de-
MED him. Yet, though crime it is
called, and though injurious and wicked
as it certainly is, it has ever been re-
garded with somethingof an awestruck
compassion The .:one more unfor-
tunate' is beyond the reach of an
earthly tribunal; nor can the prime
cause of such a fell act be other than
extreme misery, for suicide from excess
of Joy is in fact unknown.
Wretchedness and death claim both
our sympathy and respect, and thus it
comes to pass that, whatever our alb
stract view may be, such strange CON
junction of the two main human ills
will always evoke the pity and sorrow
OF frail mortality. OpheIia and Othello.
alike in nothing but their suicide. are
proof of this.
indeed, there are 50 many kinds of
suicides that they can hardly be ranked
together. The irresponsible mind, I'M
hinged either by physical or So. allied
mental causes, the victim whelmed by
the sings and arrows of outrageous
fortune, the betrayed girl or beggared
gambler, goaded to desperation, the
man wantonly reckless of life, the mar
tyr for a cause where Faith unfaithful
keeps him falsely true, " the remorseless
perpetrator of some wrong or another,
all differ so widely in everything but
their end as to deserve a separate no
menclature. Nor is it irrelevant or ir-
reverent to imagine case where the
sanctity of existence is more than out.
weighed by unmerited agony. Some
poor, bat1led, starving wret~h, who has
none to need or mourn him, who has
strained every nerve in vain for work,
the victim of ''oyer-population, OF
'society, of what you will, may well
argue, like poor Josephs in ''Never Toe
Late to Mend that the future can not
be as bad as the present. Apart from
the religious side Of the question, its
moral aspect mainly depends on the
cowardice of an act that is the last lux.
ury of the luckless; and cowardice
where none depend on the suicide
there can be none. 1t is remarkable, il
we bear these considerations in mind
that in the ever-increasing strain O
work and competition, and the grow
ing artifciality of civilization. suicide
| has not increased more than it has
| Madness is far more prevalent, ant
madness is the nurse OF suicide.
A noteworthy fac with regard II
SuiCloG ID ibo GplltIlllC dldCItI. IL
the year l5O6 no fewer than sixty per
ished by their own hand in Rouen, anc
in 1898 1870 destroyed themselves q
! Versailles. Periods of CONFUSION ant
agitation, which unnaturallv excite
often abnorma.ly eXtinguish fine ant
sensitive minds, and if an acorn b.
| planted in porcelain it will soon breal
the pot. The "Werthern craze wa
fruitful in suicide, and Goethe had t.
defend himself from an imputed posi-
! bility In the same manner forms O
| self-destruction seem TO be familiarizet
by initiation. The many suicides @
late years on the railroad attest this
for to submit to being run over by
steam engine must be surely the mod
of death most to lsesl'eaded and last
be planned.
Our list of suicides comprises, rough
", the ruined, the heroic and the reck
less OF the ruined it would be com
monplace to speak. History, fiction
abound with examples, and both ar
united in the person of Chatteton. Sui
eide Is, indeed the very shroud of fail
ure, and, as failure is always dramatic
it is on this side of its interest that tn
modern French drama has $
wildly seized. Not that llk
the ancient statuesque Gree
tragedy, the suicide is wont to occu
silently and off the stage. Sara Bern
hardt and Croizette poison themselye
vehemently, almost voraciously,. an
such denouements are rendered bot
psychically and physically sensational
Still less is it necessary here to discus
the heroic suicides that we hav
enumerated as one of several distinC
subdivisions. Cato apd Seneca al
typical instances, and there has eve
been a mock-heroic suicide, that {
Vatel, the chivalrouS chef, who kille
himself in honorable despair becaus
enough fish was not duly supplied I
the royal tables, and was elegiled an
eulorized by Boileau. But the sui'id
who recklessly disregards his life is
rarer and more fascinating study; til
voluptuary and the hypoehondriac wi
occasionally thus end their days. an
the famous story of the ''Suicide Cluj
) commentaries how an association
such eallous Sybarites would meet {
periodical banquets, eSah OF which wa
bv some poisoned Wand destined to en-
the life of one of them. that one bein
kept in ignorance of his doom. Lon
dOR Globe.
The Coal Pool.