The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-02-02
THE EsTHETIns oP Suicide.

Olib1 peI8OifOIy IVOCAip pOlAOVj AAiNASSNj
no attempt at any establishment of the act
has been made by those persons who have
chosen to expedite their departure, or their
individual star routes as one might say, if
there were not painful uncertainty that the
road taken leads starward All that has been
sought, apparently, has been the most speedy
way of what our friend Joseph Cook so fire.
quently alludes to as ''going hence" The
primary object of suicides being, of course, to
go and to go quickly, it is but natural that the
first thought of the person concerned should
be of the surest and most direct means of sew
ering the earthly bonds. Especially must this
be so in the State of New York, where the I'M
fortunate bungler who fails in the attempt to
kill himself is subject to severe legal penal
ties.
In seeking the most expeditions method it
too often happens that little or no thought
is given to other considerations almost
equally important. The candidate for
self-destruction is apt to select a
mode of taking off which is crude and
entirely out of keeping with the present adj
varced stage of culture and civilization
He shoots himself through the BRAIN re-
gardless of the effect upon his facial beauty;
he cuts his throat, without rejecting that it
makes him horrible object, or dashing from
an upper window, he is crushed out of all
semblance to humanity. This is all wrong.
Suicide is committed through WEAKNESS of
life, but it may be safely asserted that, in nine
some one whom he hopes will be gr;eved, or
at least shocked, by the deed. Not seldom it
is done with direct view of bringing regret
or remorse to some individual, usually a
recreant lover OF sweetheart. To suppose that
the person thus sought to be moved would be
less deeply affected if the act were done de-
is great mistake. The grief of the surviving
friends of suicide is not often of that over
whelming character which the departed one
has fatteringly anticipated If the act is
done in such a way as to jar upon their refined
sensibilities their sorrow is not untinged with
resentment Any twinges of conscience
which they might otherwise suffer are quoted
by the conclusion that the deceased was
greater lunatic than they had ever thought
him, and that if he was capable of such afro
cious conduct the kindest treatment could not
have availed to save the fool from his folly.
1t occasionally happens that man removes
himself from life in a manner which is in
harmony with the most artistic environment.
The lamentations made in such cases are of
nature to prove that the friends, having less
reason to nurse their shattered aesthetic nerves,
have keener realization of their loss and
more time to devote to cosidelatiOn of the
virtues of the one voluntarily gone before.
1t is women, however, who most deeply offend
in this matter There is no doubt that many
a woman who would like to spite somebody by
drowning herself has been deferred
by the knowledge that she will
be dragged out, moist, unpleasant
body. Others refrain from pistols and
razors because shots and cuts are both disfg-
uring and painful With all this forethought
it is singular that the favorite agent for self
destruction among women of all classes is
rat poison. Rat-poison is sure, since none
seem TO recover from it. 1t is not disfguring,
and, SO far as known by those who have not
INDUCED, it is not unpleasant to take. Never
theless, its use for any but its legitamate pur-
pose is an outrage upon the community, to
say nothing of the shadow left upon the rep
utation of the partaker. Any tender recollec-
tions that one might otherwise have of de-
ceased friend are buried at once by the thought
that rat poison caused her death. No one
will willingly own to even distant acquaint-
ance with a woman who has eaten rat-poison,
much less openly mourn for her. She may
have lived her life without being suspected Of
depraved tastes or a capability of offending
the most fastidious by word or deed, but her
past will count nothing against one fatal act.
An apparently self-respecting woman, who
would not for worlds meet an gnomnious
death by being run over by street.
car mules or garbage cart, will yet calmly
exterminate herself by drug intended exclu-
sively for verrnin. Why she will do it is
mystery beyond comprehension. In these
DAYS when the artistic and aesthetic attributes
of the mind are so assiduousy cultivated, it is
difficult to understand why this pursuit is so
lacking in what might be its finer features
1t may be urged that suicide is not thing to
be encouraged under any circumstances nor
is it. The few words of advice and warning
here offered should not be 80 construed. Sui