Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-07-04
SUICIDE
Its History and Epidemic Character -
furious Cases,

SUICIDE
Its History and Epidemic Character
curious Cases.
Saul is the first recorded suicide. bu
ever since his desperate end the catalogue
has assumed grim grim protractedncss
worthy of Dante. 1t is curious to re
collect how comparatively modern and
how completely Western is its estimation
as crime. Not word in Old Testa
ment history condemns it. In Hindos
ton "suttee" still obtains, nor is the chap
py despatch" extinct in Japan. In Greece
suicide was inflicted by the law. In the
later Roman Empire it became almost
identified with patriotism and independ
ence; but, under the more humane de.
velopment of Christianity, life assumed q
sacred aspect, and to kill was to murder
ones self and so, though pathological
and other considerations avoid generally
by their influence on coroners juries,
such terrible consequences, by the com.
mon law feiO dc sc forfeits his property,
his will becomes vcid as to personally.
and Christian burial is denied him. Yet,
though crime it be called, aud though in
furious aud wicked as it certainly is. il
has ever been regarded with som ething
of an awe-struck compassion. The zone
more unfortunate is beyond the reach
of an earthly tribunal nor can the
prime cause of such fell act be Other
than extreme misery. for suicide from
excess of Joy is a fact unknown. Wretch
edness and death claim both our sympa-
thy and respect and thus it comes to pass
that, whatever our abstract view may be,
such strange conjunction of the two
main human ills will always evoke the
pity and sorrow of frail mortality. Ophe-
liza and Othello, alike in nothing but their
suicide, are proof of this.
Indeed, there are so many kinds of
suicides that they can hardly be ranked
together. The irresponsible mind I'M
hinged either by physical or so-called
mental causes, the victim whelmed by
tune, the betrayed girl or beggared gam
tonly reckless of life, the martyr for a
cause when "Faith unfaithful keeps him
falsely true, the remorseful perpetrator
of some wrong or another, all differ so
widely i'll everything but their end as to
deserve separate nomenclature. Nor is
1t irrelevant or irreverent to imagine a
case where the sanctity of existence is
more than outweighed by unmerited
agony. Some poor, baffied, starving
wretch, who has none to need or mourn
him, who has strained every nerve in
vain for work. the victim of cover popu-
ation," of Society" of what you will,
may well argue like poor Josephs i'll
'Never Too Late to Mend," that the fu-
ture cannot be as bad as the present
A N rnli 10 6 thn
tion, its moral aspect mainly depends on
the cowardicc of an act that is the last
luxury of the luckless {; and cowardice,
can be none. 1t is remarkable. if we
bear these considerations in mind, that i'll
the ever increasing strain of work and
competition, and the growing artiticiality
of civilization, suicide has not increased
more than it has. Madness is far more
prevalent, and madness is the nurse of
suicide.
4 noteworthy fact with regard to sui
eide Is its epidemic character In the
year l3O6 no fewer than sixty persisted by
their own hand in Rouen and i'll 1893,
100 destroyed themselves at Versailles.
Periods of convulsion and agitation,
which unnaturally excite, often abnor-
mally extingush fine and sensitive minds !:
and If an acorn be planted in porcelain it
will soon break the pot The "Werther
craze was fruitful in suicide, aud Goethe
had to defend himself from an imputed
responsibility. In the same manuer forms
of self-destruction seem to be familiariz-
ed by imitation. The many suicides of
late years Oh thy rtllroads attest this, for
g submit to be run over by steamer
giIt must be surely the mode of death
the most to be dreaded and the last to be
planned.
Our list of suicides comprises, rough
ly, the ruined, the heroic and the reck-
less. OF the ruined it would be common
place to speak. History, fiction, abound
with examples, and both are united in the
person of Chatterton. Suicide is, Indeed,
the very shroud of failure, and, rs fail
ure is always dramatic, it is on this side
of its interest that the modern French
drama has so wildly seized. Not that
like the ancient statuesque Greek TRACE
dy, the suicide is wont to occur silently
and off the stage. Sarah Bernhardt and
Croizette poisoned themselves vehement
ly, almost voraciously and such denoue-
ments are rendered both psychically and
physically sensational. Still less is it
necessary here to discuss the heroic sui
cides that we have enumerated as one of
several distinct subdivisions Cato aud
Seneca are typical instances, and there
has even been n mock heroic suicide, that
of Vatel, the chivalrous chcf who killed
himself IN honorable despair because
enough fish was not duly supplied to the
royal tables, and was elegized and eulo-
gized by Boileau. But the suicide who
recklessly disregards his life is rarer
and more fascinating study the volun-
tuary and the hypochondriac will occa-
sionally thus end their days, and the ia
nous story of the Suicide Club" com
memorates how an association of such
callous Sybarites would meet at periodi-
cal banquets, each of which was by some
poisoned Wand destined to end the life of
one of them, that one being kept in ig-
norance of his doom.
The man in the moon is an economical
chap, lie never gives up his last quarter
". Y. JOurhdl.