The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1885-01-17

s"iA W Uc eCruck Oy 60
apparently increasing number OF So
cides. 1t may be that the total percen
age OF these distressing deaths upon II
increment OF the population has not II
creased, but it is beyond question th,
suicide. as social calamity, has bee
thrust on our notice of late more tina
IN remoter years. Until the statistics
facts are made clear it would be idle :
speculate as to the probable cause q
this increase. il there be one. n i
however. not merely permissible. bu
polite, to bestow q passing glance q,
the subject as q whole. Suicides ma,
be divided roughly. into two ore.
Glasses; those IN which the self-slayer
are Intentionally conscious of what the,
are doing. and those in which thew ar.
either unconscious of their acts or per
form them under distinct hallucination,
or decisions of idea. This last Glaze
which, II not technically defipitiye. will
serve for our immediate purposes
not, we think, a large one. Witbont
nair-splitting. it may roughly be said
tnat the great majority of those who
Kill, or try to kill, themselves in these
modern times and in civilized con,mw
mites are perfectly well aware of the
nature OF the act they are
performing or attempting. and do
the deed with a, so far, intelligent mr..
pose OF escaping from misery that
seems uncomfortable. or because OF some
terror or shame that for the time over
wheims them. The law is mercifulIv
interpreted for the sake of survivors.
put, as matter of fact, scarcely one
IN hundred of the so-called cases Of
temporary insanity" are correctly 90
described. 1t is heart breaking or
brain-tearirg trouble that makes men
And women long to die or impetuously
seek refuge In death, either in the be-
Iiei that in dying they will sleep. or
mat consciousness will end in eternal
ooiivion: We do not say that there is =
'iearly dehned process of reasoning in
ali these cases, though in a majority wa
believe there is but in very few in
stances indeed is the real inner feeling
me which differs greatly from the
earning to escape-anywhere. any,
vhere out OF this misery. The rate At |
Which men and women live nowadays
las something to do with this feeling. |
'oys ana girls are men and women In |
with, and experiences of. |
lie and its so-called pleasures and sor.
ows' at an age when our grandparents
'ere innocent children in the nursery.
ne young men of the day GO blase at
wo or three-and-twenty, INC youn0
omen ennuyee. Life is PLAYED onf
efore its meridian is reached
: the burden of responsibility il
trust upon the consciousness At
period when the mind can
ot In the nature of things he COM
stent to cope with its weight and At.
ndant difficulties. All this has been
10 before. There Is not new word
q new thought in 1t, and vet It iss
ny terrible and pressing subject.
9 can not give 1t the go-by. "Forced''
9catlon commenced too early in life
d pressed on too fast is helping 10
AXE existence increasingly difficult.
Q are running the two-year-old colts
a GRIPPING race, and running the I
'ck: II able and impartial Observer
'uid make 1t their business to ascer. ,
n the facts about suicide, thew wouId
doing a good and useful work. We
lieve, not without some data ON /
icn to base our speculations, that !
eide is increasing, and that the {
i've cause of the evil is weak-minded- 9
,s' the result of forced development C
! premature responsibility. HastyI n
! 100 early marriages, too anxious %
aggles for success in life, too hazard o
ventures in business enterprise, the 3
q OF undisciplined and unframed r,
Ids into the arena of intellectual n
Re. and above all, that swinging of o
self-consciousness pendulnm.like q,
etween excess of rigor in self-con- b,
and untempered license, which m
stifutes the inner experience of too ht
~, are proximate causes of the iii
skdown or agony Of distress which dr.
in suicide. The underlying cause a
mpatience, social, domestic. and m
'onal, OF the period of preparation of
en- nature has ordained TO stand on tn
threshold of life, but which the tn
Q OF progress" treats as delay. ou
not delay. but development; albeit an
Is a lesson rash energy has vet to WI
from sober science. London Lam