Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-05-25
FE1o DF &c,
SAUL the Originator of SeissS5uxso.
Hts Epidemic Character.

bas ,,-.N|o nc desperate end the catalopr
t use assumed 81 grim protractedness we
tuy oI Dante. 1t is curious TO recoIIe,
n0m comparatively modern and no,
oGniPietely Western is its estimation as
LINE Stilile. Not a word in Old Testamer
History condemns it. In Hindoosta
suIIee sui obtains, nor is the "happ
uiePatcn extinct in Japan. In Greco
suicide was inflicted by the law. In tn
!5Ver Roman Empire it became almos
luentlfed with patriotism and indie
! Pendence; but under the more human
development OF Christianity. life assume,
/ a sacred aspect, and to kill ones self wa,
10 murder; and so, though patholocica
ana other considerations avoid generally,
by their influence on coroner's iur;as
such terrible consequences, by the com.
mon law felo de Sc forfeits his pronertv
MS VIII becomes void as to personalit,
and Christian burial is denied him Va
though crimeit is called, and tholiob in.
furious and wicked, as it certainly il i
mas ever been regarded with somethipo
VI an awestruck compassion. The Como
more unfortunate" is beyond the reach
Vi an earthly tribunal; nor can the nrirna
cause OF such fell act be other than av-
IRENE misery, for suicide from excess of
JOY is, IN TACT, unknown. Wretchedness
ana death claim both our sympathy and
respect, and thus it comes to pass that
Whatever our abstract view NAV be. such
a strange conjunction of the two main
human Ills will always evoke the pity of
irall mortality. Ophelia and OtheIlo
ankle 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, unhineed either
by physical or so-called mental causes
the victim whelmed by ''the slings and
arrows OF outrageous fortune" the be-
trayed girl or beggared gambler, goaded
TO desperation, the man wantonly reckless
OF lie, the martyr 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
nomenclature. Nor is it irrele-
want or lrreverent to imagine case where
the sancbty OF existence is more than
outwelghed by unmerited agony. Some
poor, battted, starving wretch, who has
none to need or mourn him, who has
strained. every nerve in. vain for work. !
-he victim of "over-population, of $50 |
,iety," of what you will; NAV we'll argue
ike poor Josephs in ''Never Too Late to !
Mend, Z" that the future cannot be as bad
IS the present. Apart from the religious
'ide OF the question,
ITS MORAL ASPECT
Mainly depends on the cowardice of an |
lct that is the last luxury of the luekless
md cowardice, where none depend on |
he suicide, there can be none. 1t is re-
if we bear these considerations
n mind, that in the ever increasing
train OF work and competition, and the
rowing artificiality of civilization, sui
lde has not increased more than it has.
MADNESS is far more prevalent, and mad
less is the nurse OF suicide. A note
worthy fact with regard to suicide is its
pidemie character. In the year 15O6 no
ever than sixty persons persisted by
heir own hand in Rouen, and in 1888
90 destroyed themselves at Versailles.
'eri0ds OF CONFUSION and agitation,
which unnaturally excite, often abnor-
nally eXtinguish fine and. sensitive
minds, and, as if an acorn planted in
it will soon break the pot. The
Werther" craze was fruitful in suicide.
nd Goethe had TO defend himself from
II imputed possibility. In the same
tanner forms of self-destruction seem to
e familiarZed by imitation. The many
licides OF late years on the railroads at
est this, for to submit to being run over
Y steam engine must be surely the
lode of death most to be dreaded and
Ist to be planned,
OUR LIST OF SUICIDES
roughly, the ruined, the he
nc and the reckless OF the ruined it
ould be commonplace to speak. His
,ry and fiction abound in examples, and
9th are united in the person of Chatter
N. Suicide is, indeed, the very shroud
failure, and, as failure is always dra-
latic, it is on this side OF its interest that :
le modern French drama has so wildly
,ized Not that, like the ancient statu-
,que Greek tragedy, the suicide is wont {
occur silently and off the stage. Sarah
and CroiZett poison themselves
almost voraciously, and such
are rendered both psychi-
lily and physically sensational. Still
IS is it necessary here to discuss the he
tic suicides that we have enumerated as
lie of several distinct subdivisions. Cato
I'd Seneca are typical instances, and
ere has even been a mock-heroic
licide, that of Vatel, the chivalrous
lief, who killed himself in honorable
,spair because enough fish was not duly
ippied to the royal tables, and was ele-
zed and eu1ogized by Boileau. But the ,
icide who. recklessly disregards his life
a rarer and more fascinating study; the a
,luptuary and the hypochondrist will
casionally thus end their days, and the
NOUS story of the "Suicide Club" COM
emorates how an association OF such
llous sybarites would meet at periodical
each of which was by some
,isoned Wand destined to end the life of
"a e H., 4l,n+ orno l,oinn En.nt In