The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1885-02-26
Styles in Suicide.

'.SuicideS." said wcil-known phy-
sician Of Boston. recently. ARE getting
verV fashionable of late. and the
strange part IF it is that the people
who commit them are those whom no
body would suspect of having any kind
OF trouble, for the real cause of self
murder is usually some sort of worri-
ment. either real or imaginary.
lit is something that has developed
inside of the past fifty years. In old
times people didn't have half as many
comforts as they do now, and suicides
were very rare. Many different means
OF extiuguishing the vital spark are
adopted. Just now taking poison and
shooting appear to be the favOrites.
Many of the attempts prove unsnccess-
full. The stomach-pump saves some
aud unsteady aim or lack of knowl-
edge Is to where the vital places are
causes good deal OF suffering to am
ateurs with the revolver: Love-sick
young women have q fondness for
drowning, but they generally cry out for
help rs soon as they get into the wa
ter. and about one-half OF them are res
cued. That is q queer thing about sui
cides; if they don't succeed in killing
themselves or becoming unconscious at
once they get over the mania and want
TO live as badly as any of US. On the
whole. think hanging the most relia-
BILE. Unless q person is discovered
and cat down inside i've minutes
he is pretty sure to do the job himself.
1t is strange how . little pressure on
the windpipe affects people. OF course
it chokes them. but that is no reason
why they shouldn't be able to move
their limbs. They seem to lose all con-
troll over their muscles, and give right
in. | remember q case that occurred
in BrOokville, Me, when was young
man. A woman, the wife of = wealthy
sea captain, threw skein of yarn over
the top of an open door one day, and,
sticking her head through the blight
that hung down, doubled up her knees
so her feet could not touch, and re-
manned in that position until she
chOked to death. One would naturally
think that when she became uncon-
scious her muscles would relax and al
low her feet to drop to the floor. but
such was not the case. Hanging or
choking seems to make every muscle
as rigid as iron.
u
was that of boy at Frankfort. When
he was about IA years of aye he went
to a circus and became stage struck
He used to. be practieing all the time
at acrobatic feats. One day his folks
went out to the barn and found him
dead, hanging in a scaffold with his
were not tied to the scaffold. bat just
doubled over q pole. A weight of
twenty-five pounds would pull it down.
Both of his hands were clasped to the
pole as if he were holding himself up
by them.
Young Carter's strange death was
a seven days gossip OF the community.
One day short time after it occurred
some carpenters at work in a ship yard
in an adjoining town were talking
about it, and one of them said he had
heard that if man were to lie down
with his throat pressed closely aga nst
any hard substance, like rope or the
edge of a board, he would choke to
death without having the power to
help himself. The men pooh-pooed
the idea, and one of them became so
excited that he sa d:
Il don't believe a word of it. When
l 60 home to dinner I'll try it and
come back and let you know. You
can't stntf an old woman's whim like
that down my throat
When the tell rang for the men to
20 to work al o'clock the carpenter
who had expressed 50 much contempt
for the idea was not present. An hour
passed and he did not come J he 9TH
er men, remembering what he had said.
grew anxious, and went to look him
up. Between the ship yard and his
home was an old vessel hauled up to
the beach to be calked. She was pre-
vented from going out at high water by
two long ropes leading from her decks
to po.ts driven into the shore. With
his face down. lying with his neck on
one of these lines, with his feet rested
on the sand. was their skeptical com.
panion. He was rigid like log OF
wood! The. theory had been demon.
strated at the expense of mans life. "
--BOSton Globe.