The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-01-17
THE QUESTION OF SUICIDE.

The study of the causes that move people
to suicide must ever prove of more than NOR
bid interest. Macbeths anxious inquiry
'Canst thou not minister to mind diseased
has not yet been answered by the doctor to
whom it was directed, nor by any that have
followed him, so far as prescribing prorhy-
tactic for suicide. This failure largely arises,
doubtless, from the fact that the disposition
to STAY ones self is too subtle to
always be anticipated, even by the
most competent students of psychological
and mental phenomena. A sudden plunge
into the water, cruel and fatal knife thrust,
the dashing out of brains with bullet, is
often the first intimation had Of suicidal i'm
pulse Then it is too late-the fragments Of
the golden bowl cannot be reunited. Them
too, the impulses that move people to suicide
are 80 varied that it were impossible to antici-
pate the formation of inclination to self-de-
,etruction. Children have been known to
hang themselves, shoot themselves or drown
themselves, because Of some slight reproof on
the part of parents or teachers, and those
,oldef have often thrown away life for causes
fully as trivial These manifestations of the
unnatural desire to quit life make the study
OF the subject very complex.
Scientists may approximate the causes in
many instances by showing diseased condi-
tion of the brain, a lesion there or elsewhere.
destroying the judgment and will And it
may be understood how one in frenzy or in
despair might become morbid enough to COM
nit suicide, and yet not be insane. The judg-
ment in such instances is swept away by the
impulse of passion. But.there is a vast num-
Der of people who go down self destroyed for
reasons that defy explanation. Take the
record of single day the past week
Monday last. On that day five sui
cides were reported by the Associated
Press, with various explanations. AT
North Madison, Conn.,, lad named
Stone cut his throat with dull case knife be-
cause his brother was ill. At Dubuque, Ia,
William Cunningham cut his throat with a
razor because certain young lady in the
neighborhood refused to marry him. At La
mar, Mo-, Mrs. vappall drowned herself be-
cause of the death Of her babe. At Grand
Island, Neb., Miss Minnie Ablers committed
suicide by shooting herself because she was
i'll She left a note to her parents and to her
lover, to whom she was to be married soon,
begging their pardon for the act. At Lima,
o., Peter Wilhelm poisoned himself without
any apparent reason. This is CHASTITY ex-
hibit for one day, and, as will
be observed, there was no adequate
excuse in any instance. 1t appeals to reason
that all these might have been saved had the
determination been anticipated. The Con-
necticut lad could have been reasoned with,
given an idea of the enormity of the offense,
or deity led out of the gloom that beset his
young soul until he could see no relief save in
death. It is possible that his parents left him
too much to himself, and that his immature
judgment needed only little help to have saved
him. The suicide of Cunningham because
certain young lady would not become his
wife is representative of large class con-
stantly being swelled all over the world. In
volved in the passion of love,
with all the affections conferred upon
one person, it often happens that a
disappointment convinces the victim that life
ia not worth living. In case like that, if it
could be handled at the proper time, the
chances are it would require but little argu-
pent to establish the supreme folly Of such an