The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-01-15
The Suicide of Boys.

The suicide of Donald Stuart, the IL.
year-old son of DIR. Stuart, of Schenec-
tady, because he had been admonished
for some bOyish fault. recalls the fact
that the suicide of lads has become
shockingly prevalent of late. Within
the past six months, several similar
cases have been reported from different
parts of the country. In nearly every
instance, the case has been as in the
case of young Stuart, an injury to the
lads pride. One boy in Philadelphia
blew his brains ont because his father
had vetoed some scheme he had pro-
posed. Another in a western town hav-
ing received Il parental rebuke, found
that life had lost all charm and ended
it by a dose of poison.
These eases of youthful suicide are
very remarkable. They a not be at
tributed, as suicide often is, 10 the
prevalence of infidelity. Young minds
do not know what infidelity is. They
have not become permeated with the
spirit of those skeptical writings that
represent life us a hideous dream, as
something from which no satisfaction
can be obtained, as an evil to which it
were better to put an end to than to
prolong. These writings are too dis
NAL. too difficult to understand, to pos
sess the slightest attraction for a boy OF
10 or IL.
Moreover, to "a healthy boy of this
age life is particularly fascinating. II
is full of novelty, and, to his imagina-
ton, it is full of pleasure. Health and
inexperience inspire him with Joy and
hope. With him during these years Of
inquisitiveness and unreflectiveness, to
live is to be happy. But when from
some cause, like ill-health or painful ex-
perience, his attention is diverted from
the beauties and possibilities of life to
his own misery and disappointment,
then he has reached a morbid state that
makes self-destructiOn a desirable thing.
Only an occasion like the rebuke of q
parent or the treachery of a playmate is
sufficient to precipitate the commission
of this crime.
II the truth were known it would be
found, probably, that young Stuart was
not a robust, healthy boy. On the con-
tr .ry it would be found that he was en-
lowed with an unusually sensitive and
delicate organism. He did not possess
that buoyancy that makes a lad forget
almost instantly any injury to his flesh
or his pride; that causes him to renew
forthwith his interest in his amusement
and fellows. This was the case with
the Philadelphia boy, who dwclt upon
his fancied wrongs for a day ortwo. and
seeing no hope whatever for future en-
joyment, he got on q chair in front of a
mirror, and. taking a revolver, shot HIM
self dead in the temple. Rochester Dem
0crat and Chronicle.
DIR. Quain, an eminent London ply
stefan, remarked. in the course of his
recent ..Harveian Oration," that fifty
years ago u patient could command no
anasthetic to induce in%sensibility to
pain, no antiseptic to promote the
healing of a wound, no choral to pro-
duce sleep, no a%ntipyretic in general
use to control fever. He showed that
in the past forty-live years the meal du-
ration of male life in England and
Wales has been increased by two years,
and that of woman by three and q
half, the greater portion of such in
crease being subsequent to childhood
and prior to decrcpitude.