Tombstone epitaph., 1888-05-05

-. fellow man has taken his own life. When life becomes intolerable through misfortune or failure, or suffering or shane, we can understand the motive while we deplore the sin of self slaughter. Even for the sin we seek palliaton in, the thought of that mysterious, immeas- urable woe which must have in some measure unseated reason from its throne But distintive feature of the suicidal mania of the day is the proportion of sui cides for which there is no motive tha, can be called force. For nowadays the morning paper brings us such tidings as these: A man killed himself because he felt lonely and no one seemed to care for his society. A grocer's clerk shot him. selfbecause his employer reproved him for some carlessness. A college student is found hanging by rope fastened to the ceiling of his room, and on the study table was found note explaining tha, he can't bear to live any longer and see other members of his class winning the prizes that are beyond his reach. One young girl has taken Trough on rats" be- cause she has quarreled with her room mate, and another because her lover has taken some enc else to a ball. A child of II years jumps into the river and is drowned because the parents have re fused permission to go out riding.
 r When the Kohan Empire was in its decline the. practice of suicide was mos, prevalent. | Every period of moral cor ruption known te history has been re markabie for the recklessness with which people threw away their lives. Ages of unbellef in religion have also been char acterized by contemp, for existence which was deemed to have no continuance be- yond this present sphere.
 How shall we regard the epidemic of suicide which now seems to be spreading. Is it really sign that the world is grow ing worse1 Or that national disaster is about to fall upon us? Or that faith is dying? It is easier to ask these ques- tions than to answer them. But before deciding on the worst possible interpre- tation of the phenomena which confront us, it may be we'll to consider some re- lated facts. Such, for instance, is the enormous increase in recent years in the dissemination of news, SO that events which take place in the most distant parts of the country are spread before us as promptly and minutely as If they oc- cured at our very doors. Again, the crowding together of people in cities in creases many fold the contagious in. flaence of crime Tn suggesting crime. Furthermore, the conditions of society to-day have so changed that millions of young people of both sexes are thrown upon the world to struggle for living without .home or friends. Modern thought" proves too much for many a head that is turned by what it struggles in vain to understand. A large majority of suicides at the present day are com mtted by women. Womsn's emancipa. tion from age long conditions of depen- dence has come with such overwhelming suddenness that many half educated in. dividuals of the sex are unprepared for the fierce battle by which alone success in the competition of life can be won. In consideration of all these things there is room and reason to hope that the fearful frequency of self-murder by which we are appalled, and made sick at heart will prove to be but temporary phenomenon, incidental to our progress toward higher living and higher esti- mate of the worth of life.