St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-04-29

dressing" Suicide resultant from disease of
the brain is without responsibility of the vic
tm, and is without remedy other than that
winch AFFECTS the general treatment of in
sanity, which is not our discussion this morn
ing. Suicide from emotional impulse is not
so much a personal as it is a social disease;
IL indicates a condition in society where the
weak members are attacked and destroyed by
poison which stronger natures are able TO
resist For this form of suicide some body is
responsible, and it is not always the victim of
MS own hand. 1t has been noted that
SUICIDES ARE EPIDEMIC,
they sweep over the country in waves. For
inns fact the newspapers are largely response
BILE. The full and elaborate accounts, with
all the shocking details, act upon weak ma
lures and lead them to repeat the horrors
which they read. 1 have not examined the
Dill passed by our late legislature in regard
to the relation of the press to public execu-
tons, but am inclined to believe it is a step
III the right direction. The newspapers have
no right to be perfect photographs of their
time. am aware that quite the opposite is
the usual newspaper theory. But the time
viii come when all good people, inside Of
newspaper Offices as we'll as outside, will
unite in seeing that crime breeding accounts
of crime are essentially wicked. NeWspa-
pers do not intend to be, and ought not to be
IN fact accessories of the criminal
classes. The trouble, however, is more
offices. 1t is not enough to Saw
that it is the greed of publishers which leads
them to these recitals; though they were the
greedest of all men the newspapers would
reform as soon as the people were better. 1t
is because the community insists on buying
the journals reeking with the most filth that
the publishers conscience goes down before
ms business sagacity. / have said that
suicide is manifestation of diseased social
condition. That this is true is evident since
suicide rates higher among the educated,
rather than the uneducated classes. 1t oc-
cures more frequently among those who are
III business and professional life, rather than
among those who have severe toll and
poverty. There is some element of race in
the problem, for the Northern nations are
more addicted to self-destructiOn than the
Latin races. Hamlet, the prince of Den
mark. might well mediate suicide. for
his nation stands at the head of
the list in the statistics of modern times. We
have no statistics of ancient times, and SO
cannot judge whether suicide is as prevalent
now as twas then. Most likely not. For
among the Greeks and Romans it was sup
ported by an extensive philosophy. Seneca
has sometimes been compared with Jesus,
rather 10 The disadvantage of the Iatter; but
Seneca. though he wrote beautiful maxims
shared power with Nero, defended the crime
OF matrlclde, wrote treaties IL favor of sui
eide, died by his own hand. The cheap
esteem in which life is held is always based
upon s lme form of the Stole philosophy.
Count Tolstoi, in his remarkable book, ''My
confession relates that as a peSsimiSt, like
the author of Eccfesiastes and Schopenhauer,
he recognized that since life was a failure he
ought 10 end it, and he would have ended it
but for his coWardice. The religious view of
the value OF lfe. the development of charac-
ter under misfortune, and the retribution of
the future, are the true cures for the social
disease, of which suicide is the manifesto
tlon. Emotional impulse may be put to flight
by that. The
HEREDITARY TENDENCY TOWARD INSANITY
may be held in check by the earnest cultva-
ton of a religious nature, and by the dis
coyery that the secret or happiness is found
Or q M NI,a x-oI,1 .P
conscience is well recognized by Hamlet; he
would have killed himself
But that the dread of something after
death,
| The undiscovered country from whose
bourne
No traveller returns puzzles the WILL
and while he Donders upon the problem and
turns away, he adds:
THUS conscience does make towards of
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied DER with the pale cast OF
thought
Profoundly considered the religious life.
and that only makes The world tolerable and
existence treasure. Like the Russian
fable, our earthly existence is a suspension
from branch growing out of the side
the top of the pit. and the jaws
of dragon waiting at the bottom.
The prizes of life lose their glitter, the am
billions of life are not W orth while; the strug-
gle tor existence is a losing game; but friend
ship is worth while; character is worth
while: eternity is worth while. Though life
be, as F. W. Robinson declared in the sad
dest of all his sermons, ''only an Illusion"
vet it is an illusion forever vanishing over
the track of right road. If we faithfully
follow that pathway it will lead us to the
arms of our Heavenly Father. l do not
speak this morning of the slow methods of
suicide, of which many of you here to-day
may perhaps be charged. But 1 warn you
that there is also the possibility of spiritual
suicide, which has in it infinitely more loss
and terror. Fear not the killing of the body,
Our Master would have you understand, only
as it is the symbol of the slaughter of the
soul.