The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-05-08
GALLO SUICIDES.
ECCENTRIC WAYS OF QUITTING
THE WORLD IN FRANCE.
Interesting Deductions From Stats
tics-Age for Self.Murder-Predis
posing gCauses-Suicides From
the Column Vendomc.

wonder if there is any country in the
world where suicide is accomplished with
the same calm resolution that it is in
France, and also in such eccentric ways
and for such odd reasons. For instance,
Ihave heard lately of man who killed him
self because he had stolen pair of socks,
and was oppressed by rcnorse for the
theft. One would imagine that more
practical way of proving his repentance
would have been for him to have saved up
his earnings to pay for the purloined
articles. In another instance man hung
himself because one of his comrades
owed him ten cents and he would not pay
him, and he was in consequence tired of
life. A male patient suffering from q
very painful disorder in one of the Paris
hospitals, contrived to secrete a sharp
knife under his bedclothes, and literally
committed hari-kari.
Not long ago husband and wife, find
ing themselves in the last stages of con-
sumption and perceiving that their four
children were all threatened with the
same malady, hired horse and carriage,
the mother and children occupying the
vehicle while the husband drove. He
made straight for deep and rapid river
near his home and drove the horse head
long into it, so that the whole party were
drowned. The unhappy parents left be-
hind them declaration, which both had
or ~ ioI,
had impelled them to the desperate deed.
A dissipated workman in Paris pos
sessed q tame rabbit of which he was
very fond, and which he had trained to
execute number of amusing tricks. Peo-
pie often tried to buy the little animal,
but he always refused to part with it.
Finally he was offered $50 for it, and the
largeness of the sum overcame his fond
ness for his pet; so he let it 60. He soon
wasted the money in debauchery and
riotous living, and then he hung himself,
declaring in writing, before he committed
the deed, that life was not worth the iv-
ing since he no longer had his rabbit. I
can better understand the action of a
wretchedly poor old woman who shared
her scanty meals and her miserable garret
with favorite dog. The animal died,
and his mistress spent her last savings for
q pan of charcoal, for, as she piteously
said, she had no one on earth to love or to
love her, now that she had lost her dog.
So she shut herself herself up and lighted
her charcoal, and was found dead in her
bed the next day.
The official statistics of the suicides in
France during the past year are extremely
curious to examine. The cases amount to
5000 for the whole Republic. Of these
the department in which Paris is situated
comes in for nearly fifth, though in pro-
portion to its population it ought to furnish
only one-fifteenth. But the life of the
great city, and its trials, its miseries, its
deceptions, are fertile in providing causes
for despair and self-murder. 1t would
naturally be supposed that the gloomy
months of winter, with their cold, gray
weather and short days, would be those
in which unhappy people would the most
readily quit the earth. Such is not the
case. December is the month in which
suicides are least frequent, and July is
that which furnishes the greatest number.
Suicide is far less common among very
old or very young persons than with
those of middle age. Between forty and
sixty is the period when life seems to be-
como most burdensome. Very few young
people kill themselves, and very few old
ones. As to the causes of suicide, in
sanity, whether incipient or declared,
furnishes the largest contingeut> Impa-
tience of physical pain, the suffering
caused by agonizing and incurable i'll
ness, comes next. Drunkenness also sup
plies q large number of cases. But pow
erty and disappointed love comes lowest
on the list of predisposing causes.
The rope and the river are the most
popular of all means of self slaughter.
The pistol comes next, and then asphyxia-
ton by charcoal. Comparatively few
persons have recourse to knives or to
poison. Some few leap from IN elevated
point, like the Arc dc Triomphe or the
towers of Notre Dame. Instances are
known of persons who have thrown
themselves on the railway track in front
of a passing train. People have been
known to drink themselves purposely to
death, swallowing alcohol in such great
quantities as to produce congestion of the
brain. And last year one unhappy crea-
ture, a woman, deliberatcd starved her
self to death.
The most dramatic case of suicide of
which I have ever heard was one of
which I was by chance the witness some
years ago. On fine afternoon in winter
1 was walking on the Rue de 10 Paix at
the end nearest the Palace Vendome. I
was attracted by the aspect of the vast
dark Column Vcndome rising against the
pale gold of the sky, and with the last
raves of sunset lingering upon the statue
at its summit. Suddenly beheld mass
of white, futtering drapery falling rapid
~ down the front of the great dusky
shaft. 1t struck upon the huge laurel
wreath surrounding the column where its
base comes in contact with the pedestal,
and was thrown by the violence of the
shock clear over the ratings to the pave
ment. These white draperies were the
skirts of woman. She had climbed to
the summit of the column with a camp
stool hidden underneath her cloak, and
while the guide was explaining the princi-
pal points of view to some other persons
She profted by the moment that his atten-
tion was distracted, placed her camp stool
:..a4 loo;la tho ,ailia1rS nanuntnl II and