Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-08-19

VICTIMS OF SUICIDE.
How the Crime of Seif-Destruction Is Do
 fol,.ictl by Various Glasses.

How the Crime of Seif-Destruction Is Do
 fcnded by Various Classes.
 It has been found utterly impossible to convince men and women who are so de- sirous of ridding themselves of the burden of existence that they will commit even 0 vcnial error by accomplishing their own re- lease, says a writer in Blackwood's Maga- zine. It is simply useless to call it the crime of self-murder, or to talk of the sanctlty o1 hnnlan life which God alone can give, and therefore He alone has q right to recall. In the case of prisoners who arc suffering punishment for the attempt there is some times diplomatic endeavor, from mere pol icv, to give an assent to the moral retec tons pressed upon them; but when driven | to speak their minds honestly they lnva- | riably repeat that they see no reason why | they should not divest themselves of an em- l barrassing possession, with which no one l but themselves has any concern whatever. | This mode of dealing with the subject is perhaps natural enough on the part of per | sons who have never taken any serious
 view of their moral responsibilities, built
 is less easy to account for the extraordinary | lightrheartedness with which, for the most
 part, they are ready to plunge into the un-
 known darkness of the last mysterious
 change. As we have already said, no
 thought of what may lie beyond disturbs 1 their mind.
 l sIf you had succeeded in your attempt to
 kill yourself" the writer said to young
 prisoner who had been rescued almost life | less from the river where she had flung l herself, ''you would have been lying now | cold and stiff under the coffin lid, unable to
 sec tue light of day or to hear the voice of
 friend, and with no time left for repentance,
 or even prayer for pardon. Are you not
 thankful to be restored to life and the op- portunity of famendmentH'
 "No,' she sad lightly; "for if they had let me alone should have been done with
 it all and had no more trouble or worry, and l that was just what wanted wish they
 had left me at the bottom of the river"
 | Sometimes the immediate causes which lead to suicide seem strangely dispropor-
 toned to the gravity of the step. One girl,
 who was ready to fling maledictions at her
 rescuers, had several times donc her best
 to put an end to her existence. On two of
 these occasions she had, so far as her own
 will was concerned, practically succeeded
 once by poison and once by strangulation. She was to all appearance dead the last
 time, and would very soon have been so in
 reality but for the caro and toll bestowed
 on her by a kindly physician who was sent
 for on the discovery of her condition and who spent {. whole night in unccasing ef- forts to restore anima: ion. He succeeded
 
 was given up to what she and her compan-
 ions of the same unhappy class term with | unconscious irouy"a gay life,' and she did
 find fitful, hollow en- joyment in the ex-
 citemcnt of evenings spent in theaters and dancing booths, and ill the cxtravagant dresses and jewelry with which she adorned herself; but there came to her sudden mo-
 ments when the whole brilliant phantasma- goria of her existence would seem to roll away from her and the reality of her posi- tion appear in its true colors, and straight , | way, without an instant's hesitation, she
 would take the best means III her power to divest herself of it altogether.
 5 While the reck lessncss and indifference | with which suicide Is e:orted to is almost
 universal in the lower stratum of society, , the causes which lead to the impulse arc, of course, very varied and often most pa thetic. A poor old woman who had nearly
 reached the Scriptar:l thrcescore years
 and ten was sentenced lately to short
 term of imprisonment tor attempting self l destruction. It had very nearly been suc- , ccssful, and, i'll fact, was so in tho end, as
 tho shock to her system from immersion in
 ice-cold water proved fatal, and she only lived one week after her release from jail.
 She related her simple history with the ut
 most composure. She had lived most hap
 oily and respectfully with her husband from
 the time of her early marriage in youth.
 He had a pension as a retired soldier, which } supported them in comparative comfort
 when he was too old to work. Their homo for twenty eight years had been the little cottage in which he died at the commence } ment of an unusually severe winter. ''He had been an angel,' the poor woman said } ''so good and steady, and so kind to her" 3 and when he was gone she clung with pas sionatc attachment to the little house in = which she had spent so many happy years l | with hirl--but she could not pay tho rent. 9 His pension had, of course, expired with l him, and she was, in fact, without the 5 means of living at all.
 9 She began by selling her little possessions . one after another in order to obtain food, l and in this way she managed to live for a few weeks. When every thing was gone : | except the scanty furniture of one room the 5 landlord appeared and claimed it for his 5 | unpaid rent It was all carted away, in. : cluding even the chest containing her cloth. l 1 ing; then he turned her into the street and locked the door. There was but one refuge open to her on earth-the work house; but ] that last abode of wretchedness seems te 9 hold place in the minds of the poor-unde s servedly we think-equivalent in horror te 8 l one of the circles of Dante's "Inferno" The l idea Of gong to it does not seem to have Q occurred to the forlorn widow. She looked @ back for moment at the closed door of hel c uLtle earthly paradise, and then took hel 8 way shivering through public park toward s l the river. There, without apparently the l slightest shrinking or dread, she flung her r self into the water under a cold, wintry sky
 Two men happened to be going past in
 boat. They rescued her just as she wa.
 sinking, and after consciousness had beer h restored she was taken to the prison. Sh. }, 1 passed the time of her sojourn there in s strange, dreamy state, talking only of he1 o husband and her hope of seeing him per 8 haps again if she could only succeed il r "getting out of this weary world" Thi. o hope had only been suggested to her mint 6 by the religious cancellations afforded t, < her in the prison, but it proved completel, :. 1 impossible to persuade her that she hat 8 not been perfectly justified in trying to die l. She would have been quite willing to re d peat the experiment if death had not mer l. cifully come to her uncalled, and thus al las |, ! her desire was prantod