The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1889-07-26
CURE rcx SUICIDE.
- xnesaszois Ailment OF the Time m,
How tn ~

OO0G FSH SUICIDE.
- x"eaS1ols Ailment OF the Time md
How to Treat 1t.
The spread of suicide is ALARMING
some OF our contemporaries. and thai
they should be alarmed is not to be
wondered at. perhaps. if the statemen,
made Is correct that within the last
three months three clergymen, three
posfmasters. six physicians, twelve
eil-to-do merchants. seven Office
holders. three lawyers. three bankers,
four railroad officials, two artists, three
mayors, one journalist, one army Off
Ger and two capitalists have. for various
reasons, voluntarily shuffled off this
mortal COIL But in viewing such 9
record a little philosophy is desirable.
An increase OF suicide is not necessarily
proof that the world is growing more
unhappy. On the contrary. it NAV
mean that the general state of society
Is improving. Men and women do not
Kill themselves because their material
condition is unbearable, but because
some mental state leads them to prefer
the sleep of death. no matter "what
dreams may come" to the perplexity
and moral tension of existence. The
most miserable of people, speaking
materially, are the least given to sui
clde-as, for instance. the Spaniards
and the Italians. Suicide is vastly
more prevalent among the better nour-
lshed and better educated Germans
than among either Of the nations we
have named; the thrifty and intelligent
Danes and Saxons are most given to
suicide OF all the peoples of Europe,
while squalid and benighted Spain has
the lowest suicide percentage If we
compare the epochs of the world. we
ind that in Rome, in the DAYS of the
glory OF the republic and the empire.
suicide was much more prevalent than
it was ia the darkness of the Middle
Ages.
Suicide is Il malady of cultiyation-a
characteristic. it may be said, of an
advanced and even prosperous state of
society. In the United States. where.
in the five years between 1882 and 1887.
S,226 persons took their own lives,
only go OF these deaths were attribut-
able to restitution. It is to lend the
heartache," and not to escape unbear-
able material conditions, that people
take their lives: and this heartache or
world WEAKNESS in quite rs distinctly
traceable - the Increased sensitiveness
OF organization on the part of a cult
waited generation as is the delight in
progress. in society, III art in music.
and In literature, that also char
acteristic of this epoch of the world.
The prevalence of suicide is iu many
ways lamentable; but there is no
reason why the world should alarm it.
self unduly about it. or, treating it as
If 1t were due TO some preventable
cause. like an epidemic of diphtheria,
should call out, What is TO be done?''
Nothing is to be done at least BY So
ciety as whole. Suicide is an newt
able ailmeut of a time, which, on the
whole. is the best time that the world
has ever had.
But though society can do nothing to
restrain suicide, the individual being
sulreme in at least this respect. some
thing may be done. and effectively.
too, by the individual who feels the
urging to self-destruction strong within
him. If no consideration of the here
after gives such one pause, it is in
his power to put himself in healthy
harmony with nature. if he will. by
Obeying the philosophical injunction to
''look outward and not in;'' to admit
to his life the light of nature-frst
compromising that nature is not a
thing exterior to him, but that it is
himself and he is nature-and not for
ever shut himself within the darkness
of partial and selfish view of life;
and, examining in this light his con-
ditiOn, to determine whether the leth-
argy and despair which impel him to
suicide are not of his own making, and
" ether the natural gift of hope and
health are not still within recovery
Boston Transcript.