The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-08-07
TAKING THE FATAL STEP.
suloOs AND ITS MANY VICTIMS.
How the Crime OF seIf-Nurder Is Defen ded
The Reckessness and Indiffer.
ence wiah which the Re-
suit Il Reachsd.

1t has been Sotlnd utterly impossible to
convince men aIxi women who are desr.
Gus of Kidding themselves of the burden
of existence that they will commit even g
venial error by accomplishing their own
release. SAYS a writer IN B'GckbO0d'S Mqga.
zine. 1t is simply useless to call 1t the
crime OF self-mGr6ker, or to talk OF the
sanctity OF human lile which God alone
can give, and therefore He alone has a
right to vecalt. In the case OF prisoners
who are suffering pOnishment for the at
tempt. there is sometimes diplomatic en-
deavor, from mere policy, to give an as
sent to the mOrSl reflections pressed upon
them; but when driven to speak their
minds honestly tbey invariably repeat
that they see re reas1 n why they should
not divest themselves "a an embarrassing
possession, with which NJ one but them
selves has any concern whA tever.
This mode OF dealing viii the subject
is perhaps natural enough on the part of
persons " no have never taken a ny serious
view OF their moral responsibility but It
Is less easy 10 account for the exit. 2ordin-
airy llght-heartedness with which. for the
most part, they are ready 10 plunge into
the unknown darkness OF the last M VS.
teri6us change.
'lf You had succeeded in your attempt
| TO kill yourself" the writer said 10
young prisoner who had been rescued al
most lifeless from the river where she
had flung herself 'you would have been
lying now cold and stiff under the coffin
I'D, unable to see the light of day or to
I hear the voice of a friend. and with no
( time LETT for repentance, or even a prayer
for pardon. Are you not thankful to be
restored to life and the opportunity of
amendment"
NO" she said lightly; "for if they had
let me aloneI should have been done with
1t all and had no more trouble or worry,
and that was just what l wanted. / wish
they had lett 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 three several times
done her best to put an end to her exist
ence. On two of these DECISIONS she had
so far as her own will was concerned, prac-
tlcally succeeded once by poison and
once by stranguation. She was to all ap-
pearance dead the last time, and would
very soon have been so in reality but for
the care and toll bestowed on her bv
kindly physician who was sent for on the
discovery OF her condition and who spent
whole night in unceasing efforts to re-
store animation. He succeeded at last,
and she did not thank him. She was
given up to what she and her companions
OF the same unhappy class term with un-
conscious irony "a CAV lie" and she did
find titful, hollow enjoyment in the ex-
element of evenings spent in theaters and
dancing booths, and in the extrayagant
dresses and jewefv with which she
adorned herself; but there came To her
sudden moments when the whole brilliant
phantasmagoria of her existence would
seem to roll away from her and the reality
of her position appear in its true colors,
and straightway, without an instant's hes
itation, she would take the best means in
her power to divest herself of it altogether
She exempliied the truiSm that extremes
meet. For the manner in which the sub
ject is regarded by these, the lowest out
casts of the people, is exactly similar TO
the view taken OF it by the high-ciass
leaders of society in modern France,
where it is the fashion now TO say, con
Wit, parceQue a moins de Sc tuer-on ne
peut pas faire autrement." The hapless
inmates of our prisons, however, consider
the alternative of killing themselves pref
primary evil.
While the recklessness and Indifference
with which suicide is resorted to is almost
universal in the lower stratum OF society,
the causes which lead to the impulse are,
of course, very varied and often most pa
thetic. A poor old woman who had nearly
reached the scriptural three-score years
and ten was sentenced lately TO a short
term of imprisonment for attempting self
destruction. 1t had very nearly been sue
cessful, and, in fact, was so in the end, as
the shock 10 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 utmost compOsure. She had lived
most happily and respectfully with her
husband from the time of her early mar
rage in youth. He had a pension as a re-
tired soldier, which supported them In
comparative comfort when he was too old
TO work. Their home for twenty-eight
wears had been the little cottage in which
he died at the commencement OF an unu-
sualy severe winter. "He had been an
angel, I" the poor woman said-"so good
and steady, and so kind 20 her" and when
he was gone she chung with passionate at
tachment to the little house in which she
had spent so many happy years with him
but she could not pay the rent His
pension had, of course expired with him,
and she was, in fact, without the means Of
living at all.
She began by selling her little possess
sions one after another in order to obtain
food, and in this way she managed TO live
for few weeks When everything was
gone except the scanty furniture Of one
room the landlord appeared and claimed
it for his unpaid rent, 1t was all carried
away. including even the chest containing
her clothing; then ne 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 wretch
edness seems to hold place in the minis
of the poor-undeservedly we think
equivalent in horror to one of the circles
of Dante's Inferno" The idea of going
TO it does not seem to have occurred to the
forlorn widow. She looked back for mo-
ment at the closed door of her little
earthly paradise, and then took her way
shivering through a public park to the
river. There, without apparently the
slightest shrinking or dread, she flung
herself into the water under a cold wintry
skv. Two men happened 10 be going past in
n boat. They rescued her just as she was
sinking. and after consciousness had been
restored she was taken to the prison. She
passed the time of her sojourn there in a
strange dreamy state. talking only OF her
husband and her hope of seeing him per-
hans again if she could only succeed in