Morning journal and courier., 1890-02-11
AN EPIDEMIC OF SUICIDE.
Methods of Destroying Life That Are
Now Popular in Paris.


Now Popular in Paris.
Emile Zola in the Philadelphia Press
Serenity in old age is beautiful, but some
of us find life too hard to bear until We
reach that tranquility. All around me, here
in Paris, is evidence of this distaste for life,
this craving for the rest of the grave. An
epidemic Of suicide has sprung up like q
plague, coming no one knows whence. On
some days the list mounts up to ten sui
cides, while the average number is two or
three. The city is marked out for the
many solitary griefs and its uproar drowning
the sound Of so many sobs. Despairing
men come there to die, just as they would
throw themselves into an ocean. But never,
I repeat, has the contagion of death seemed
to claim SO many victims. Some, in their
misery or madness, throw themselves from
the bridges, and their bodies are found in
the Seine, caught under the boats. Oshers
prefer the rope; few hang themselves In
some park in the suburbs. at Vincennes or
Boulogne, but the greater number spare
themselves this journey by tying the rope to
the nearest beam. Men have hanged them
selves behind doors, in Rarrets, along corri-
dors, and latterly ono has been found who,
simply to avoid the trouble of climbing five
flights of stairs to his lodging, suspended
himself from the railing of the staircase.
Of poisoning there are fewer instances; only
women still swallow laudanum or the phos-
phorus from bundle of matches, although
the latter is sometimes d successful means of
suicide. Women, too, sometimes open the
arteries while in the bath, and death puts
them gently to sleep under the tepid water.
A girl of sixteen years, driven mad by dis
appointment in love, chose last week to die
in this way. As to charcoal, it remains the
solace of the poor, a cheap and ever ready
cure for all the ills of life. Whenever an
odor burning issues from under a door in the
faubourgs inhabited by the working people,
the first cry is sssuicide!' They break in the
door, aud sometimes arrive in time to save
| some poor wretch struggling in the agonies
of death. Suicide by the knife Is more rare.
| for it requires too much courage to plunge a
| cleaning blade into the flesh. A more suit
able weapon is the pistol; it demands only a
| slight movement of the fnger-even a ner-
vous contraction of the muscles will suffice.
Moreover, In case the revolver is used, II the
first shot miss fire there are still four OF Eve
balls to complete the work. Last of all, the
l public monuments are no longer used for
/ this deadly purpose. Scarcely one or two
instances, each year, can be cited of persons
who have thrown themselves down on the
pavement from the towers of Notre Dame
or from the summit of Column Vendome
and only the closest precaution has saved the
Eiffel tower from suicidal popularity. It il
fine death-this tremendous jump, thil
leap into apace-thus TO plunge into the vor
tex of eternity.
One woman. after eight days vainly spen
in seeking for work, obtained on credit 6
bushel of charcoal, to which she set fire, ani
then lay down, clssping in her arms her twt
little children. The next day the thre.
corpses were found, stiff and livid. ani
locked in a close embrace. Two old peopl
of eighty years, husband and wife, in thei
despair refused to wait until death should
come to them; they were eager to 60 ant
they wanted to 90 together, 80 they inficte'
horrible wounds upon themselves with ra
4 ZOr