Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-01-10

ke.sens why They should wait Bit, U.ul
the Whcel Turns Over.

WHY DO MEN COMMIT sUIcrpEs
Re.ssns why They should wait . Bit, U.m
the whsei Turns Over.
Prom the New York sun.
Il think that men commit suicide became
they are insane. Let q sane man make al
necessary preparations 10 kill himself and then
at down and think the whole matter over. and
IN my opinion he will make mp his mind 10
live"
Custom" said the man. has a treat deal 20
do with suicide. ~ il has 10 do with almost all
other matters You must be thinking OF suicids
IN these DAYS. for Of course Won do not inciuae
men Ike Cato IN your hist Of lunatics. lou
must also have mental reference % people in
.he wes'ern world. or else you would be Obliged
TO call all the Japanese who commit hsri-ka-i
madmen. This would never do. Besides this.
men and women. like the Christian martvrs.
who could have escaped DEATH but declined 10
do so-what were they but suicides9-'
They did no; XII themselves Others killed
them, and consequently they were not suicides
at an"
Il viii not assert" said the man. shat VIVA.
Won say Is q mere quibhle. based on the ety.
mology of the word suicide hut ii ce-,@i,fv
Is something very like a quibble To make
this little clearer | might saw that no man
Kills himself. IL is the knife that he sticks int,
his heart. The razor with which H. cuts Nj,
throat or the hydrocyanic acid tha; he drinks.
7 AN
LETT the knife alone, bat 80 also might The mas
tyr have cast aside his determination 10 re-
main true 10 his faith at all hargr,i. Why
should distinctions be nsde2 The man who
pursues course Of action which ho
knows must inevitably lead TO his death. ard
which course he might sbandon-does he not
| really commit suiciuel Mind YOU he takes no
chances. as a soldier does. hut voluntarily goes
70 his death with his eyes wide open. What il
this II not suicide when. in chanting the sTe
Deum. we sing. The noble army of mnrtvrs
praise Thee. do We not really sing that the
noble army of certain particular suicides
praise the Lord? by the way. YOU ala not
state your proposition CORRECTLY Won Ala not
mean 10 say men commit suicide because thcv
are Insane, but only insane men commit
suicide. In view Of what have said don Won
see that your proposition is untenable, even
when put into proper form"
Perhaps"
And yet il is true" continued the man.
that men have killed themselves sim.,ly h.
cause they were insane. knew the fact ana
dreaded 20 go still further into the world Of
madness The outlook too dreary too
| frightful; and many a man has sought rel,s..e
by hiding II from his ewes amid the shades Of
death. But IL may easily be that the majority
OF stn-murders are perfectly sane acts COM
mltted by entirely men. l. IL on the
whole. the wiser thing to sit down with folded
hands amid the huriy-burly of the storm or %
get up and walk into the house-into the long
home'-and 70 gel away from the whole busl-
ness There rs something 10 be said on both
sides"
1T seems TO me that Won are taking a crest
deal Tor granted when you speak of getting out
OF the hurly-burly in that way. One might
easily get into worse Storm"
Possibly, said the man. ''but by suicide q
man certainly gets out of such storms as beat
on him. both within aud without the comraces
I OF his flesh, in the present life And ID is a
great matter TO I've able 60 do thus much. True
iorutude OF intellect. as your Emerson. il YOU
i'm 4T..nlh
not letting wha: We do know be hammered by
what we don know. IL a man knows ,hat hs
Is uncomfortable and is pretty certain that.
while IN the body. there is no hope OF escape,
why shouldn't he make a bold dash for free
dom, fy away on the wings OF the windgH
AS SICK man who gets no help from doc
tors turns 20 quacksY'
ION the same principle. undoubtedly said
me man, and that brings us TO the point 1
wanted to reach. The sick man who goes 20
quacks seek9 from ignorance aid which knowl-
edge cannot or does not give HIM. To do this
| Is the part OF the fool A wiser man vii wait
for further knowledge 10 lend him a helping
ha2d. tie does not know what is in s;nr. s,r
him. bat he viii wait and see SO with a.,
ordinary suicide. He Is not an insane man
blu; simply food. or course AN now sneak
ing only OF the ordinary suicide who blows
himself out in disgust. like George Moore's
Mike Fletcher OF fellows who, being candida,
choose TO look ut themselves as mere chunks
OF grease In dirty world: of petuiant lovers;
OF men who cannot bear disgrace debt trouble
ana the his THAI are common To ali tire world"
Yet some OF them have been very bright aud
would not ordinarily be looked uvDon as fools
MaGmen, grant Won. but not fools
| Fools, pure and simple. are thcyg said the
man Let us Gee. Wash I il DIR. Young who
said thai a raaa nay have tue talents OF an an
gel, and vet be a foolg 1 mean that such mon
are fools IN he biblical sense. and. OF course
| don't mean that they are idiots No idiot ever
yet said IN his heart tsat there is No God-in-
deed, he wouldn have the heart 20 say it, 1
| mean Hesiod 5 fool; the man who will neither
| counsel himself nor lie: others counsel Rim;
the man who acts from impulse OF mere
| brooding; the man who is at the very top
| most summit of happiness at one minute aud
| down in the slough Of dcspond the next and
| who hasn't the wisdom TO draw from this fact
the piaiaest lesson that il ought 10 teach him
HIS happiness and despair are never any thing
whatever except botise, and the fool can see
| IL. Now he yells with delight now he howis
with anguish, and then he goes and blows his
brains out, and all about next TO nothing. II
such a man isn't fool all classification is rank
nonsense. From the very fact that he is I'D
and down IN a minute. day. month. he
ought 70 see that neither his outside circunn-
stances nor his inside states are Of real and
enduring value. Let him wait bat and every
/ thing viii be all right with him.
Exactly. But according to your own show
ing everything viii be all wrong again in next
| to no time"
Precisely" said the man, 'sbut IL then he
doesn't wait for the clock to tick or a lar Of
| some sort TO shake the mercury and give il
bounce, but blor7s himself out instlnter he
skips the happiness he is sure to have at the
| next minute. Let any man. even a normal
one, observe himself closely. and be will ind
that, without the slightest real change in his
circumstances, his attitude toward them will
| change, and, after all, that is the only i'm
portant matter. The great folly Of q suicide
consists in the fact that he is petulant and i'm
patient His loss or his punishment is greater
than he can bear. Why doesn't the fool wait
and see? 1t is only the unendurable pain that
kills, and. If the pain is bound 20 kill suicide
will be unnecessary. On looking back be will
| see how many desperate conditions be has
been in and comes out Of, and he should take
stock of himself in that light"
But VINO forecast his year
And I'M an loss gan 20 luat-lk
Or reach hand through time 10.
Toe far-oc Interest u tears
"Right you are. said the man. snuec rlen~ou
known that Tennysoa also remarked that his
faith was large in time. and that one has only
to wait and time itself will bring the fruit OF
wisdom. Your suicidal crank. of course csnno.
see this, and herein he is worse of than even
your poetical crank, vino can see anything b
wants TO"