Los Angeles herald., 1891-08-16
WHY DO MEN SUICIDE?
NEARLY ALL METHODS OF SELF MUIR
DER HAVE BEEN TRIED.

Suicide Among the Greeks and Romans
Few Negroes Have Ever Taken Thei,
Own Life-Reason of One Man for Has
tening to Shuttle of the Mortal Coil,
A prominent physician who has made
study of suicide said the other day:
Why should man kill himself? The
popular answer is, Because he is craxyl'
Scientific men easily disprove that, but
are still somewhat at sea in devising a
better answer. Was the philosopher
Seneca crazy when he entered the warm
bath and opened his veins2 Were all the
hundreds Of Romans who made happy
dispatch of themselves insane2 Surely
not
The Greeks rarely committed suicide,
but at one time it was quite the fashion
in Rome. 1t is the rarest of rarities for
slave to commit suicide, though slave
owner often does. Extensive inquiry
fails to develop single case of an Ameri-
can negro's committing suicide, though
there have been d few cases among mu-
lattos and octoroons.
Shall it be said, then, that the superior
race is the suicidal? Surely not, for the
Greeks were at least the equals of the
Romans. The solution must be sought
elsewhere.
Perhaps religious belief has something
to do with it, but it would be hard to
prove it. One fact, however, gives us a
clew. Among the lowest races of man.
kind and in the lowest intellectual grades
of any society suicide is practically un-
known, and among the highest in race
or culture it is extremely rare, while in
the middle or lower middle classes it is
most common.
STRANGE REASONS FOR THE ACT.
1t is those who are midway on the
course, whether as races or individuals
those who are in the struggle, who lose
heart and rush unbidden into eternity.
This is only another way Of saying that
where the battle is fiercest there are the
most wounds and sudden deaths; those
who have won the victory and those
lying idle in camp and designing no
struggle are fairly we'll satisfied with the
situation. The cultured and well-to-do
Philadelphia is, on the whole, as will
ing to live as the naked Senegambian.
The causes assigned for suicide are to
the last degree curious. In many cases
well-to-do suicides simply allege that
they are tired of life-the monotony of
it is too much for them. An English
gentleman left note to the effect that
he was tired Of coming in and going
out, laying down and getting; up button button
ing and unbuttoning."
A London cabman wrote that he had
exhausted all the pleasure of driving in
this world and wanted to see how they
drove in the other. Strange to say, love
and poverty furnish the smallest num-
ber of cases, and mere bodily suffering
the greatest.
But the saddest cases are those in
which whole family die together, and
of these the Stafford case, which occurred
some years ago, was the most mournful
of all.
sALFoRD's COLD BLooDED DEED.
Stafford was a druggists assistant,
threatened with the loss of position and
poverty. He succeeded in gaining his
wife's consent, as his letter said, that the
whole family should go together" but
she did not want to know when the fatal
dose was given. So he gave her and the
youngest child prussic acid in q cooling
drink as they lay down for the night, and
in a few minutes they expired without
pain: One by one he disposed of the
other five children in the same way
"all in peace and without pain, thank
God" he wrote.
He then drew up his will, went out and
obtained the signature Of witnesses, re-
turned and wrote four letters, and then
swallowed the poison, and was soon a
corpse. Such case is beyond analysis
by healthful mind Yet we cannot say
it was insanity.
It is scarcely possible to conceive of any
method of suicide not already employed
by some one, but whenever one strikes a
novel method he is sure to have host of
imitators. Hanging, drowning, poison
ing, stabbing, or other forms of cutting,
shooting and jumping from high places
are most common.
Many women have swallowed hot Goals,
powdered glass aad other destructive ar
ticles. Cleopatra applied an asp to her
bosom, and it is worth noting that she
has no imitators Women have horror
of serpents, and they are not easily OBJ
tanned at the time desired.
France leads all other nations in sui
cides, as in the last year for which we
have the record ZIG persons killed them
selves in each !, ,00o, 900 of the population,
and the increase is rapid. Of 7,572 sui
cides in one year one-fifth were in Paris,
and smothering by charcoal fumes is the
favorite method. In London nearly all
suicides are with the knife and razor,
and it is plain truth that in this respect
the British are the worst ''cutthroats" in
Europe Chicago Tribune.
Electpfcity Defined.
IL