Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-06
FREAKS OF SUICIDES.
characteristics of Those Who Resort
to Self-Destruction.
THEIR MOTIVES AND METHODS.
An Insanity Expert Talks Interestingly
on the Subject.
HOW THEIR EDUCATION AFFECTS THEM

HOW THEIR EDUCATION AFFECTS THEM
Dr. Andrew Mcfarland, an insanity expert
and proprietor of private insane retreat at
Oakland, killed himself on Sunday night by
hanging. He was undoubtedly deranged.
TAKE WARNING.
In his mail yesterday morning DR.. G. G.
Wiley received the above, a clipping from
Tuesdays DISPATCH. It was addressed
with a typewriter. The notice to ''take
warning" was also type written. The doc
tor first looked serious and then laughed at
the clipping. He, too, is an insanity e1-
pert, and he was reading for probably the
fiftieth time the item when DISPATCH re-
porter visited him. "Such suicides as that
tend to puzzle one," the doctor began.
"That was no doubt sent me by friend as
joke. Of course no one knows how soon
they may be stricken with a mania to take
their own life; but really 1 don't think
I shall ever be overtaken in that
way. A careful study of suicides and their
peculiar freaks has developed many de-
cidedly interesting facts" the DOCTOR went
on. "People don't generally know that the
complexion, color of the hair and eyes, age,
sex and education and religious beliefs
have much to do with suicides. The days
of the week, the time of the day and the
seasons are also important factors in self
destruction. The community in which one
lives has also much to do with suicides
Light Haired Suicides Predominate.
GA compilation of suicides of the civil
lied world show that about 75 per cent Of
the suicides had fair complexion, light hair
and blue or gray eyes. About 80 per cent
of suicides range in age from 80 to so years.
About the same per cent of those who
take their lives are males. A great ma
jority of them are above the average in edu-
cation, and nearly two-thirds of them are
Protestants. A majority of suicides are
committed between Monday and Thursday
of the week, and in about the same per cent
the early hours of the day are chosen for
the killing. More suicides are committed
in the summer than IN the winter, but the
fall and spring about equally divide the
number. Most suicides are committed in
large cities, but a mountainous region is
rarely shocked bY such a crime.
''People of fair complexion, light hair
and blue eyes are, as rule, mild characters,
easily discouraged, and feel more keenly
any trouble or aff1iction that may overtake
them. Their temperament tends to nervous
ness, and they are more susceptible to In
jury inflicted or assumed, hence they are
more frequently driven to suicide.
'In the matter of age, women as q rule
commit majority of the suicides that oc-
cur with people between IS and 30 years
old. Disappointment in love generally
ioodc 70 tho orima NTH naon1o of fhof aoo
The tendency to suicide always shows itself
early in women. With men the sorrows
and hopes of youth sustain them until they
reach those critical periods of life, puberty,
menopausis and complete mental develop
mept. At these periods great notifications
of the constitution and brain occur. Indi-
vidual will undergoes organic and physio-
logical transformations between the ages Of
25 and So Then the worry of business and
worldly affairs bears heaviest on the man,
and be becomes reckless and ends his trouble
by ending his life.
Deaths Caused by Saturday Designations.
"Our system of labor is so arranged that
the world takes a rest on Sunday. Dissipa-
tion and debauchery follow the ending of
weeks work. Then comes sudden check
of the recklessness for the next weeks work,
nerves are unstrung, intense suffering physi-
cally and mentally follows, and too often
the suicide. They don't wait for nature to
assert ITSELF They 60 to pieces like
wrecked machine, and the tendency to
suicide in their natures wins in the great
mental struggle that necessarily goes before
the commission of the act. The early morr;-
ing is usually chosen for self-destruction.
The struggle and worry of the day extends
into the night Then comes short, rest
less sleep, an unsatisfactory awakening,
then the suicide. 1t is a fact that about 80
per cent of such crimes occur in the morn
ing;
suicides in large cities than in the country.
But there are just as many people kill
country as to that number of people in the
cities. Mountainous regions are excepted.
There is something in the mountain air or
in the mountaineer's life and ma
ture that prevents his killing himself He
is persevering, peaceful, patient and is con-
tinually struggling with the brute forces of
nature, and is less subject to agitation and
distress. He is as a rule, hardy and
healthy, and in his unending struggle be
has little time for reflection.
Few Catholics Kill Themselves.
'The influences of religion are, together
with the influences of race, the strongest
motive powers which act on the will of
men. About 80 per cent of the suicides of |
the world are Protestants and it is easily |
that all Catholic nations stand |
On the lowest step Of the scale of suicide, |
while those exclusively or mostly Protes- |
tant take the first grade. The Catholic re-
igion is responsible for this. For suicide |
in the Catholic Church there is no hope be-
yond the grave and the effect of the teach
ing is evident in every country where
here is Catholic church. Hebrews rarely
commit suicide, but in their own countries,
where they are found living in crowded
,Ities, suicides are not infrequent, but do
lot compare with the number in other
countries. The professions followed by the
Hebrew people are more liable than others
% commercial crises and the constant vicis-
Iitudes of trade.
''The female suicides stand toward the
male in the general ratio of 20 to 100, and in
,ducation the number of women is always
,elow that of the men. It is true, Ger
ainly, that the average of female education
loes not stand in the same relation to the
male in the two relative numbers of violent
leaths as it ought to do if the intensity of
he suicidal tendency depended only on the
do of