New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-05-28
TTIDENICS or Suicide.

There are seasons when suicide seems to
he almost epidemic in large cities. Durng the
last fortnight there has been an unusually hcaN!
record of mortality from this cause III New
York and Brooklyn: and there have also been
many suicides in other coast cities The eases
reported have been in every rank OF llic' al
,boupb the commoncst cause j. dependency
caused by drink and dissipation. What i
more remarkable is the fact that suicide i III
duccd by prosperity a, we'll as adversely ana
that large majority OF those who end then
lives by violence are either young or IN the
prime Of life. OF the five cases reported IN
the local columns of Yesterday TRIBUNE The
Oldest suicide was under thiry-iiye.
Since suicide is frequently induced By de-
spondency, it is reasonable to infer that at
mospheric conditions have some influence IN
multiplying cases. The weather has been most
irving during this bclatcd and ncon>tant
spring. and it is NOT improbable that il has
had something to do with producing what l.
called an epidemic Of suicide. The young
workman suffering from asthma and unable
to go on with his trade might not have GU;
the arteries in hi, wrists if he had not been
dcbatcd by sickness aggravated by climate.
The dcspairing young women. who have been
shooting and poisoning themselves, might have
been less despondent if the April and May skies
had been brighter, or If the spring following
an unusually severe winter had been more
genial and lnvigOIating. Since climate Affects
convalesccnt> slowly rcactlng from bodily all
mcntS. 50 il must also influence those who are
afflicted with mental depression, or haunted
with disappointed hopes, or tortured with mad
dcninp unrest Some Of these rOnanceS with
tragic endihgs like the rejected suiiorS suicide
on the threshold Of the house which he was
not permitted to enter, might never have been
enacted il Nature had not been a coy and tickle
mistress CHS spring.
While atmospheric conditions are to be taken
into account as possible cause OF cpIdclnlcS
Of suicide, the problem is only half solved.
Why do two-thrds Of the self-murdcrS occur
in youth and early manhood when health Is
most robust and the vital powers are unim-
paired? That cannot be the effect Of climate.
There must be something in the social environ
mcnt and in the spirit OF the times that serves
to deepen the Overshadowing gloom of these
young lives and to inspire the suicidal impulse.
Some Of these recent suicides have been boys
and girls who have hardly had time to get ont
Of school Whence have come this premature
loss Of faith in the resources of human life
this embttcrcd sense of disappointment this
reckless haste in plunging into the outer dark
ness Of the hereafter? Questions like these
battle the understanding. Maturity and old
age rightly have the chill Of disappointment
that goes to the heart the sense OF discnchant
mcnt that bcwilders even If it does impair the
I'D, L,t nd
lucky carly manhood ought to be long way
removed from the nighishadc of chronic de-
spondency and the sheer desperation of self
destruction
1t may be the social unrest Of the world that
is unscttlng unbalanced minds and breeding
discomfort with an order of life that seems
even to precocious youth stale, fiat and un
profitable That unrest is one OF the penalties
which the world has to pay for its educational
advances and social progress. John Stuart
Mill has described in his autobiography period
in tho flush of his manhood when he was UNI
spcakably wretched, without any apparent
cause for heatachc or WEAKNESS of mind. His
education was finished he was regarded as a
prodigy of scholarship by all his fathers wise
acre companions and great career was CON
idently predicted for him by his friends. But
suddenly his phi lo>ophical studies. his economic
polemcs his political ambitions and all human
relationships ceased to interest him. lie was
overwhelmed with gloom and dependency. and
apparently for no other reason than pre-
oociOus sense of the utter stalenesS OF life
that he accounted not worth living. If great
mind like Mills, with its even poise and i'm
measurable capacities was temporarily over
shadowed with melancholy, is it strange that
many little and M-regulated mind has its