New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-08-15


death and the certainty of dishonor, and
they take the chance of death. So the
Christian martyrs wele, according to
their belief, between two fires - the
flames Of the fagot that could burn but
for few moments and the fires of God
that were eternal. And they chose the
flames of the fagot.
Men who fear death to that degree
that they will bear all the, pains and
pangs that nerves can feel rather than
die cannot afford to call Ithc suicide
coward. It does not seem to me that
Brutus was coward or that Seneca was.
Surely Antony had nothing left to live
on his judgment. So with hundreds of
others who felt that they had reached
the end-that the journey was done, the
voyage was over, and, SO feeling, stopped.
It seems certain that the man who COM
mits suicide, who "does the thing that
stops all other deeds, that shackles acci-
dent and bolts up change" is not lacking
in physical courage.
If men had the courage they would
not linger in prisons, in almshousss, in
hospitals, they would not bear the pangs
of incurable s.disense, the strains of dis
honor, they would not live in filth and
want, in poverty and hunger, neither
would they wear the chain of slavery.
All this can be accounted for only by the
fear of death or "of something after''
Seneca, knowing that Nero intended
to take his life, had no fear. He knew
that he could defeat the emperor. He
knew that tat the bottom of every river,
in the coil of every rope, on the point of
every dagger, Liberty sat and smiled"
He knew it was his own fault if he allowed
himself to be tortured to death by his
enemy. He said: ''There is this blessing,
that while life has but one entrance it
has exits innumerable, and, as choose
the house in which live, the ship in
which I will sail, so I will choose the
time and manner of my DEATH"
To me this is not cowordly, but manly
and noble.
Under the Roman law persons found
guilty of certain offenses were not only
destroyed. but their blood was polluted
and their children became outcasts. If,
however, they died before conviction,
their children were saved. Many COM
mitted suicide to save their babes. Ger
tainly they we're not towards. Although
guilty of great crimes they had enough
of honor, of manhood left to save their
innocent children. This was not cow
ardice.
Without doubt many suicides are
caused by insanity. Men lose their
property The fear Of the future over.
powers them. Things lose proportion,
they lose poise and balance, and in
flash, CLEAN of frenzy. kill themselves.
The disappointed in love, broken in
heart-the light fading from their lives
seek the refuge of death. IT,
Those who take their lives in painful,
barbarous ways-who mangle their threats
with broken glass, dash themselves from
towers ndroofs, take poisons that tor
ture like the rack-such persons must
be insane. But those who take the facts
into account. who weigh the arguments
for and against ana who decide that
death is best-the only good-and then
resort to reasonable means, may be, so
far as I can see, in full possession Of their
minds.
Life is not the same to ALTO some
blessing, to some curse, to so1ae not
much in any way. Some leave it with
unspeakable regret, some with the keen
est Joy and some with indifference.
Religion, or the decadence Of religion,
has bearing upon the number Of sui
cides. The fear of "God," of Judgment,
of eternal pain, will stay the hand. and
people SO believing will suffer here until
relieved by natural death. A belief in
eternal agony beyond the grave will
cause such believers to suffer the pangs
of his life. When there is no fear Of the
future, when death is believed to be a
dreamless sleep, men lave less hesitation
about ending their lives. On the other
hand. orthodox religion has driven mil.
lions to insanity. t has caused parents
to murder their children and many thous-
ands to destroy themselves and sthers.
It seems probable that all real, genu-