New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-08-15
COL. INGERSOLL ON SUICIDE.
The Eloquent Humanitarian Does Not
Think It Wrong to Take Ones
Own Life.
Statutes Against Suicide ars Foolish and
Cruel.
The Wonder Is That So Many Endure to
the Natural End.

Impelled by the large number Of sui
cides in the past few months Col. Rob
.ert G. lngersoll has written the follow
ing letter to the New York World:
I do not know whether self-killing is
on the increase or not. If it is, then
there must be. on the average, more sor-
row, more failure, and, consequently
more people are driven to despair. In
civilized life there is a great struggle,
great competition, and many fail. To
fail in a great city is like being wrecked
at sea. In the country man has friends.
He can get little credit, little help,
but in the city it is different. The man
is lost in the multitude. In the roar of
the streets his cry is not heard. Death
becomes his only friend. Death promis-
.es release from want, from hunger and
pain, and SO the poor wretch lays down
his burden, dashes it from his shoulders
and falls asleep.
To me all this seems very natural.
The wonder is that so many endure and
suffer to the natural end; that SO many
nurse the spark of life in huts and pris-
ons, keep it and guard it through years
of misery and want; support it by beg
gary. by eating the crust found in the
gutter, and to whom it only gives days
of WEAKNESS and night of fear and dread.
Why should the man sitting amid the
wreck of all he had, the loved ones dead,
friends lost, seek to lengthen, to preserve
his life? What can the future have for
him?
Under many circumstances man has
the right to kill himself. When life is
of no value to him, when he can be Of
no real assistance to others, why should
a man continue? When he is of no bene-
fit, when he is burden to those he loves,
why should he remain? The old idea
was that "God" made us and placed US
here for purpose, and that it was our
duty to remain until he called us. The
world is outgrowing this absurdlty.
What pleasure Can it give "God" to see
a man devoured by cancer? To see
the quivering flesh slowly eaten? To see
the nerves throbbing with pain? Is this
a festival for "Gnd?" Why should the
poor wretch stay and suffer? A little
morphine would give him sleep-the
agony would be forgotten, and he would
pass unconsciously from happy dreams
to painless death.
If "God'' determines all births and
deaths, of what use is medicine, and why
should doctors defy, with pills and
powders, the decree of ''God?" No one
except q few insane. act now according
to this childish superstition. Why should
man surrounded by flames, in the midst
of burning building, from which there
is no escape, hesitate to put a bullet
through his brain or dagger in his
heart? Would it give "God" pleasure
to see him burn? When did the man
lose the right of self-defcnse?
So. when man has committed some
awful crime, why should he stay and
rain his family and friends? Why should
he add to the injury? Why should he
live, filling his days and nights of others,
with grief and pain, with agony and
tears?
Why should man sentenced to i'm
prisonmcnt for life hesitate to still his
heart? The grave is better than the
cell. Sleep is sweeter than the age of
toll. The dead have no masters.
So the poor girl, betrayed and desert
ed, the door of home closed against her,
the faces of friends averted, no hand
that will help, no eye that will soften
with pity, the future. an abyss filed
with monstrous shapes of dread and fear,
her mind racked by fragments Of thoughts
like clouds broken up by storm, pursued,
surrounded by the serpents of remorse,
flying from horrors too great to bear,
rushes with joy throug the welcome
door of death.
Undoubtedly there are many cases Of
perfectly justifable suicide - cases in
which not to end life would be mistake,
sometimes almost crime.
AS to the necessity of death, each
must decide for himself. And if a man
honestly decides that death is best
for him and others-and acts upon the
decision, why should he be blamed?