The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-28
CASES Of SUICIDE FOR THE: MOST.
TRIVIAL OF TRIVIAL REA-
SONS.
HIS CLOTHES MoRRIED HIM,
1T TOOK TOO MUEm ExERTION TO
BUTTON AND UUBUTTON THEM
DAHN
SUICIDES RARE INsEARLY DAYS.
They Have Been INCREASING az the
Century Crows Older, Espec-
ciaIIy Among Women.


ciaIIy AMONG Women.
WASHINGTON Sept. 1.-THE mar
-gauged men, with idle hands and
empty lives. filled in their useless days
discussing the problem rs Marriage
a Failure?" .ff2.
When that fad seemed to be no long
er interesting they started the inquiry
rs Suicide Sin?" s@~s9 ~ 80 m
Neither problem is new. Ever since
Adam and Eve threw away their home,
marriage has been more or less fail
ure; in majority of cases in accord
ance with the quantity of alcohol or
water used as family beverage.
The Stoics made classic their epigram
"mori licet cui vivere non placet,"
which means "he who life pleases not
has therefore a right to die" So the
discussions of the sinfulness of suicide
is also ancient.
Judas went and hung himself.
Homer hanged himself
Demosthenes took poison.
Cato stabbed himself.
Portia Cato's daughter, and Catullus
Luctatius swallowed burning Goals.
Although love of life Is the strongest
of human instincts many men and
women have taken their lives for tri-,
vial reasons. 1t is said that an Eng
lishman of the last century shot him.
self because he was tired of buttoning
and unbuttoning his clothes. This act
of self-destructionE was unnecessary
and absurd. Why did not the mis-
guided man substitute hooks and eyes
for buttons and thus avert the catas-
trophe? Possibly hooks and eyes
hadn't been invented at that time. The
case of this Englishman is not, by any
means, an isolatedsfone in the annals
of suicide. 1t is but the prototype Of
hundreds Of instances equally ridicu-
lous
Among the ancients every facility
was afforded a gentleman to "fy to
evils that he knew not of when those
that he did know became insupport-
able Many Industrious poets, philoso-
pliers and historians took advantage Of
this state of affairs to schuffie off their
respective coils. The means employed?
Starvation was a common mode. Open
ing a vein, leaping from heights and
falling upon swords were also favorite
and fashionable methods. Pliny ad-
mits of three sorts of disease to es-
cape which man has good title, to
destroy himself, two Of which were
headache and pain in the stomach.
BY the Justinian code, suicide is not
ranked asa moral offense or crime,
and in some of the Roman colonies the
magistrate kept at the public expense
a poison prepared from henlock leaves
for the use of those who had a. mind
to suicide.s But suicide has long been
a common law crime in Great Britain
and other countries, and the punish
ments have been forfeiture Of estates
and other privileges and rights of cit
izenship tothe heirs or assigns Of the
suicide.
There is absurdity in suicide, and i'm
almost every case there is at hand
relief of some sort which the elf-kilIer
cannot or will mot see. A Chicago
man was found dead with a door key
damned down his throat; and beside
him was letter saying that he could
not find sufficient air to breath with
ease" He might as well have sought
doctor as a door key. e 2s gGe5t'U
At the Soldiers home one of the vet
Grams sharpened one point of his steel
spectacles and pushedegit through his
carotid artery. Heswas found bleeding
to death, and told a comrade that he
would rather die than be deprived of
his grog, which the superintendent had
kept from him because of his excess.
The old fellow could have lived and
been drunk many times afterward; but
he wanted grog or death immediately.
A lone fisherman swallowed broken
glass one day, =. because the fish
wouldn't bite. Maybe, if he had lived
an hour longer, he could have caught
string of fish as long as a senatorial
speech.
When men commit suicide for such
absurd and trivial reasons there is
something wrong with their mental
machinery In the early history of
this country when -the* social life Of the
peoplegwas primitive, before the large
centers of population had developed,
suicides were very rare, and the few
that did occur were committed decentlys
and sin5 order. There. were few ocea-
sions for self-d struction. There were
fewer Of those sharp inequalities Of So
cial condition that are now established
II.
There was no enormously rich or mis-
erably poor class. People were honest.
contented and happy. Their tastes
were simple and their wants were
few. The domestic virtues fhriveds
Divorce. that great friend of the demon
of suicide. was almost unknown
Under such a condition of society
suicides Were necessarily rare. If the
fish didn't bite our great grandfathers
didn't swallow brass keys. They quiet
ly but firmly Spat upon the bait and
bided their time. Nor did burned pie nee
essarily imply a dose of broken glass
in allOpathic quantities. That violent
antidote was reserved for the use Of a
more hysterical generation
Two causes-disease and dfshonor-
accounted for the largest per cent of
the few suicides of the early DAYS in
this country. Today we take our lives
for such trif1ing causes as Election
disappointment" f'unrequitted love"
'pimple on the nose, pa deliriunns, and
''mother-in-l law" or fear of business
failure"
1t is said that suicide is increasing
rapidly among women in large cities.
The increasing disrespect for the sane
tity of the marriage vow and the
frequency of divorce account for much
of this increase. The e owing neces-
sity for self-supports by women also
causes many suicides every year. In
large cities like Chicago, many women.
having to choose between poverty and
dishonor, have refused both and es-
nj