The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1896-11-07

! Cunningham tRsp l.....s... ...3,522 1907
| BaFneS tfusiOny 1851
Wood1ord CUSTOM 4.........1,7l5
SUICIDES OF CHILDREN
Never BEFORE Have So Many KilIe q
Themselves.
In this country and in Europe people
are beginning to wonder why so many
Young persons have committed suicide of
late. The other Gay consumptiye lad
named Rudolph Percival found death by
means of Il gas tube in this city and hard
| " week passes that we Dc not hear Of
somewhat similar and generally success
full attempts elsewhere. The latest at
tempt in Paris was that Of q young man
who tried to blow his brains out with q
revolver. Fortunately his hand, trembled
aud he missed his aim True, he did
wound himself badly. but the physicians
say that he will recover.
Disappointment in love, we are told,
was the reason why this foolish young
man wanted to quit life SO abruptly. In
this respect there is nothing peculiar
about his case. Many men before him
have killed themselves on account OF wo-
men, and doubtless many men will follow
| his example. What is peculiar is the fact
| that at his age he should already have
grown weary Of life. For he is not q
man. but boy, Nay. in the eyes Of the
law he is still ali infant. NJ
| On this subject a French writer says:
when We Investigate such tragedies we
| And almost always that q woman is the
cause, some destructive and nercenary
creature, whose lust for money is abnor
NAL, though her own value may be very
little How many OF these foolish women
| have we known, and how, when men have
killed themselves for love of them they
have not scIupled to use this fact as an
advertisement! 0nly a~short time ago
son OF one of the most honorable faIi-
lies in Paris committed suicide ON account
OF a woman of this kind, and before that
the little son of a woman Of this class
hung himself in his bed room because he
could not endure the humiliation Of hear
ing his school fellows taunts that his
mother was q disreputa BILE woman"
But it would be absurd to hold women
accountable for the deaths of all young
men who commit suicide. Any one who
reads the papers knows that boys and
girls have killed themselves for the moss
trivial causes. TO such oversensitiye
souls parents reprimand has more than
once proved a death sentence while in
other cases want of%+nockeS: naostey or an
unhappy home iifesof Asviiaail1 temper has
been the cause Of a sudden and lament
able death. 4
At no time has there been an utter
dearth Of suicides, but at NO time, we are
tod, have there been SO many suicides of
young persons as there have been during
the last few years. Moreover, at no tins
have SO many very young men killed
themselves on account of disappointment
i'll love.
The exact causes OF this epidemic of
suicide among Juveniles no one has at
tempted to explain. Some think that the
stress of modern civilization is to blame.
Our children become nervous and discon-
tented, they claim, because TOO many Of
them find that the enjoyrncnts of life are
not for them and that the world has moth
ing for them but, many years 81 hard
loveless CID age. Competition, they in
sist, is SO keen that many parents cannot
give their children the ordinary pleas
ures of life, the result being that the chill
dren, seeing their parents poor lot, re-
solve to remove themselves swiftly out of
the world which has so little happiness
in store for them.
Children in former days, it is argued.
did not commit suicide, because they were
taught to be content With their lot, and
hence were generally stol.d and una1nbi-
tious whereas the children of today have /
the benefits Of education and, naturally,
know much more about the world than
could possibly be known by the children
Of half century ago. Hence, it is argued.
the Imagination Of many young persons has
been overstimulated, and the sudden
knowledge that the real world fails far
short OF their ideal has proved death
blow to many Of them. .
Somewhat similar reasons are assigned
for the. suicides Of so many young men,
though disappointment in love is generally
admitted to. be the main cause. the young
men of today, say these persons, begin to-
Eve fast life while they are still in their
boyhood, and the shock of finding them
selves deceived by heartless, 1nercenary
women is too much for them. Instead Of
pursuing their studies and looking forward
to happy married life, they fling them
selves into dissipation at an early age, and, |
after running themselves pecuniarly and
physically, find That nothing is Lett for
tiem but death.
In all ages Young men nave d.ssipatesl,
but it remained for our age to give us death /
as q sequel TO dissipation Possibly the /
vices of today are more destructive than |
those of former days; possibly the lads
and young men Of today are more h!ghy|
strung and nervous tnan those Of former
days; possibly this strange suicidal mania
may be merely another form OF the mental /
nalady WHICH Byron has described SO we'll |
in .sChi!de Harold, and Goethe in the tSor- |
rows of Werther.,' f@;'s i 81
Anyhow, the ugly fact stares us in the
face that death, instead Of being regarded I
as an l7nwelcome guest, las in
sic: ously wornled stself into the confidence |
OF many Of our young men! and children,
and has all too easily convinced them Id |
this alone is to be found relief from all
earthly woes. IS u; i'll. IN BsS sE 4; I:
In Thomas Hardy's Jude, the Obscure, Il
is to be found q realistic picture OF this |
suicidal mania as mani tested among cnil- T
dren. No one who has read that book can
forget the horrible vet realistic scene N.
which the dead bodies Of the little chi aTeIl
figure so prominently. The author has, (
been blamed for giving us such = morbid #
picture n a work Of fiction, but, after ali, y
he has simply portrayed actual life for Us.
Optin1ists hope that no such CHASTITY mes
terial' may be forth eom.ny tor noveliets Of [
TIE coming generation. Statistics are
beng compiled which vii show the aver
age number OF hid sui eides iin ash icoun- ii
try ana TIE causes that led thsreto and
oaees the tn an tx
name IA tile 5epsrge