Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1897-09-25

and disappointment; but wherever
civilization is highest the struggle for
existence is fiercest, life is most artif-
cial, and there the most failures of the
human race are met with. There was
time in Roman history when suicide
was almost an epidemic. 1t was when
the great republic had reached its
acme of civililization-when poetry,
art and eloquence were triumphant.
1t is probable that the proportion of
suicides due to mental arrangements is
increasing, but how rapidly can never
be exactly determined. Morselli says
that about one.third of all suicides
may be attributed to insanity"
Mr.. Reeves calls drunkenness the
most active agentof degeneration, and
says that it is directly responsible for
suicides which occur during the de-
preston following a debauch. In the
criminal classes, with whom suicide
is quite common, it Is asserted that 1t
is among the petty and not the grave
offenders that it occurs. Poverty is q
strong incentive to self-destruction.
Owing to advanced skill in surgery
and medicine suicide from disease Is
decreasing. The fear of physical pun
ishment is an important cause of child
suicide. Mr.. Reeves brings out the
fact that man is much more
prone to suicide than woman:
"This is true of man In regard to
epilepsy, crime, and other marked
signs of degeneration. But it has
been observed that as woman ap-
proaches man in her mode of life she
also becomes more familiar with those
abnormal conditions which: have pre-
viously been peculiar to man. The
comparative immunity of woman from
self.destruction in the past has depen-
ded greatly upon the relatively less
harrassing part she has taken in the
struggle for life. Today it is different.
Now woman occupies the fields of art,
literature, finance, and even politics,
and, as she goes deeper into these
vocations, she must expect to suffer
the consequences. Already it is no.
ticeable that feminine suicide is not
now entirely due to the sentimental
causes of disappointed love, desertion
and jealousy, but to those trials OF
more material order such as have led
men to the act of self.destruction."
Newspaper accounts of suicides are
blamed for promoting suicide because
people are familiarized with the cir
cumstances attending such acts. The
writer says:
Limitation far exceeds any other of
what are called trivial causes of sui
eide, and asserts itself more in woman
than in, man. 1t is much more COM
mon than is supposed. When self
destruction becomes epidemic, as 1t
sometimes does, its prevalence very
largely depends upon imitation. 1t is
said that many years ago the wall of
Thomas Hood over the 'One more un.
fortunate brought many sentimental
person to a watery grave in the
Thames. And IN our own day the
vivid representation of suicide upon
the stage under conditions appealing
forcibly to the imagination. has been
known to be followed by the self-im-
posed death of persons whose condi-
tions resembled closely those OF the
suicide in the drama"
The conditions of city life increase
the proportion of suicides, which is
largest in the poorer districts. "Where
the population is dense and the laws
of health are neglected, where the
poor are concentrated and where for
tunes are made and lost in day, will
always be found che highest rate of
suicide" The nature of remedial
measures is obvious.
Of the possible preventives Mr..
Reeves places family life above reli-
gion, especially the religion of today,
with its liberal views and disbelief IN
future punishment:
at has been found that in a million
of husbands without children there
were 470 suicides, and in the same
number with children there were hut
POS. Of million wives without chill
dren 157 committed suicide, as against
IS with children; widowers without
children, 1904; with children, 526;
widows without children, 33S; with
children, but 1O4. These figures are
eloquent pleaders in favor of family
ties as conservators of life. They
prove distinctly that man must love
in order to live"