The Van Buren press., 1897-02-27
LIFE Is WORTH LIVING.
Arp Horrif1ed at the Apparent In
crease in Suicides.
Worh Is the Remedy Given - Renorss
Over Some Very Wicked Deed tho
Only Possible Excuse for
Self Murder.

class or condition. Several have oc-
cured during the last few daysin G Geor-
gia and the adjoining states Two
were young men, two past middle age
and one was a girl in her teens. None
had good cause for the rash deed, and
1t seems like this generation has more
nerve and less fear of the hereafter than
their fathers. ! cannot imagine any
condition or peril that requires as much
courage and will power as the deliber-
ate taking of ones life. Iwould ra ther
take my chances in battle or sbipwreck
or pestilenee. To be weary Of life is a
common misfortune, and thousands
there are who can eXclaim with David:
"Oh, that | had the wings of dove,
that | might fly away and be at rest"
But to the average man "the weariest
life that age, penury and imprisonment
can lay on natsre is paradise to what
we fear of DEATH" II must be fearful
leap to commit suicide-"to die and go
we know not where" and yet it has
become almost as common as murder
murder that has the excuse of gra tify-
ing some passion as hate, revenge,
avarice, desire or ambition. The sui
eide leaves no blood behind him save
his owr-no nothing but pity and do
mestic grief. There is no sheriff to pur-
sue, no court to try, and in this coun-
try no attainder or confscation or burial
without benefit of clergy.
A little more than a century ago,
when George ". was king Of England,
the law was in force that the body of a
suicide should have a stake thrust
through it and be buried by the high
way, SO as to intimidate others from
self-destruction. His goods and chat
tells were forfeited to the crown. This
law was repealed during King Georges
reign, but new law declared that the
body should be buried at night, witho out
the performance of religious ceremo-
MES. Such was the LEGISLATION of
our English ancestors for what they
called the crime of suicide. know of
but one cause that would Justify a
man taking his own life, and that is re-
morse-such remorse as Judas Iscariot
felt when he went out and hanged him
oGll. DCrC uIc Dub lJItt lUbldllCeS VI
self-murder mentioned in sacred his
tory, and they were all bad men. But
in our day, suicides are generally good
hearted people-Shakespeare says of
Othello that he was great Of heart, but
it was remorse for killing his innocent
wife that nerved him to the deed. Now
adays the most of suicides are caused
not from remorse, but from disappoint-
ments, failures in business, domestic
unhappiness, or grief over lost lovers
or dead kindred. Sometimes the I'M
happy man tries to drown trouble in
drink, and this brings depression that
erds in selftmurder.
But it does not take q great misfor-
tune to cause suicide now. Only last
week clever young man killed himself
on hearing that his mother was dead,
and a young girl hanged herself be-
cause she did not like her stepmother
How many travelling men have been
found dead in the Atlanta hotels during
the past few years with no extraordin-
cry cause for -destruction-just
tired of life-couldn't make money fast
enough; couldn't square their accounts
with their employers, or some such rea-
son. Job suffered great tribulations,
but didn't dare to destroy himself. In
the greatest anguish he said my soul
is weary of my life; oh, that it would
please God to destroy me- that He
would loose His hands and cut me Off"
What is the cause of this growing
mental malady in this happy land? Are
these suicides all skeptics, or infidels,
or universalists, that they should have
no fear of death, no dread of some thing
after death? Maybe there is here
after and q judgment to come, and il so
murderer has better chance than
suicide, for he has time to repent and
be forgiven, as David was. Then, again,
it is such selfish act, for it brings grief
to kindred and leaves shadow over
the household that never passes away.
A few years ago l met young man
whom l had not seen since he was a
lad He was doing well in a distant
Gtate, where his mother and sisters
lived, but l could see the lines of a
never forgotten sorrow in his face.
His father hung himself in a barn, and
the heart-broken family moved far
away. A few months ago met an old
friend who had always greeted me
cheerfully, but hardly knew him. He
was prematurely gray, and the lines
Of sadness were in every lineament of
bis intellectual features. He had
ceased to smile. His only son, on whom
his love and his hope was centered, had
killed himself-had placed the fatal pis-
tol to his temple and fired it, What
makes our young men do SO? If it
comes from remorse, is it not cheaper
and safer to repent and reform? What
does a man Xiv, anyhow? Nothing but
his. body. His soul goes marching on
and the remorse goes with it. But
even his body is sacred, and he has no
right to mutilate or destroy it.
The Scripture says that our bodies
are temples Of the living God - Gre
ated in His own image and but a little
lower than the angels. Oh, it is horri-
BILE to think of. 1t becomes no one but
murderers and assassins, and they
don't do it. If the butcher Flanagan
should kill himself in mis- cell, it would
be fit ending to his life, whether he be
sane or insane, but for young man or
women who have been tenderly raised
aud have parents or children or kindred
who love them, there is no excuse.
Better to bear the ills we have than TO
tsflfnrre in n ou1f of dark deenair Get