The herald., 1897-05-30

! day were it not for the panic and the
ensuing business depression. Don't get
the impression that they were disSi-
pated, because that would be entirely err
roneous. But in prosperous times they
were slowly drifting to death because
they had not the incentive to live that
they had later. Their families were pro-
vided for, and they just sat around
waiting for death to come and claim
them. Didn't tell you they were inva-
lids? Well they were, then, but they are
not now. Loss of fortune gave them the
incentive they needed. Their families
had to be provided for, and they them
selves had to get out and hustle 1t
was just what they needed, and they are
well men today. If the prosperous times
just prior to 1891 had continued they
would have been in their graves today.
''Pll tell you another fact that runs
exactly contrary to the generally ac-
cepted belief, and here it is. More peo-
pie commit suicide in good times than in
hard times. Most people think that long
continued SEASONS of business depression
conduce to the crime, the disease, what
ever you may call it, Of suicide, but that
| isn't true to the degree commonly sup
posed.
My observation teaches me that very
few people commit suicide because they
are actually suffering for the necessities
of life. Occasionally some one is driven
insane by heavy money losses and puts
an end to his life. But these two classes
of suicides are greatly outnumbered by
thosa who take thr own lives for reas-
one directly in harmony with times of
prosperity and growing out of them.
The man with plenty of money is more
apt to get into various troubles, such as
| those arising from the cultivation of the
wine, women and gambling habits. 1t is
not that prosperity directly causes sui
eide, by any means. The theory is
somewhat like that which declares that
extravaganza. up to a certain point,
makes times better.
LESS MONEY SPENT
Yes, there has beer an apprecia bic
cutting down of the expense attached
to funerals since the hard times began.
People who would pay $100 for a funeral
in seasons Of prosperity now pay from
$50 to SIS. OF course these figures are
only relative, and are intended merely
as a standard of measurement; and it
applies only to people in moderate cir
| cumstance's who intend to pay their bills.
Strange as it may seem. there are people
who will order more expensive funeral
! simply because they do not intend to
pay"
At c. D. Howry's undertaking parlors
500 South Broadway, it was held that the
hard times did not affect the mum Der of
deaths in community. That improved
living in such seasons cut little or no
figure. AS regards expense. it was
thought that people paid as much for
funerals now as in more prosperous
times AT least their own customere
did, and where there was more than one
death in a family the same style of
funeral was usually ordered for all.
CUT NO FIGURE
Mr.. Peck of the Peck & Chase com
pany. 1921 South Broadway, did not
think the hard times lowered the death
rate in the least. He thought that bus,i-
ness was better in good times. but not
because more people died as the result
of diseases incident to prosperity. in the
manner outlined in the foregoing. View.
! ing the question from a strictly locaI
standpoint, Mr.. Peck said that one reason
the undertaking business was better in
good times than in seasons of depression
was because more invalids came here