The San Francisco call., 1897-01-01

The pictured side of LIES web is turned toward
the Infinite; that which is seen oy as is oIten
mass of confused knots and colors. some
fancy they are weaving angels; eternity VIII
reveal devil The Greeks have given US the
fable of the fatal sisters 10 Illustrate tne
progress and termination OF lie. Clotho nelo
the distaff and attached the thread OF lie !;
IsehesiS Iyith the spindle spun on that thread (;
and Atropis held pair OF scales 10 weigh the
thread. a sun dial to measure its length, and
pair of scissors TO cut 1t on. Inese fatai SIS"
ters ever attend US.
three things: The destruction of the image OF
God-for every man is God in miniature, pos
sessine the sttri bu es of the Creator i'll limita-
tion and bears the likeness OF the Almighty
in a spiritual ana intellectual sense; for one
human being TO lay his hand upon another is
to law that hand on the image OF God and, in
a certain sense, upon God himself. 1t is
usurpation of the prerogative of the sovereign
of the universe, who has the right to create
and the right TO destroy. 1t is also the inter-
ruption of the unfolding of that individuality
TO which all have an unQuestionable right,
and he who interrupts that unfolding COM
mits crime against mankind. 1t is robbing
society of an individual hfe the influences of
which might have gone forth as so many
benefcent Streams issuing from the fountain
of goodness. Society depends largely upon its
individual component parts out OF which
come public opinion and public conscience.
1t is thus the community IS built up in Its
multiform relations, its education is ad-
vRnced its religion is promulgated and civili-
cation attains its loftiest results. BY the pro-
lection of the individual society reaps the
golden harvest OF purity, charity and deyo-
uon.
There is a looseness in public sentiment
touching the right of suicide. The great mas
ters OF moral philosophy have borne no un-
certain testimony against the right OF SELF
destruction. There are times when despond-
ency takes possession of men, when life seems
failure, and when men say, THE fates are
against me"; that "life is not worth living"
In such supreme moment as this they dis
col IN hn q
Creator unbldden. with lies duties undone
and its responsibilities unmet. II is a mistake
TO suppose that suicide is largely from coward
ice. The greatest characters in history have
tn US ended their existence.
The Bible gives account of no thoroughly
good man who has dispatched himself, but the
great sufferers in biblical history have en-
dured patiently, as when David says. al
waited patiently for the Lord"; as when Jere-
miah declares ut is good that a man should
both hope and quietly wait'; as when ST. Paul
tTium phantly exclaims, 81 reckon that the suf-
ferings of this present time are not worthy to
be compared with the glory which shall be re-
vealed in u.s."
Perhaps there is no part of that great epic,
the Book OF Job, that is more intensely affect
ing-than when in his extreme agony, with
children gone, wealth gone, health gone, his
wife whispered, Suicide, Job; curse God and
die" But, rallying IN the grandeur OF his
faith, he triumphantly exclaimed, "An the
days OF my appointed time will 1 wait till my
change come"
Isl, r,
OF life, comprehensive of those sanitary condi-
tons which are promotive of human existence.
1t is startling TACT that from one-third to one
half OF 81 persons born into the world die be-
fore reaching the age of five years. This ter
rible reality, from another point of view, is
more apparent in the fact that the child which
has completed its fifth year actually has an ex-
pectaIion of life more than twelve years great
er than it had at its birth. The younger the
child the larger is the death rate.
More than half Of those who die under five
years OF age lie in their first year. in all the
great cities of our own country out of every
one hundred llve-born children about twenty
five die before the end OF the first year, and
from forty to fifty before the close OF the fifth
swept from the face OF the earth are traceable
TO causes that have their remedy in SANTA
tion by science. Among the fruitful causes OF
those earlier deaths are heredity, poverty,
exposure TO cold and wet, excessive heat, i'm
proper feeding, filth Gnd overcrowdlng. The
common tenement house in our great
cities is'the charnel-house of infancy. What
ever may be the advantages of great cities, the
death rate of infancy cores ponds to the den.
sity of population. The remedy OF these
causes is within the reach of the wealthy, the
philanthropic and the scientific.
This earth Is q battlefield. The mounds of
Magenta and Soiferino along the roadside be-
tween Turin and Venice are vast tombs
wherein sleep the heroic dead who died for
glory and for empire. Our earth is one vast
cemetery, filed with the victims of men who
have ploWed the fields with the plowshare OF
destruction to crafty their thirst for glory,
but whose names will go down 10 posterity the
synonym of infamy to be execra ed 10 the last
generation of time as those born TO be q curse
10 virtue and mankind.
The verdicts of history are now being
changed. The warriors whose names once
awakened shouts of applause are now. regarded
as human monsters Their sad end was mer-
ited BY their bloody career. Behold the end of
four OF these greatest warriors: Alexander
died in a drunken reYel at Babylon; Hannibal
committed suicide by poison in Bithynia
Asia unwept and unhOnCred in g foreign land !;
Caesar was murdered in Rome at the base OF
Pompey's Pillar; Napoleon died in exile on an
island in an untrequented sea. The time will
come III the interest of a common humanity
and in obedience to this ancient law, Thou
sha 1t not kill" when all nations shall revere