Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1897-01-21
SUICIDES OF YOUNG FOLKS,
Never Before Have So Many Chill
dren Killed Themselves.
Is Modern Civilization to Blame : Pie

| In this country and in Europe people are
beginning to wonder why 50 many young
persons have committed suicide of late,
| says the New York Herald. Te other day
u consumptive lad named Rudolph PEREZ
val, found deaeh by means of gas tube,
| in this city, and hardly a week passes that
we do not hear of somewhat similar and
| generally successful attempts elsewhere.
The latest attempt in Paris was that OF q
young man who tried 10 blow out his
brains with revolver. Fortunately his
| hand trembled and 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 women, and
doubtless many men after him will follow
| his example. What is peculiar is the fact
that Mt his age he should already have
grown weary of life. For he is not a man,
but hoy. Nay, in the eyes of the law he
is still an infant.
On this subject French writer says:
| When we investigate such tragedies we
find almost always that woman is the
cause, some destructive and mcrcenary
creature, whose lust for money is abnor-
nal, though her own value may he 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 scruplcd to use this fact as an
advertisement! Only short time ago a
son of one of the most honorable families
in Paris committed suicide on account of
| a woman of this kind. and before that the
| ,Nf - al lao
| himself in his bedroom because he could
not endure the humiliation of hearing his
schoolfellows' taunts that his mother was
a disreputable 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 most trivial
causes. To such overSensitive souls a par
| ent'S reprimand has more than once
\ proved a death sentence, while in other
cases want of pocket money or an I'M
happy home life or willful temper has
been the cause of a sudden and lamenta bic
death.
Al no time has there been an utter
dearth Of suicides, but ut no time, we are
told. have there been so many suicides of
young persons as there have been during
the last few years. Moreover. at no time
have so many very young men killed them.
selves on account of disappointment in
love.
The exact causes of this epidemic OF
suicides 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 dscon
tented, they claim, because too many oil
them find the enjoyments of life are mo-
for them and that the world has nothing
for them but many years of hard labor
and. loyeless old age. Competition, they
insist, is so keen that many parents can
not give their children the ordinary pleas
ures of life the result being that the
children. seeing their parents poor lot
resolve 10 move themselves swiftly out ot
n world which has so little happiness il
store for them.
Children in former days. it is argued
did not commit suicide, because they wer,
taught to be content with their lot ant
hence were generally stolid and unambi
tious, whereas the children of to-day hav,
the benefits of education and, naturally
know much more about the: world thar
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 suddeI
knowledge that the real world falls fal
short of their ideal, has proved a dealt
blow to many of them.
| Somewhat similar reasons are aSSigne,
for the suicides of so many young men
though disappointment In love is general,
admitted To he the main cause. rh
young men of to-day, say these persons
begin to live fast life while they are still
in their boyhood. and the shock of tindin,
themselves deceived by heartless, mer
cenary women. is too much for them In
stead of pursuing their studies and lookin:
forward to happy marred life they fin,
themselves into dissipation Mt an earl,
age and, after running themselves pecun
iarily and physically, find that nothing i
left for them but death.
In all ages young men have dissipatpI
but 1t remained for our age TO give II
death as sequel to dissipation. Possihl,
the vices of to-day are more destructive
than those of former days: possibly tn,
lads and young men of to-day are NOR
high-strung and nervous than those q
former days; possibly this strange suicida
mania may he merely another form of tn
mental malady which Bryon has describe
so well in "Childe HAROLD and Goethe il
the Sorrows Of Werther.'
Anyhow, tho ugly fact stares lis in tn
, face that death instead of being rCEardc,
universally as an unwelcome guest. ha
inSiduously wormed itself into tho conf
dence of many Of our young men AM
, children and has all too easily convince,
them that in this alone is to he found re
, lief from all earthly woes.
In Thomas Hardy's "Jude the Obscure
, is to be found u realistic picture of thi
, suicidal mania as manifested among child
rem. No ono who has read that book cal
I forget the horrible yet realistic scene il
which the dead bodies of the little child
rem figure 50 prominently. The autho
has been blamed for giving us such NOR
hid picture in u work of fiction hut. nftc
all. he has simply portrayed actual lif
: for us.
Optimists hope that no such CHASTITY ma
terial may he forthcoming for noyelists o
. the coming generation. Statistics arc nov
being compiled which will show tho aver
! age number of child suicides in each conn
, try and the causes that led thereto and
: once the evil is laid bare in all its mn
lignancy, there is little doubt that cncr
: getic steps will he taken to mitigate and
/, if possible, remove it,.
=
DELAWARE RIILROID 20
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