The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1897-03-13
LIFE is WORTH LIVING.
Arp Horrihed at the Apparent In
crease Ia Suicides
Work Il the Remedy Given - Remorsr
Over some Very Wicked Deed the
Only Possible Excuse for
self-MurdeE.

Twas Eliminating aDouttneEe suicides
that seem to be on the increase all over
the land. and are not confined to any
class OF condition. Several have oc-
CURED during the last few days IN Geor-
gia and the adjoining states. Two
were young men. two past middle age
and one was q girl in her teens. None
had good cause for the rash deed, and
it seems like this generation has more
nerve and less fear Of the hereafter than
their fathers. I cannot imagine any
condition or peril that requires as much
courage and win power a. the deIiber-
ate taking of ones life. Iwould rather
take my chances in battle or shipwreck
or pestilence. To be weary of life is a
common misfortune, and thousands
there are who can exclaim with David:
"Oh, that / had the wings of a dove,
that / might fly away and be at rest"
But to the average man 'the weariest
life that age, perjury and Imprisonment
can lay on nature is a paradise to what
we fear of DEATH" It must be q fearful
leap to commit suicide+'sto die and 90
we know not where and yet it has
GC(OA4C 0AAlGSS dS COLlAlOu DIS uuTuGI@
murder that has the excuse of crafty
ing some passion as hate, revenge,
~avarice, desire or ambition. The sui
eide leaves no blood behind him save
his own-no nothing but pity and do
mestic grief. There is no sheriff to pur-
sue, no court to try, and in this cou
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law was repealed during King Georges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 a new law declared that the
body should be buried at night, without
the performance Of religious ceremo-
MES. Such was the detestation of
our English ancestors for what they
called the crime of suicide. know of
but n 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
self. There are but three instances of
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 a depression that
ends in self-murder.
But it does not take q great misfor-
tune to suicide now. Only last
week a 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-
ary u for Observation-Disclosures
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 tribuIations,
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 infdels,
or universalists, that they should have
no fear of death, no dread of something
after death? Maybe there is a here
after and a judgment to come, and if so
a murderer has a better chance than
a suicide, for he has time to repent and
be forgiven, as David was. Then, again,
it is such q selfish act, for it brings grief
to kindred and leaves a shadow over
the household that passes away.
A few years ago / met a young man
whom / had not seen since he was a
lad. He was doing well in a distant
Ctate, 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
Gway. A few months ago 1 met an old
friend who had always greeted me
cheerfully, but I hardly knew him. He
was prematurely gray, and the lines
OF sadness were in every lineament of
his 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 kin, 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 his cell, it would
be a fit ending to his life, whether he be
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