The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-05-29
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Suicides.

Suicides.
1t is not only an interesting but al
important question, What is the cause
of the increase of women suicides?" fol
in city like New York it is a thing o.
almost daily occurrence. Although mer
like to think of women as ephemera
thinkers, satisfied to see the outside
the result without the cause. women do
want to get at the bottom of things, dc
want to know the reason.
There are two reasons for the woman
suicide. One is that she has too little tt
do, the other that she has too much.
A young girl, rich and fair to look
upon, takes her life in one of our fash
ionable hotels. What for? For trifling
insufficient reason; in reality because
she had nothing to do; she lacked an
object in life. Another, a schoolgirl
kills herself in burst of pique because
her parents have denied her some small
privilege. 1t geems a strange, sad
paradox that with a city filed with
the poor. the ignorant, the neglected
v
| folded hands till a self imposed ennui
suggests death to their emaciated
minds. Tennyson's words occur to one
with peculiar significance, though ut
tered in a different connections:
Lady Clara We're de We're,
If time hang heavy on your hands,
Are there no beggars at your door
Nor any poor about your lands?
In the perpetual drive and stress of
city life nervous strain, too, counts for
much. The same impulse that urges
upon the overwrought business man the
relief and forgetfulness of death impels
the society woman, Wearied with the in
cessant imagined demands of balls and
dinner parties and receptions to a
point where nature rebels to seek in
the grave the rest she would not allow
herself in life. A good way to decrease
the number of this class of suicides
would be to urge upon every society wo-
man. if such a thing were possible, the
making of such resolutions as these:
Il will not waste my strength in GO
ing to places that are not interesting to
me and talking to people that bore me
to DEATH
Il will not weary myself calling upon
pSOpl6 III SOClGly Simply because LnSy
happen to have called upon me-
Il will cultivate the people that do me
good, those to whom 1 can do good,
and let those who are simply rich and
uncongenial out of my life
Il will not do thing just because
other people do it,
81 will remember that am a soul and
not a fashion plate
If this could be done. our rich women
suicides would be few in number.
1t is a pity that the other class of
suicides cannot be as speedily dealt
with-women weighed down with IN
varying and uninteresting household
cares till any variety, any release from
the common toll and hardship, seems a
thing to be welcomed.
To any one studying the life of the
poor the wonder is not that there are
so many but that there are so few of
this class of suicides. An overcrowded
city, every department of work over
stocked, disappointment. wretched food.
filth and incessant. abortive drudgery-
it is enough to chill the heart of the
most complacent optimist.
There is a sort of quiet. uncomplain-
ing acceptance of fate on the part of
the poor that is their supreme safe
guard in this connection-a childlike
submission to a lot which they can
neither understand nor mend to any
palpable extent. Another great reason /
against suicide among this class is the /
kindness of the poor to each other. a |
woman in distress has the sympathy. |
spoken and acted. of the community. |
The rich, 10 a great extent, monopolize |
the selfshness OF the city.
Suicide, as every student of the sub /
iect knows. is contagious. a dramatic /
suicide is invariably followed by others +
1t seems strange to a sane mind to think I
Of the morbid satisfaction with which .
the would be suicide. apparently in full 1
possession Of her faculties, sewed day
after day on the fine white gown in l
which she planned 10 array herself in /
The hour of her self inflicted death. The I.
thought OF the dramatic effect is gen
orally seen when the suicide has no
-eal. poignant reason for heraction. The
woman crazcd by grief or misery thinks
title OF the effect her action viii have
IN the public mind. The weakminded
suicide aims at notoriety and -Ioats
,ver the prospective details. Occasion
lily we have the suicide OF a great mind
but such are exceeding
Y rare.
To the woman who has a first thought
# suicide the only hope is TO nip It in
he bud Let the thought Be har5oTed
Y INDUCED. and the first blow q dis
lister or grief viii turn the familiar
bought into definite action
The women OF this hour wan; more
est II they can have that there VII
,e fewer suicides. TIE rich and idle
want a little practical philanthropy.
md by this both classes would be ben
sited. MRS. ALMON- HENSLET.