The San Francisco call., 1899-06-18
EDITORIAL VARIATIONS.
BY JOHN McNHUGHT.


y
The word. June" printed conspicu-
ously at the head of the calendars, re-
ports of sweltering heats coming to US
from all points outside the city, GER
tain haZiness in the atmosphere, the
radiant diaphanous garmentin~S OF the
girls upon the streets, two ripples OF
earthquake and several severe shocks
Of suicide, are evidences that summer
time has come-the season that willis
the collars and tries the souls of men
the period Of the year when some NOR
tails throw aside their clothes for
plunge into the sea; and others throw
their bodies off for dive into the in
finite.
All authorities on the subject agree
that suicide is more likely to occur in
summer than in winter, in the daytime
than in the night, on sunny days than
in gloomy weather; is more frequently
resorted to by healthy people than by
the sick, by the young than by the old,
by the educated than by the ignorant,
and by people who are comparatively
well to do than by those who suffer the
wretchedness of absolute poverty.
Arguing from statistics, therefore,
Mr.. Tennyson should have written I'm
the spring young mans fancy lightly
turns to thoughts of suicide" Man can
turn to thinking of love in January as
we'll as in June, but he cannot think
SO easily of self-destruction. When the
atmosphere of the earth is disa greea-
BILE one does not feel like stripping off
his flesh and trusting his naked soul to
the inclemencies of the infinite. Any
body a any time can tumble into love,
but one must have youth and beauty
and vigor of some kind, and the sea-
son must be gay and bright and warm
when desire comes to knock at deaths
door to ask for a place to sleep.
There is sort of nickel-in- -the-slot
philosophy which accounts for suicide
on the grounds of insanity or coward
ice; and it is as common as the slot
machines and just about as valuable.
1t is easy to say no sane person nor any
coura geous person ever committed self
destruction, but the saying doesn't ac-
cord with the facts.
The race that in all history is most
noted for breeding men with sane
minds in sane bodies-men conspicuous
above all others for physical hardihood
and moral strength-was that of old
Rome; and that race produced more
illustrious and larger number of illus
trious suicides than any other. Their
philosophy encouraged it, and it was
proverb among them, He who com
plains of the ills of life is a fool, for he
may die when he chooses"
n c,1in will no
modern world what it was to the an
cient. 1t is one of the few paganisms
which the devotees of Mrs. Grundy and
the votaries of Bohemia unite in de-
nouncing with severity and with wit
and which is therefore condemned in
the name of society and in the name of
good fellowship as a violation of re-
ligion, a breach of etiquette and a sign
of a lack of humor
BY reason of this we'll nigh universal
objection suicide has ceased to be
practiced by statesmen, society leaders,
public lecturers, wits, authors or others
who desire popular favor 1t does not
follow, however, that those who do
take it up as last resort are any more
unworthy of the love of the masses
than a good many of those who would
never think of doing anything so
shocking to popular sensibilities and
so false to the teaching of Omar Khay-
yam.
If we accept the showing of the re-
cords and do not go behind the re-
turns, there are as many reasons for
suicide as for matrimony. In some in
stances, indeed the very motive which
prompts one person to marry prompts
another to get in all haste to the realm
where there is neither marriage nor
giving in marriage.
Some folks kill themselves in June
because of things for which they would
not give 80 cents in March. Two girls,
young and joyous, attempted suicide in
this city, and one of them succeeded.
because q young man broke a promise
to take them to Denver. A dispatch
from New York reports that a woman
killed herself in that city last Sunday
because she found it too hot to live"
A woman in this city lived as long as
she was able to believe her lover worth
dying for, but as soon as she found he
was not worth it she killed herself for
him.
Clearly Matthew Arnold was wrong
in saying the chief defect of the race is
"a bloodthirsty clinging to life" con-
siderable number do not cling to it with
even a beer thirst. Not more readily
do prunes drop from the trees in years
when prunes bring good prices than do
some persons drop from life; and no
sooner does there come clear, warm
day, when the heavens look enticing,
than they turn loose of earth and let
their souls drop down the abysses of
space without even taking the trouble
to look where they are going to light.
Every one who meditates suicide
feels along with the impulse to self
destruction an equally strong impulse
to give a reason for it, Thus the act
so far from being irrational is perhaps
more conducive to reasoning than any
other within the power of man. Few
people, even when under the influence
of love or liquor, undertake it without
giving to it the most serious thought of
which they are capable; and it is hard
ly an eXaggeration to say that every
Intelligent man or woman in the world