The times., 1899-02-27
Smng scIf-CompIncency.

D
who in dismissing sixteen year-old boy
who had been arrested for attempting sui
eide expressed himself as in favor of that
method of quitting the world. The "Phila-
delphia Journal in an editorial under the
/ head. Encouraging Suicide" has this TO
say:
Suicide is 4 crime. not only by the law, but
a crime by the unwrttcn laws of humanity. The
man who takes his life is Il coward. tie
admits his Inability To take care OF himself. to
| face manfuly the adverse conditions which arise,
! 10 stand honoraby by the results OF his own
! building.
In view of the circumstances under
which that New York youth made his at
tempt, and those under which hundreds
of suicides occur every year. this sort of
I philosophizng is rubbish. The man who
wrote it knows nothing of the conditions
which surrounded that boy. In the first
place. the boy had been tramping the
streets for months. looking for work by
which he might earn his food and lodging.
He was met everywhere with the state
ment. We do not employ boys" Was
that condition the result of his own
/ building If it was. will the Philadel-
phia journalist kindly explain how? When
there is a season of over-production in the
/ big factories, and a lot of women and
! girls who have been working at starva
ton wages are turned OFF, and some of
them. being without homes. have to face
] starvation. with sin as the only alterna-
tive. are those conditions of their own
making? All that these women ask is the
right to work for their living. When they
cannot get that, is 1t their duty to accept
| any means of subsistence. at whatever cost,
TO starve. to live on charity, or to commit
suicide? When a man has been working
| at one of the death dealing trades. and
finds himself while yet in the prime of
life. attacked by an incurable disease, SEN
/ fenced to become a burden upon his wife,
with her slender means of earning live
lihood, upon his growing children who
must leave school to help support the
family are those conditions of his own
making? Whose fault is it that that
man cannot take care OF himself. When
woman finds herself deserted by the man
she has trusted and left in sickness and
poverty TO the grudging care of strangers
who made those conditions? Who left
her no refuge but the poorhouse. where she
and her children will be thrown into the
company of idiots, insane persons, con-
firmed paupers, and criminals? In at least
FIVE cases in which suicide is sought as
a way out of the evils of life. the condi-
tions which surround the sufferer are rot
of his own making at ALL and his impulse
to take his own life is dictated by blind
feeling that the world is against him, that
he has no friend and no chance, and hope
that in some other world he may find a
Judge more merciful than his fellow be
ings. If people who have food to eat and
houses over their heads, and an honorable
way of providing for their own. are going
TO condemn such wretched being as a
criminal it would do them good to have a
taste of his experiences.
II is not true either, that suicide is a
crime by the unwrtten laws of hu
manity" There has in all ages been a
certain sentiment in its favor From the
Roman warrior falling on his own sword
TO the modern defaulter who shoots himself
as the only "gentlemanly" way out OF his
difficulties there has always been sym
pathy for the man who dies to save his
pride. 1t is only when a man kills him
self because he is bone-weary and heart
sick in the search for work or the strug-
gle with disease, or because he has moth
ing on earth to make him want to live.
that polite society steps in and remarks
that suicide is crime. There are ten
chances to one that the magistrate who
sent that sixteen year-old boy away with
a friendly word and an expression of sym
pathy for his situation did the boy more
good than il he had given him stern talk
on moral depravity. When a man has no
longer any desire TO live he cannot be
scared out of killing himself, but he can
be helped out of il. If. instead of laws
against suicide, we had some institution
for helping those who are driven to such
a course. or. better, if every man would
give helping hand TO those who are NOR
bid and miserable, without leaving it to
an institution, the world would be much
better of.
The German meat inspection bill which
now appears certain TO pass the Reichstag
is so favorable 10 America that the agrar-
ians declare it 10 have been written in
the American Embassy for the benefit of
Chicago meat packers. Noting this OBJ
lection the Berlin correspondent of the
New York Herald sounds warning TO
those yirtuous tradesmen not to send any
bad meat to Germany until after the law
shall have been in force for while and
the excellence of our timed and EN-
balmed productions has become an article
of faith in the Teutonic mind This is
good advice and we hope The packers may
follow it. We know it will be very
difficult to break remunerative habits
formed in time of war, but probably the
main object is worth the attempt. as a
temporary measure OF prudence, of course.
The Earl of STAFFORD. who recently mar
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