Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1900-06-29
Louis casabona Takes Issue
With Tolstoi.
Differences Between European and Amcri-
can Codes of Law on the Subject Nom
Success in Life tho Most Frequent Rca-
son for the Crime--Not Always Crime
or a Fit of Insanity.

There is just now such an alarming
increase of suicides that all who have
the temporal and eternal interest of
mankind at heart should consider
ways of stopping this form OF stupid
iniquity."
Ii is obvious that the great Christian
philosopher, writing as he does thou
sands of miles away from us. discusses
the subject entirely from i European
point of view. For the codes of nearly
every European nation contain moth
ing whatever against suicides and il
is, therefore, but natural that the in
crease of suicides should call for some
preventive remedy by those who. as
Tolstoi and many others. have the
moral and material welfare OF man
kind at heart
But, although the theory of proven
| tive measures against suicide may find
support in Europe. in the hope that
| they might prove an efiicacious rem
edy, what shall we say of this social
| evil existing and increasing in these
| United States, where this form of
stupid iniQuity' has been branded as
| a crime, and where he who lays hands
on his own life, in the case of insuc-
| cess in carrying out his baneful de-
sign. is liable to punishment under our
| umns of our daily newspapers do not
| contain the account of one. two or
| more cases of attempted self-destruc-
| ton. Only the other day n great me-
tropolitan journal had nearly n full
page of its news columns entirely ta-
| ken up by suicide reports. Some were
| successful in their undertaking; others
were not. The former went beyond
| the pale of human justice. but the lat
| ter. as soon as their physical condi-
| ton will permit. are likely to change
| their sick room for a prison cell.
1t is interesting. indeed. to note the
| causes which lead 81 many people to
a voluntary leap into eternity. The
largest number of those who are
| brought before n magistrate to an
swer the charges of attempting their
| own lives as a general rule are persons
who have reached that state of mind
in which life has ceased to be inter-
esting.
1t is one of the strangest anomalies
of our overboasted civilization that
while we are living in an age in which
| all human efforts are bent in the di-
| rection of making life really forth
| living, through the generalization Of
everything that tends to the amelio-
ration OF our material conditions. the
number of those who lose interest in
life. almost at it's very threshold. is
growing larger and larger every day.
|
| of suicide. Some may call 1t foolish,
immoral and criminal in its very ma
ture. Others may simply look upon 1t
as a disease, as a kind of pathological
| phenomenon. regulated by and sub
jected like all other phenomena to GER
| tain laws TO certain conditions totally
| Independent from the will of the per-
| son affected by it.
Whatever the opinion OF the scion
fist or the moralist may be, 1t is unde-
| niable that this alarming frequency OF
| suicides, that this modern evil has it's
reason and its principal cause in the
acuteness of the struggle for life. Sue
| cess in life is far more difficult Of
| achievement now than 1t was of yore.
| TO one successful man in any business.
| profession or undertaking there are
| hundreds who fail. In civilized life
| there is great struggle, great COM
| petition. and many fail. The social,
| industrial and commercial system pre-
| vailing throughout the world are to n
| great extent responsible for these an
| omalous conditions. which are natu
| rally conducive to more trouble more
| sorrow, more failure. and consequent
| ~ more people are driven to despair.
True, our educational institutions
are sending out into the world young
I mon far hetler equipped than in the
past with the necessary requisites for
| a successful struggle, but the oppor-
/
cation of their ingenuity ana capabili-
| ties to the divers pursuits Of life are
| becoming rarer and rarer every day,
| booming the many tu abjcct failure.
| Hence that growing feeling of de-
| spondency and melancholy which by
| degrees, spider like. Spreads it's black
cobwcb over the human heart. per-
| Suading the weakest to lay hands on
| their own life. inasmuch as in the SOL
itude 10 which they are condemned no
can reach them. For we must remem-
| like a man wrecked upon the ocean.
In the smaller centcrs of civilization a
man is more personally known. He
! easily makes friends. He can get some
| Nttle credit; some one may be found
| in Il great metropolis, it is very differ
| ent. Here he is lost in the multitude,
| ready to help him, but in a large city,
and in the roar OF the street his cry
| dies away unheard Is 1t wonder,
| then, that man under such circum-
| stances should become. according to
| Tolstoi. "iniquitous, stupid" and. ac-
| cording to our positive law, no more
| nor less than a criminal?
There is, perhaps. no way of justi-
| flying suicide. yet 1t can be understood
| and explained. 1t is not always Il
crime or a fit of insanity, but very
| often the consequence of n state OF
| mind absolutely crushed by sorrows
and by despair.
LOUIS CAsABONA.
New York City. June 90. 1900.