The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-03-14
SUICIDES OF CHILDREN
LARGE NUMBER OF VICTIMS FUR
NlSHED BY THE CITIES,
Pitiful Case of Little New York Girl
Who Was Weary with the Burdens
of Premature womanhood-A Lack of
Endurance and Fortitudc.

Endurance and Fortitudc.
One instance after another of self
inflicted death of children have caused
slowly increasing interest to trace
the cause and find n remedy, and at
last awakened sense of duty con-
corning the incredible state of mind
and morals which these young suicides
demonstrate as existing In our day
and generation, writes a correspond
ent of the New York Post.
There Is something SO at variance
with human nature, as well as so ab-
horrent to all sane thought, in the will
ingness Of child to kill itself, that
the natural impulse of the hearer is to
disbelieve the fact. The almost ire
sistible desire to make some effort to
remove the conditions which move
such tender creatures to destroy them
selves, might have better hope of good
result. had records been kept and the
subject been approached more scien-
tifically, with data, parentage, race and
all the testamentary statistics which
could help theory and suggest rene
dies. Unfortunately none of these
have been retained.
Cities unquestlonably provide the
larger number of these victims. but in
the majority of instances noted the
circumstances have not been those Of
either extreme want or misery. Many
of the cases which have been reported
have been pupils Of the public schools,
and there has been questioning
thought in this connection: Gould the
schools help?" The idea is not that
the schools are in fault, but that their
large congregations of children, COM
ing out Of sordld unenlightened homes.
might afford the most vital opportu-
nifty to plant new ideas of what it
means to live and die and what should
bind child to its home.
Perhaps the instance which finally
forced the writer to make this appeal
was this:
A child, little girl, one of those pa
thetic creatures whom we know as
Little Mothers" was, at eleven years
of age, quite creditably heading the
household of her widowed father.
There were three younger children;
they are reported as having been
clean and watched over with that ex.
traordinary combination of vigilance
and good sense which is common TO
these premature guardians of their
brothers and sisters. She is not spoken
of as morbid or abnormal in any way.
She appeared to be bearing her burden
after the wonderful manner OF her
kind. One day she asked her father
"by O'clock" she said.
Three O'clock was impossible to him.
but he came as soon as he could and
when the door opened to his hand
there lay the Little Mother" dead
upon the floor. The bit of paper left
for him said in purport-unfortunate
ly the words are not preserved-"I
cannot bear the responsibility of car
ing for the children. l cannot bear to
go on any longer, so l am going to kill
myself"
She was tired of living, weary with
the burdens of premature womanhood.
and unquestionably poisoned in
thought and judgment by reading, so
easily accessible, of how tired men and
women took their impious ways out of
this world. 1t would be impossible TO
express the vivid clearness of the pic
ture left upon the mind by the brief
paragraph printed in the medley of
the days news Poor little tired
girl. lying dead in her clean print
hs.au 20 l.
and wholly ignorant of the majesty of
life or the enormity of death.
Her innocence, her good record of
duty done, her stricken father. all
have kept her apart from the rest:
from the girl who threw her life away
because sne could not 20 to n party;
or her who drowned herself because
she had beeS-properly reproved or the
lad who hanged himself in his fathers
barn apparently in spirit of retalia-
ton to some wound to his pride.
We hear of frlghtful endings to the
lives of young men and women OF at
least American BIRTH II not of Ameri-
can parentage, but there is almost in
variahly an attendant revelation Of the
breaking Of the moral law which has
rendered the conditions of life abnor-
NAL. With these this appeal has no
direct connection, though they prima-
rily have been educated where infiu-
ences could have been brought TO bear
on mind and conscience and heart,
which would have gone before, and
closed the gates against evil passion
ana disgrace.
There seems TO exist fundamental
lack of endurance and fortllude: de-
sire however trivial, must be gratifed
or the young spirit rebels 10 the ex-
tent of taking itself out OF the atmos-
phere Of discipline Out of certainly |
ten cases which have been nOted-to !
be conservative IN the absence of |
data, we Will say within year-wlth |
the exception OF the little mother |
the causes We're the merest trifles af- |
footing comparatively comfortable |
lives The main reasons have been
anger al n sharp roproof, or the denial |
of coveted pleasure. phere were |
two schoolgirls in q rural district who |
agreed to drown themselves together
for no cause. Terror oYercame them |
when death approached and the |
stronger strove TO rescue her compan-
ion, but failed. ana when rescued was
on the verge Of final collapse herself.
The girl in whom l was most inter