The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1901-04-17


be is thoroughly sober.
'The women seldom leave letters,
they usually try in every way to avoid
Identification; but the men seem tc
tske certain satisfaction in the dra
r1atic erd they are making aud want
sll the spectacular features. OF course,
there sre many exceptions to all these
ge1eralit;es. I'm only giving you my
own Impressions from study Of the re-
cords.
The mothers are the persons fol
whom most Of the letters are left.
There are letters to husbands, wives,
sWse'hearts, but big majority Of the
suicides seem more worried about the
effect of the thing ucon their mothers
than about any thing else. Letter after
letter hegs mother to forgive and not
20 gyi,ve, ard good many of them are
not written 10 the mothers, but ask
that the rews be broken to ssem gent
ly. Its natural enough 4 swes theaTt
or wife ar frieaG is sil yery We |, but its
fellows mother who is going to be
hardest hit when he throws up the
gam; ard Gown at the bottom Of bis
hear, the fellow koo~s it.
'There's cue funny thirg sbsut the
letters. If tie writer mentions God OF
the hereafter 81 al ne usually tems to
feel pretty sure that Gcd will forgive
him. There's some anxiety about what
surviving friends Gay think of the
moyc, but fsir certainty that God
kr5ws low hard thiDgs are acd will IN
dersi arG.
'One c'ass Of suicides includes the
crsnks-sll sorts and conditions Of
crarks. There was tie nap who
thought he had swallowed dynamite
aud would rsther kill himself than wait
10 be blown up. Then there wss the
nan who believed that be vas being
followed and would b. murdered.
We've seen q number of such cases
The man who always heard angels urg-
ing him to die aDd c,ne to heaven wss
another; ard one said he had been
bypnotized by some people on the
street, and bis life was spoiled. Os
course, those men are simply insane
I'm sorry for them, hut those cases
aren't pitiful ike some.
when an old man Of 20 commits
suicide becsuse be can't bsar being de
pendent upon his children any longer
it makes you think. Oae seldom finds
sn old person taking his own life.
Thirgs must have been pretty hard for
that Old fellow. He looked like a good
patient soul, too.
Then I always have felt sorry for
the men who msde awsy with them
selves so that their wives and children
could have the insurance money, and
for the ipvalids who faced lingering
desth and dreaded the burden and eX-
pense for those they loved.
I've never had suicide case break
me up as one did years ago. A sweet
faced, worn woman had consumption.
Her husband could earn very little,
and she finally gotso she couldn't work
at all. The children we're half starved;
and at last the mother just put Ter
self out Of the way, rot because she
minded suffering, but because that was
the only way in which she could help
along and make her husbands burden
lighter.
1.-THE man who can't get work-I'm
sorry for him. OF course there Are
charities; but some men are proud, and
then . man can stsrVe to death while
the wheels are getting iu mo:ion.
There's one man l suppose I ought not
to sympathizs with, but I can't help
doing it. He's the fellow who is an
out and out failure and knows it. BE
ought to pull himself together and make
up for lost time. It's contemplate
cowsrdice for him to confess himself
beaten and chuck the whole RESPONSE
bility; but when man reaches-well,
say 40-snd, looking back sees failure
snd wasted opportunities all along the
line, and realizes he's a wreck, body
and soul, be has pretty bad quarter Of
an hour.
"a good many suicides cover dis
grace that lever comes to the ears of
the world. We don't have SO many
Wall street suicides as in old days,
though. There seem to be more ways
of wriggling Out Of tight financial places
nowadays, or else business men have
more luck.
by the way, there's grim irony in
one collection that has accumulated in
the corcEer's Office. You'd be surprised
to see the number Of rabbits feet,
amulets, and lucky charms Of one sort
and anofher that have been taken from
the bodies Of suicides and cssualty
cases. There used to be drawer full
Of them, but I don't know what has be-
come Of them.
Grip has added to the number OF
suicides in this country, and extreme
not weather always sRells the list.
Comparatively few persons commit
suicide during the winter. The cases
begin to multiply during April and
May. suppose the spring stirs peo-
pie up and makes them restless and
unhappy.
June is called the suicide month by
statis,icans, but August is usually the
big month here. The heat has worked
on a mans nerves by that time, and
when q soorohing spell comes along
he's half crazy and irresponsible
Suicide goes,in waves, like various
kinds of crime. One man uses Car
tain method and other cases Of the
same kind will follow. Csr5olic acid
has been a great thing this last Jear.
1t use to be, always, Paris green OF
rat poison Illuminating gas suicides
bavs Increased wonderfully. But, ae~
ter all, its the pistol and the water that
keep the suicide records crowded. -
New York Sun.
Plant Less Cotton.
President Har7ie Jordan. Of the