The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1903-11-28
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY,
GRAND hARA1s. MINI. NOV. %, 1908.
GOLDEN GATE CITY LEADS.
centa4e OF Suicides-Chlc0go
Ranks Third. ..<

The number of people who volun-
tarily shuftled of this mortal coil i'll
American and other cities during last
year has been investigated by some
deliver in statistics and the following
figures indicate the results: San Fran
cisco leads with the largest ratio, 3e.1
per 100, 900 of population. Next comes
another Pacific coast city, Los Angeles,
with a ratio of 29.S The reader has
naturally been looking for Chicago.
and that city does, in fact, come next
with ratio Of $40, followed by the
neighboring city of Milwaukee. whose
ratio is 22.2. New Orleans was the
scene of the self-destruction Of 21.S
persons per 100000 Of population, and
Cincinnati followed close with 21.2.
New Haven is next with 900. and then
comes the borough of Manhattan with
900. though greater New York as a
whole is we'll down the list with ratio
"f only 1876. This is less than Roches-
ter, Indianapolis, Philadelphia. Pitts
burg. Baltimore, Boston. Detroit.
Omaha and Louisville. besides all Of
those specifically enumerated above.
AS to the foreign cities. Paris leads the
list with ratio of AZ. followed by
Berlin 36, Vienna % and London 49,
There were more suicides in Saxony
than in any other country. 81 Il per 10O.-
600. In Denmark the ratio was 25.S. in
Austria 21.2. in France 1877 in the Ger.
man empire 1913, md Sweden. Norway,
belgium. Great Britain. Italy, the
United States and Spain followed in
the order given.
The table referring to American
cities is somewhat difficult to explain.
WHY the city 1T the golden gate, and
california. win it's glorious climate,
its sunshine. its fro,it and its flowers.
should show the greatest number Of
sn'c1des seems mystery. unless the
presence of iorge Chinese population
explains it. The high suicide rate
Of Chicago is. perhaps. accounted for
by the rush and struggle of that great
city and the large foreign element it
eontoins-a foreign element. more
over. which comes mainly from those
countries where suicide is most fire.
qnent. The same is perhaps true of
Milwaukee and of Cincinnati. The hip:,
rate at New Orleans may possibly be
attributed to it's relation to France
and the ideas and traditions brought
here from Paris. the suicide capital of
the world. But New York city casts
cloud over some of these explana-
tions. Hero are the large foreign pop
nlations, the stress and strain of liy-
ing and working, the poverty. the ex-
cltement. Yet Philadelphia, the
sleeping city Of the humorous para
grnphers. has higher ratio of sui
cldes than greater New York. And
how is it to be explained that New
Haven leads all the other New Eng
land cities in the number Of suicideso
st. Paul and Minneapolis lie side by
side, but in Minnea polls the ratio is
lila and in St. Paul it is, but s.5. T.
seems that the conclusions must he
that there is no method in suicide mad
ness and that the effort to reduce it to
rule is doomed to failure.
Guardian Microbes.
A writer in knowledge thus denomi-
mates certain wandering cells found in
the healthy human body, which de-
stroy harmful microbes introduced
into the system. THE tonsi.s, for ex-
ample, are crowded with these guar
dian cells" The scene under the micro
scope when protective cells are intro
duced into lively culture of typhoid
bacilli is described as very striking, If.
resistibly bringing before the imagina-
ton "1he fierce struggle which goes
on when disease germs invade the
body"