The Indianapolis journal., 1903-09-06
WOMEN AND SUICIDE.
Men Are Far More Addicted to the
Practice of Self-DestructiOn.

Providence Journal.
Observation and personal knowledge, in
the cases of that not altogether inconsider-
able number of people who are both observ-
ing and knowing, did not need, perhaps. the
corroboration of statistics to arrive at the
conclusion that men are much more given
than women to taking their own lives Still,
there may be a certain satisfaction in hav
ing the knowledge put in the approximately
definite mathematical form that there are
more than three times as many suicides
among the self-styled lords Of creation as
among the so-called weaker sex. This is
the concrete fact brought out by the very
latest figures on the subject which have
been compiled by Yale professor who has
been making a careful study of the records
of suicides for several years. AS practically
the same conclusion was some time ago
reached by professor of the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology who collected
the New England statistics on the subject
for period Of forty years, it would seem
that 1t may safely be taken as a correct
measure of the relative willingness of the
two sexes to endure the real or fancied ills
they have rather than fly to others of
which they must necessarily know much
less than of the future Of the Americas
cup.
In essaying to explain this marked differ
ence in the suicidal tendencies of the sexes
there are, of course, certain very obvious
theories to offer; but there Is little in either
the statistics or in extended observation
which warrants the hasty conclusion that
the most obvious are the most correct. We
may say, for instance, that the main reason
why women are less given to voluntary
demise Is that in their normal condition be-
yond the age Of joyous and hopeful youth
(and very few suicides occur under the age
of twenty they are better protected than
men against the hard knocks of fate. the
nrrfo and uyno q ND fho he
of the fierce struggle for existence; and
this conclusion seems to be invited by the
fact which the Yale professor has discov-
cred that single, widowed and divorced wo-
men are more inclined to suicide than are
men in like conjugal condition, while more
married men than married women find rea-
sons sufficient to themselves for taking
their lives.
But while dependency. the chief general
cause of self-destruction, may be often
caused by overdue notes, unpaid bills,
failure to "do" ones business rival before
he docs" ones self and other similar Incl
dents OF being the active bread-winner of
the family group from all Of which his
feminine dependents may be for the most
part sheltered, there Is never any assur-
ance that the man who meets these thrusts
In the outer world, even though he may
conceal his wounds from those in the inner
domestic circle will not, because of his
agony or irritation OF mind, be so gloomy
or unbearable a companion at home as to
give the women there reasons OF their own
lOf LOOKING lOHsiUSly 10 QSdtn as a release.
Both misfortune and misconduct have a
way OF percolating through those whom
they Immediately affect into the lives of
those who are condemned to surround them
in the intimacies of personal relations and
so may easily spread the infection of what
ever suicidal desire they may cause among
those who may be carefully shielded from
the direct attack. Besides, who can assume
that he has enough personal experience and
knowledge to feel sure that woman in her
homemaking, with all its shelters. does not
encounter disappointments and defeats
which, though different, are just as pro-
ductive of despair as those encountered by
man In his moneymaking. with all its ex-
posures?
Another obvious reason that may be Of
fered for the greater willingness Of women
to endure the ills OF life till nature herself
puts gentle end thereto is the well-known
feminine repugnance to violence and blood
shed; and confirmation of this theory may
possibly be drawn by some from the fact,
also brought out in the Yale professors
statistics, that. while shooting Is the most
common method of suicide in general. when
women do put a sudden period to their own
mundane existence they most frequently
employ poison as the agent of destruction.
But this view. which practically amounts