The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-10
SUICIDE MANIA IN
 THE TWIN CITIES Nearly One Hundred Cases in
 Ten Months
  SHOOTING MOST POPULAR Necessity for Stringent Law About Concealed Weapons Is Evident There as Elsewhere in the
 United States.
SHOOTING MOST POPULAR

St. Paul, -Self-destruction is a mania in St. Paul and Minneapolis.
 In the Twin Cities, with population of nearly a half million people, about one hundred persons have killed themselves in ten and one-half months.
 The record of self-imposed deaths in St. Paul and Minneapolis is as appalling as that of Chicago where the average is one a day. Chicago is about four times as large as the Twin Cities, and her number of suicidal deaths is scarcely four times Minnesota.
 An effort has been made to diminish the number of suicides in St. Paul by the pas sage of a low prohibiting the sale of car- bolic acid except on a doctors order The effect of this has simply been to diminish the sale of carbolic acid and reduce the number of suicides by that method Dur ing 1904 but three sought death by the use of this acid and only two have thus far this year died from its effects.
 Recourse has been had to other poisons y results, two took corrosive subliniate. three strychnine and one calomel. This year two have died from carbolic poison ing. two from laudanum. one from wood alcohol, one from morphine and one from corrosive sublimate.s
 With the enforcement of the city ordi- nance relative to the sale of carbolic acid and the state laws covering the sale of other posons St. Paul has been singularly free from suicides by the poison route.
 But deaths by sef-infiicted gunshot wounds have been many. Up to the pres ent time fourteen have killed themselves with revolvers and shotguns Last year there were but six. Three thus far have killed themselves by slashing their throats with knives, four have hanged themselves and four have drowned themselves One committed suicide last year by asphyxia- tion, another stabbed himself to death and third threw himself in front of a street car
 Poison Popular In Minneapolis.
 While the greatest number of suicides in St. Paul have been by use of weapons Tn Minneapolis this method of killing ones self is second to that of poison.
 Local officials say that no public evil in this country so imperatively calls for legislation at the present time as the Widespread practice of carrying concealed weapons. In 1903 there were in the United States S976 murders and homicides Ii is an established fact that more than half of these murders were not deliberate, but occurred spontaneously as the result of quarrels.
 For every one of these murders there were at least ten crimes of serious injury the injured men recovering
 The ratio of murders to population has increased from 247 per million in 1881 to 112 per million in 1903. It rose irregularly in 1894, 1895 and 1896 to IA 162 and 151 re- spectively; but the ratio is steadily in- creasing. In this respect the country seems to be growing steadily more law less.
 No other country compares with the United States in this respect except Rus sia, and Russia's political conditions. which are the causes of her crimes of violence, remove her from the realm of fair comparison.
 One year of Chicago's history showed HIS homicides. In the past two years three have been eighteen homicides in Minneap oils and more than fifty cases of danger ous assault that did not result fatally.
 Paris during 1903 had fifteen homicides or but twice as many as occurred in this city last year, and London with her six millions of people had but twenty.
 One cause for this appalling record of homfcides in America is the non-enforce- ment of prohibiting the carrying of con- cealed weapons. Special legislation is needed on this subject. It is an axiom in police circles that a concealed weapon is more dangerous as temptation to crime to the carrier than to any one else.
 Laws Not Enforced.
 The existing laws in all the states would meet the difficulty if they were severely enforced They provide that any person who carries a concealed weapon without a permit to do so, is guilty of a misde- meanor, and may be punished by a year s Imprisonment and fine of $500 or both
 The trouble is that persons are let off carrying concealed weapons are let of with fines of s1O to $50 The city ordinance of Minneapolis in this respect is partcu- larly inoffensive, and Furthermore the city ordinance prohibits only the exploding of fire arms, not the possession thereof It provides penalty of not less than $5 and not more than S25, or an equivalent work house sentence. The latter is never meted out to the offender, and he is allowed to depart on payment of a paltry fine
 If in Minneapolis and other cities of the country it became known that every man carrying concealed weapons would re- ceive at least six months in jail, the hom- cides and crimes of violence would be greatly reduced.
 The District of Columbia law permits the issuance of permits by police judges to citizens whose occupations make it appar- ently necessary to carry weapons But a special provision is added that every such citizen. before receiving such permit, shall file bond to keep the peace.
 The chief value of the law is the check which it furnishes upon the sale of weap- ons and the way in which 1t enables the police to trace the possessors. All dealers in deadly weapons are required to keep a register of the name and residence of every buyer, with a full description of the weapon. They are required to make re- port under oath on or before the first Tuesday of every month. Failure to do this makes them liable to a forfeiture of their license and a fine of $100
 This law not only prohibits the sale of deadly weapons to minors. but equally prohibits the lending, hiring or giving by any person of deadly weapon to a minor, under penalty of s100 fine or three months Imprisonment, or both.
 The Professions.
 From the Brooklyn Life.
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