Los Angeles herald., 1906-09-18

! Los ANGELES. Sept 17.-(Editor
| Herald): The large number Of suicides
reported everywhere in the daily press
is a subject for most serious considera-
tlon. 1t indicates a morbid condition
in society that loudly calls for corr
rectlon.
| In some places suicide has become a
sort Of mania | think 1t Is safe to say
that the reported and unreported cases
| of suicide i'm the United states within
the pas twelve months will fall little
| short of 20.000i
This is alarming and speaks badly for
our civilization.
A strange thing is that the pulpit and
! the press, to which the people look for
the correction of such evils, are nearly
entirely silent ON the moral aspects Of
suicide.
Among Others there are two things
that may be said of self murder:
I. 1t is cowardly. 1t Is usually COM
mitted by persons accused of crime, or
by those overtaken by disappointments
of some kind and who lack the courage
and nauliness to tattle with them.
What can be more cowardly than for a
man to take his own life and leave his
femily and friends to suffer the dis
grace, or contend with adversity, while
he sinks away?
And what shall he said of those
Nretches who murder their innocent
families and then turn the weapon upon
themselves?
Perhaps the maj jority of people say
that after they have taken the lives of
their loved ones they ought to kill
themselves; but God says they ought to
do neither; that 1t is the duty of every
man born in the image Of his Creator
to abstain from murder make the best
of life and live for the good of Others.
1t is true that in the large majority OF
suicides the act may be traced to the
drink curse; but that affords no excuse
whatever for the crime. 1t rather in
creaseS the baseneSs of the act. If a
man by drink or otherwise brings about
4 state or condition that leads him to
suicide his responsibility is the same
and his crime is the same in the sight
of God.
2. 1t is blood guiltness. God said
upon Mount Sinai i'll writing his COM
mandments, while the mountain shook
from base to battlement with his awful
presence. Thou shalt not KILL" and
1900 years afterward Christ, on the
Mount of Beatitudes, reiterated the
command Thou shalt not kill" 1t
applies to self-murder the same as 1t
does to the killing of others, and the
man who dies violating the command
mentS of God must suffer the penalty
of banishment from his presence,
The press often says of the suicides
last act: He ended his troubles, his
Sorrows etc. Alas! if Gods S word is
true he then and there entered upon
his sorrows. His life was given him to
realize lofty aspirations and fond hopes,
in, training his soul to self-denial, in
doing good and serving his Maker; but
he wasted his opportunities and ended
his earthly existence in Self-murder.
His last act was to defy God and his
commandment and usher his undyng
soul naked and unbidden into the
awful presence of his God.
Society should frown upon self-mur-
der and make 1t odious. In olden times
in England the ody of the suicide was
buried near a public road and a stake
was driven down through the body,
marking the place where it lay, thus
holding his act in execration and con-
tempt 1t is said to have had de-
terring effect. To this day the body of
a self murderer is forbidden burial in
ordinary gray eyards in that country,
we are told.
l knew a preacher who was sent to
q community where suicide was some
what prevalent, and he had the courage
to denounce it. 1t made some angry,
but they quit killing themselves.
In some places suicide becomes a
mania with silly girls who do not weigh
the awful consequences They are
prompted largely by love of sensation
by the startling effect it will have
upon their friends and acquaintances
who will read of their wicked act. Sen
sational newspapers contribute to this
mania in the glamour they throw around
IL in their writeups. 1t is always some
pretty woman who does the deed.
pretty Miss Az or beautiful Miss b.
and is usually accompanied by some
fashy and sensational report. 1t turns
the heads of silly girls as yellowbacl[
novels make Capt Kidds and Wild
Bills of uneducated and unframed boys.
Some find excuse for suicide in the
belief that men who take their own
lives are of unSound mind. Doubtless
this is often the case, but what shall
we say of the dissipated life in the ma
jority of cases that has led down to it?
Long observation and study of this