The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1907-09-09
SUICIDE WAVES.
Odd Causes and Methods of Self-Dc-
struction Revealed by Records.

During the past year, according to
reports from large number of states
the number of suicides in the United
States will reach 90 per cent. more
than for the previous year, and the
Increased percentage in foreign coun-
tries will equal, il not go beyond, that
of this country. Naturally the heavy
increase in the United States may be
attributed largely to the large in
crease in population, but suicide sta
tistics show a much larger increase
than does that of our population.
There was a time when history
showed that suicide obtained almost
entirely to nations sunk in enervat-
ing luxuries and vices. and that indi-
vidual cases occurring in a healthier
condition of society were invariably
traceable either to moral degeneracy
or 70 mental imbeciity. Such con-
ditions do not now exist, for suicides
come from every walk and condition
OF life, from the rich, poor, intelli-
gent. ignorant, white and colored-
from every class the great list of self
destroyed is made up.
The japanese are the only people
known to history among whom there
is an established mode of suicide. The
Jap draws the line at a pistol or
rough on rats, but from his earliest
days is taught the indispensable part
of his ducation--harikiri, or. in
plain English, "happy dispatch
mode of disemboweling ones self,
with which every japanese of condi-
ton must be theoretically familiar.
Americans and other nations adopt
any and every means which will ac-
complish the work. There are many
means now used which were not in
reach of the poets. philosophers, his
torians, orators and other great men
of the days long gone who put a
period to their existence. They were
lentirely unfamiliar with the methods
employed in these enlightened days,
liz they may be so termed. Think OF
a Briton killing himself by rolling
down the great Pyramid; a Green
witch pensioner using his spectacles
to stab himself to death: Chenier
thrusting a brass key down his throat
Demosthenes taking poison which he
carried in a pen: Lablenus burning
himself to death because his writings
were burned; Cato's daughter. Por'
| tia. and Catulus Lutatius swallowing
burning Goals of fire; Herennius
beating his brains out against a post;
the old philosopher, Empedocles,
throwing himself into the crater OF
lVesuvius; Denotes scalding himself
/ to death: Aristarchus starving him.
self; Hannibal drinking bulls blood,
and Cassius Licinus choking himself
with a napkin because he feared
Cicero's judgment.
The causes and the means are al
most innumerable. but the one which
most quickly touches the heart is
that furnished by the larger cities al
most daily: mo work, no bread, no
home. no hope" Without these 1t
does seem that life is not worth the
living. But there are hundreds OF
frivolous causes assigned. A woman
in Philadelphia committed suicide be-
Icause she believed her husband loved
their baby better than she did her.
self: a man in Cincinnati killed him
self because his wife refused to
scratch his back; Mrs. Rainey. OF
IPittsburg swallowed carbolic acid be-
cause she did not believe she cooked
well enough to please her husband
a young lad in Pennsylvania hanged
himself because he was too bashfu
to attend school: John Davidson, OF
Indiana, fearing he would be buried
alive. choked himself to death; Henry
Wilkes. OF. Ohio, was one of the many
cases of too much mother-in-law. and
took the poison route for relief; be
cause he was a humpback, a younl
man in Arkansas cut his throat; sam
uel Burrows, of Pennsylvania. chokeC
himself TO death with bakers breat