Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1907-08-23
SUICIDE WAVES.
ID Causes and Methods of Self-de-
struction Revealed by the Records.

Odd Causes and Methods of Self-de-
struction Revealed by the Records.
During the past year, according to re-
ports from a large number of States,
the number of suicides in the United
States will reach 20 per cent more
than for the previous year, and the in
creased percentage in foreign countries
will equal, If not go beyond, that of
this country. Naturally the heavy in
crease in the United States may be at
tributed largely to the large Increase
IN population, but suicide statistics
show a much larger increase than does
that Of our population.
There was q time when history
showed tina suicide obtained almost en-
tirely to nations sunk in enervating
luxuries and vices, and that individual
cases occurring in a healthier condition
of society were invariably traceable
either to moral dcgeneracy or to mental
imbecility. Such conditions do not
now exist, for suicides come from every
walk and condition of life, from the
rich. Door, intelligent, ignorant, white.
and colored-from every class the great
list of self-destroycd is made up.
liz cdlIalicct I tAN OIiS lNOI'>
known to history among whom there is
an established mode Of suicide. The
Jap draws the line at Il pistol or rough
On rats, but from his earliest days is
taught the Indispensable part of his
education-hari-kiri. or in plain Eng
lish. happy Dispatch a mode of dis
e~mboweling ones self, with which
every japanese of condition must be
theoretically familiar. Americans and
other nations adopt any and every
means which will accomplish the work.
There are many means now used
which were not in reach of the poets,
philosophers, historians, orators, and
other great men of the days long gone
who put a period to their existence.
They were entirely unfamiliar with the
methods employed in these enlightened
days, If they may be so termed. Think
of a Briton killing himself by rolling
dow the great Pyramid; a Greenwich
pensioner using his spectacles to stab
himself to death; Chenier thrusting a
brass key down his threat; Demos
themes taking poison which he carried
DIN a pen; Labienus burning himself to
death, because his writings were
burned Cato's daughter, Pertia, and
Catulus Lutatius swallowing burning
Goals of fire; Herennius beating his
Drains out against a post the old phil
ssopher, Elnpedocles, throwing himself
into the crater of Vcsuyius; Damocles
scalding himself to death Aristarchus
starving himself Hannibal drinking
bulls blood. and Cassius Licinus chok-
Ding himself with a napkin because he
feared Cicero's judgment.
The causes and the means are almost
1nnunerable. but the u which most
quickly touches the heart is that fur
nished by the larger cities almost
daily: mo work, no Bread no home,
no hope Without these it does seem
that life is not worth the living. But
there are hundreds of frivolous causes
assigned. A woman in Philadelphia
committed suicide because she believed
her husband loved their baby better
tina he did herself ; a man in Cincin-
matt killed himself because his wife re-
fused to scratch his back Mrs. Rainey
of P%ittSburg swallowed carbOlic aCfd
because she did not believe she cooked
well enough to please her husband; a
young lad in Pennsylvania hanged him
self because he was too >lshful to at
tend school; John Dawson, OF Indiana,
fearing he would be buried alive,
rchoked himself to death; Henry Wilkes
of Ohio was one of the many cases OF
too much mother-in-law, Il took the
poison route for relief; because he was
a humpback, Il young man in Arkansas
l1,4 J,ic 4hrnD{. Samuel RDrrnWS or
Pennsylvania, choked himself to death
with bakers bread; her sweetheart no.
keeping an appointment caused a young
lady Of the same State to end her life
with Il dose of carbolic acid a Georgia
citizen shufIled off this mortal coil by
jumping into an open furnace because
his wife did not present him with a
boy baby: another man in Alabama
wanted twins, and because the doctor
did not leave them he rOWned him
self: it was & Florida man who hanged
himself with a clothcsline because he
could not attend church fear of a
chastisement from his father caused a
South Carolina lad to jump into a
river: William Seton. of the District
of Columbia, killed himself after al
young lduy cLtScu ~ MN al
other from the same place. William
Thomas, an actor. took rough on rats
Because he believed life a failure a de-
mented man in Nebraska cut his throat
because "angels were calling him every
day to come to heaven; rumors circu-
lated that a young man had negro
blood in his veins caused a North Caro-
linian to cut his throat; failure to make
good on an assignment caused a young
reporter on a Colorado paper to shoot
himself rather han see her children
want for bread a Minnesota young
woman hanged herself; tired of a
farmers life, and knowing his wife
could get his incurance money, a Con-
necticut farmer took a pillow line and
ended his existence; because his allow
ance was cut down to S12,eaO a year a
young man in California went by the
carbolic acid QUITE; dread of hydro
phobia so preyed on the mind of a West
Virginia mar that he used an old mus
ket to put himself out OF rouble; gam
bling debts which he could not meet
was the cause assigned by a mar in
~ -. 81 VI q ~-1 4l~--."l