Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-08-14
SUICIDE WAVES.

IhO AuuBDSr 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
VIII equal, II not go beyond, that OF
this country. Naturally the heavy IN
crease In the United States may be at
trtbuted largely to the large increase
In population, but suicide statistics
show much larger increase than does
that Of our population.
There was a time when history
showed that suicide obtained almost en-
trely to nations sunk in enervating
luxuries and vices, and that individual
cases occurring In healthier condition
or society were invariably traceable
either to moral degeneracy or to mental
tmbeGlfty. Such conditions do not
now exist, for suicides come from every
walk and condition Of Life, from the
rich, poor, intelligent, ignorant, white,
and colored-fro1n 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 pistol or rough
on rats, but from his earliest days is
taught the Indispensable part Of his
ducation-harl-kird, or IN plain Eng
lish, happy Dispatch" a mode Of dis
emboweliNg 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
down the great Pyramid; a Greenwich
pensloner using his spectacles to stab
himself to death; Chenier thrusting
brass key down his throat; Demos
themes taking poison which he carried
In q pen; Labienus burning himself to
burned; Cato's daughter, Portia, and
Catulus Lutatius swallowing burning
Goals of fire; Herennius beating bis
brains out against post; the old phil
osopher, Empedocles, throwing himself
into the crater Of Vesuvius; Damocles
scalding himself to death; Aristarchus
starving himself; Hannibal drinking
bulls blood, and Cassius Licinus chok-
ing himself with a napkin because he
feared Cicero's Judgment.
The causes and the means are almost
innumerable, but the one 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 1t 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
than he did herself; a man In Cinc1n-
nah killed himself because his wife re-
fused to scratch his back; Mrs. Rainey
Of Pittsburg swallowed carbolic acid
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 bashful to at
tend school; John Dawson, Of Indiana,
fearing he would be buried alive,
choked himself to death; Henry Wilkes
Of Ohio was one Of the many cases Of
T. To- on6 tNOIY thQ
poison route for relief; because he was
a humpback, a young man in Arkansas
cut his throat; Samuel Burrows OF
PENNSYLVANIA, choked himself to death
with bakers bread her sweetheart no.
keeping an appointment caused young
lady Of the same State to end her life
with a dose of carbolic acid; Georgia
citizen shuffled off this mortal coil by
| jumping into an open furnace because
his wife did not present him with
boy baby; another man in Alabama
wanted twins, and because the doctor
did not leave them he drowned him
self; 1t was q Florida man who hanged
himself with q cIothesline because he
could not attend church; fear Of
chastisement from his father caused a
South Carolina lad to jump into a
river; William Seton, Of the District
Of Columbia, killed himself after
young lady refused to marry him; an
other from the same place, William
| Thomas, an actor, took rough on rats
because he believed life failure; de-
mented man In Nebraska cut his throat
because "angels were calling him every
day to come 10 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 than see her children
want for bread a Minnesota young
woman hanged herself; tired Of
farmers life, and knowing his wife