The Irish standard., 1915-10-23
Suicide inChina
Right Rev. Mgr. Paris, 8. !.

The prevalence of suicide in China
is a well-known fact. 1t is more COM
mon among women than men. A curl
GUS aspect of this self-destruction is
the fact that it is often made use of
as means Of revenge upon another
person. The one who caused the sui.
eide thus becomes branded as a muir.
derer.
No available statistics to show the
number of suicides each year. Priests
are good authority. They are often
called to save the victims. Overdoses
Of opium chief means. Widows some.
times take their life through grief.
Daughters-in-law find in suicide, a
means of revenge. The Chinese gov.
eminent does little to abolish the
abuse.
There is no country in the world
wherein suicides are so prevalent as
in China.
Unhappily. there are no statistics
to prove this statement, but we have
the authority of countless mission
aries, who are so often called upon to
save those in danger of death by their
own hand.
The chief means employed is an
overdose of opium; the priest admin.
listers ipecac or sulphate or zinc, and
the result is usually satisfactory.
The victims of this criminal folly
are more frequently women than men.
In Europe the opposite is true, which
fact may be explained by the reasons
Leading to seif.Destruction
The mentality of the Chinaman is en-.
tfrely different from that of his West
ern brother.
When philosophers treat of this
question, they tell us that suicide is
simply giving ourselves voluntarily to
death in order to escape the miseries
and vexations of this life. Dissipa-
ton, grief, fear of punishment, and re-
morse are the principal causes of this
crime in Europe.
In China what passes for despair
amongst the natives, is far from be-
ing
Despair Pure and Simple
The men and women who DESTROY
themselves are nearly always simply
In desperate rage because of thwart-
ed revenge, and are persuaded that
by taking their own lives they are in
juring their enemies exquisitely.
Christianity teaches us that dying
for another's salvation is great vir-
tue. an act of supreme love; pagans
believe that suicide brings the worst
of curses upon the one to whom they
wish evil
In fact, it is the custom for judges
to pity and excuse the dead man, and
pronounce his enemy, who was the
cause of his despair. murderer. Thus
suicide becomes murder.
The man who hangs himself Is
called the unhappy victim of per.
son who is often innocent, or at most
who may have exchanged a few irri-
tating remarks in the course of an
argument.
A mother may reprOach her daugh-
ter-in-law for equivocal conduct. In q
fury the girl poisons herself; the old
lady therefore becomes q murderess.
The poor young wife who is burdened
with
A TyrannicaI Mother-in-Law
and her name is legion, may attempt
to assert herself The mother hangs
herself, and is revenged.
In q word, suicide is usually inspired
by blind desire for vengeance, under
thousand forms and pretexts SO
trivial as to excite establishment in
Western minds.
Cinnamon, who are all fundamen.
tally alike, are accustomed from in
to view repulsive scenes with the ut.
most sang-froid; they lend them
selves to this lamentable sport of self.
destruction as to legitimate resort