San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-08-16
Blu Professor Charles
WinsIOuU Gordon,
The Distin guished Psychologist and
Medical Research Expert.


WHY is it that when you see woman
M "going the pace that kills you
w can be pretty sure that 1t actu-
ally will kill her?
Sometimes death is the obvious result
of their designations, but much more o1ten
the spectre's rapid approach is not fast
enough for them, and they rush out 10
meet him by suicide.
These girls, so impatient for the grave,
are by no means, all of them, physical
wrecks nor penniless. Frequently they be-
come annoyed at life for the most trivial
reasons. Such as might cause in an ordi-
nary young woman no more than "a good
crv'' Sometimes there seems to be no
reason at all except that they don want
to bother TO live any longer.
When an old, poor and incurable person
dies bv his own hand we can understand,
but when a girl, still young, pretty, and
vigorous, takes her life, we are likely TO
think she did il in a moment of insanity.
This, according to the police and coroners
who have to make note of such cases, Is
not correct These suicides are committed
simply because they have lost the appetite
for life. ::
every creature, and nature means II 10
last as long as that creature is strong and
vigorous. In old age, when the instinct
10 live has burned out, it is often sup
planted by the habit of living. Habit,
as we know. becomes second nature, and
IL can keep us going long after we are no
use to ourselves or to any one else.
This appetite for life, according to psy-
biologists, depends entirely on the reserves
of vital energy in the brain and other
parts of the nervous system. In youth
The nervous system. like a storage battery,
can be run to exhaustion, and, with a
nights sleep, be recharged again. Youth
can cry itself to sleep and wake up IN
the morning eager for the fray.
The mace that kills uses up more cur
rent than is replaced, until at last the
battery of the brain is worn beyond re-
pair. The young woman is then broken
down battery trying to run motor sun
vigorous that needs high voltage. Lie
itself becomes an effort the VIII TO I'VE
is gone, and old ages habit OF living has
not vet been strongly fixed.
Some of these deaths are called "acci-
dents" by the police, but by psychologists
Suicides of the sub-conscious. II a per
sons conscious and sub-conscious minds
agree that death is desirable, but the con
seious mind has scruples against the act.
the sub-conscious is quite capable Of flno-
ing way. T..
Such a one is the recent case OF Eva
Fuller. the dancer, who pitched from the
twelfth floor of a New York hotel. Eva
was born in a struggling mining camp IN
the Moiave Desert. Her father was a
miner and her mother died so early as to
leave no impression. There were no other
little girls to play with.
The memories of her youth were simply
sand. cats and uncouth men from whom
she must keep away. Her first fourteen
wears were as flat and empty as the desert
life did not seem to move at all, and
she had no chance to learn the proper
pace of life Then her father announced
that he was about to provide her with just
what she had always needed--a mother
But the miners unblushing bride was not
a mother but a stepmother, who taught
the girl nothing but to hate her.
A ''tab" show, the last resort Of broken
down. third-rate actors, came starving
along, playing condensed (tabloid) and
incidentally, pirated versions of Broadway
musical comedy successes. After the abb
breviated show the actors would collect
10 cents more for half an hour of "high.
class vaudeville" and sell candy between
the acts.
Il was the lowest form Of theatrical life,
but il looked marvellous TO Eva, and when
the tab" slipped out of town, just ahead
Of the sheriff, she went with it. What a