The Slaithwaite Guardian and Colne Valley News. — 1897-01-15 (Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire, England)

THE GUARDIAN  FRIDAY, JANUARY 15TH, 1897.  To the careful observer TO BE OR NOT of passing events and TO BE ? the earnest student of human nature, the frequent cases of suicide in general, and in this district in particular, during the past few months must have prompted serious reflections and painful impressions. The latest case to hand is that of William Henry Haigh, who was found drowned in the Merrydale reservoir on Sunday morning last. Towards the latter part of last week the bodies a two women were taken out of the canal at Milnsbridge. In each case the surrounding circumstances pointed to self-destruction. Only a week or so before a similar case occurred about the same place, the victim being a Huddersfield woman. During the closing months of last year the neighbouring town of Bradfoid was visited by an epidemic of suicide, no less than five cases following each other in rapid succession. The remarkable feature in these cases being that. in every instance the victim of "temporary insanity' was in the freshness of early womanhood. What is to be said regarding the mental and moral condition of these people who, in the vigour of early life, in comparatively easy circumstances—and in the recent case of a well-known Bradford gentleman surrounded by all the appliances of wealth, voluntarily 'shuffle off this mortal coil ' ? Had these men and women been overtaken by some dire calamity, or been the victims of some relentless misfortune, their rash act would have been less incomprehensible though none the less sad. "0 that the everlasting had not fix'd his canon against self-slaughter" seems to find an echo in the minds of men at the present time and in this locality. Life must present a cheerless aspect indeed to enable a man to transgress to law of God and man and nature by a recourse to suicide. "The voyage from the cradle to the grave is dreary and monotonous. Blind at its commence• ment, disappointment marks his labours through the middle of it, and grief assails him at the end. Retrospection on his own conduct only exhibits a black catalogue of his innumerable errors. The melancholy chain of uneasiness and grief runs through every department of life, and binds man— insolent in prosperity, dejected in adversity, in every situation foolish,—to a miserable existence." If this view of life, depicted by an eminent writer obtained to any appreciable extent, then the hackneyed expression "Is life worth living ? " would assume quite a rational and relevant meaning. Then there is a class of men engaged in the propagation of so-called Free Thought who maintain that under many bitter and painful conditions, life is not worth living, and suicide is not only justifiable but advisable. In the face of this deplorable state of things it is surely time that the press, the pulpit, the platform, and those engaged in training the youth of our land should combine to eliminate this cankerworm of hopeless pessimism, that is eating away the heart of modern social life. To inculcate a healthier view of social responsibility; to instil into the minds of men and women the sacredness of home life; to teach the weakness of despair and the cruelty and cowardice that prompts to a severance of the closest ties of human life. Whether the reasons generally assigned for suicide, viz., domestic or business worry, hereditary or contracted disease or a long course of vice or crime really justify our juries in their stereotyped verdicts of "temporary insanity" in many cases we very much doubt. 'Fhe preparation of messages, the method manifested in achieving their ends, and the absence of motive, all go to prove that consuming selfishness, a morbid taste for the sensational and a total disregard of the claims of others lie at the root of the whole matter. We are persuaded that a little more honesty in the deliberation of juries would have a deterrent effect on would-be suicides. As the world grows older, men will grow wiser and stronger, and the difficulties of life will be met with increased courage:and fortitude, and the crime of self-destruction numbered amongst the things of the past.