Year: 1875

Modes ana Motives OF Suicides


There is a fashion in suicide. il an
pears. When visited the monument,
which marks the spot where the great
London fire ended, I found that the
summit was covered with iron bars,
which, the attendant said, had been
placed there to prevent people from
throwing themselves off. There had
been a fashion, he explained, among
persons of suicidal intentions, to precip-
Itate themselves from that lofty tower
to the pavement below. There was
great danger of every suicide being a
murder as well, and therefore that par
ticular mode of putting an end 10 a
painful existence was rendered impos-
sible


Among ourselves there is usually
favorite method of self lf-destruciion.
Paris green had its day. AS no Wand
can be conceived less inviting than
green paint, it is difficult to imagine
what could have given rise TO this pref
erence. Such a preference, however,
did exist, aud does now exist so that a
considerable portion of the suicides
committed IN large cities, are accom-
plished by taking a quantity of this
nauseous substance. At different times
the rope, the river, the pistol, the
knife, has been the favorite mode of
escaping from the post of duty when
the fire grew hot.


There is one method now much in
vogue which is particularly contempti-
bic. A man comes to a hotel, records a
name, ano is shown to a room, in which
he locks and bolts binself. The next
morning he does not appear, and his
door does not yield to the repeated
solicitations of the chambermaid. By
insensible degrees, as the day passes,
the horror of dreadful surmise settles
down upon the minds of the female SER
wants which is changed into a more
awful certainty when the door at length
is broken open. More than suicide has
been committed. 1t is an outrage
to bring such an ineffaceable horror
upon innocent minds and a reputable
house.


1 have always admired the response
of lady to a rejected lover who threat
ened to blow out his brains unless she
Telented toward him. Standing bril-
liantly dressed in the midst of beauti-
full drawing room, she quietly said,
pointing to the carpet:


" Not here, sir, beg"


The question has often been debated
among philosophers, whether a man
could ever be justified in taking his
own life. Cato, Brutus, and most of
the sncients, deemed it noble in a man
to take leave of life when he could no
longer live honOrably. a dethroned
king was expected to put an end to his
existence, and it was held to be base in
a patriot to survive the independence
of his country. Napoleon, who was
fond of the mOck-herOic, apologized to
his soldiers when he took leave of them
for having consented to survive him
self, " and pretended that he did so only
that he might spend the residue of his
days in writing the history of their ex-
piOits. This was mere secondhand
affectation. He was the last man to
damage his own skin.


Suppose we grant, as some assert,
that a man has a right TO take his own
life when he can do 1t without injury to
others. But no man is so disconnected
with his kind that he can destroy him-
self without at least giving to other men
an injurious example of pusillanimy.
There are moments IN all but the most
favored lives when the whole scene of
human existence assumes a dismal
aspect.


" What !" exclaimed the bilious
German professor, at the return of
spring, "green again always green
Why not red for once2"


There are also in most lives periods
of real and great anguish, occasioned
by loss of fortune, loss of health, loss
of friends, loss of fame, when all the
fOrtitude we possess is put to the utmost
strength of its endurance. It is then
that the example of a weak yielding to
calamity becomes an injury by furnish
ing an excuse for cowardice.


Several of the suicides lately have
been atrocious. It is difficult to imagine
anything more dastardly than for the
father of family to abandon by sui
eide those whom he has called into be-
ing, selecting the very moment when
they most need his presence. Scarcely
less ignominious is it in a young man to
turn back abruptly and unceremoniously
at the threshold of life and fly from
woes which frmness could endure and
courageous effort overcome.


One thing will not be dispu ed If a
person claims the right TO destroy his
life, he IS at least bound TO do it in such
a mode as not to give shock of horror
and disgust to unohending people-least
of ali to timid and sensitive women. It
was a mark of high breeding in the un-
happy Senator King. when IN q fit of
insanity he rushed from the New York
custom house resolved on elf-destruc-
ton, that he took precautions to avoid
being a disagreeable object. On his
way to the ferry boat, from which he
had determined to throw himself, he
filed his pockets with shot, and tied
bags of shot to his wrists. Thus he
found in one mad plunge both death
and burial. But this sneakiDg into other
peoples rooms and soaring industrious
girls at their morning work by q hide
ous spectacle never 20 be forgotten,
shows a mean as well as a craven spirit


50 He was a gentleman even in his
cups" was the eulogium pronounce
on a we'll known parsonage. A crazy
gentleman will not even die without
consideration for the feelings Of
others.