Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 August 1884 — FACTS ABOUT SUICIDES. [ARTICLE]

FACTS ABOUT SUICIDES.

Women Afraid of Pistol*. Used to Disappointments. and Not Anxious to giiuiUe Off. “The proportion of female to male suicides is ajjout one to six,” said Coroner Merkle to a New York reporter. “Women are free from business cares, and do not uritt into intoxicating habits; they also take disappoiutments iD love more philosophically than men—they regard a di appointment as a natural sequence, in fact, are disappointed if they are not so disappointed. A great many men do note pect it, aud not bepig prepared, are so upset tha tney generally resort to extreme dissipation or suicide. The great majoiitv of women select poison as the easi. s*t method of crossing the (Styx. They are naturally afraid of a pistol, and would naturally scream and run if they saw one while seeking a destructive method. Next to poison they select hanging, and they almost invariably make a bungling job of that, just as they do iu attempting to cut their throats. Very oftcsi they jump from a window, and invariably scream; no doubt they shut their eye 3 when they take the fatal leap. “The proportion of married suicides is scarcely large enough to admit the argument that marital unhappiness was tae main cause. On the otner hand, it is argued that family ties tend to check suicidal intent, or rather execution. Being of a more lefined nature than man, aud less inclined to the tragic or heroic, woman naturally selects the easiest and less barbaric methods of death. (Shooting or cutting disugures the body, and a woman wants to be beautiful even in death, and besides, when she takes poison, she has an opportunity to say a last word which siie may have forgotten. It is aiguedbv some that woman, being less courageous than man, selects the easier means of poison; but it is a question whether suicide is not more a matter of cowardice than of bravery. Many hold that it requi es no heroism to commit suicide, and no doubt the great majority of selfkillings are done iu moments of intense frenzy aud without deliberation. “The absence of deliberation accounts for so many failures, which are 30 or 4U per cent., and this is the strangest part of it. Whiio attempts to commit other crimes may be resisted or disturbed the would-be suicide is rarely disturbed. The suicide almost invariably seeks retirement, where he is free from prevention, yet he often fails. Of course, this is owing to natural nervousness, want of method, and fright. It seems a paradox, but they are frightened at their own desperation. “The extreme poor class furnish the largest percentage of suicide, owing, probably, to tue trials and disappointments of their checkered lives. The middle class furnish the remainder; excepting in a few instances, and very few, there are no suicides among people of wealth. Not having to combat the world, pride of position and a greedy desire to revel in the luxuries that wealth can purchase even for the miserable is no doubt the cause of the scarcity of suicides among the wealthy class. ” v ■