Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 May 1878 — The Increased Suicide Rale. [ARTICLE]

The Increased Suicide Rale.

That there is an alarming increase in the number of suicides in this country is evident on reading the records as published in the daily papers. Every day the dispatches chronicle the suicide of from thyee to five persons, whose prominence or the circumstances of whose death make the announcement of general interest. During one month of the present year the weekly average of such suicides was over twenty, and possibly the average has been nearly as great for all the months. The reported cases take in all grades of society, and include young people as well as old; people prosperous and in good health, as well as people disappointed and sick. A correspondent of the Inter-Ocean expresses his opinion that the increase in the suicide rate is owing to the publication of the particulars of every case of suicide, and the throwing about the" act, in so many instances, the atmosphere of martyrdom or heroism. Believing that the publication of such cases exercises an unwholesome influence on persons of morbid imagination, leading them to adopt, for the sake of notoriety, the methods of the suicide, this correspondent asks that all suicide items be omitted, at least from the weekly edition of the Inter-Ocean. This approximates to a theory of suicides that has many advocates. As a wayward and disappointed boy takes a .melancholy satisfaction in doing something that will make him sick, and picturo the remorse and grief of his parents when they see him sick unto death, so it is argued that a person suffering from disease or worried by disappointment and trouble, turns to a resort that promises relief from all, and to an act that, while it stops all reproaches, arouses the sympathy of friends and appeals to the charity’ of enemies. . »— —, : —-

Has a man been wronged, he imagines that self-destruction in some waymakes the fact prominent, and that his self-immolation makes the public the instrument for reproaching and punishing those who have wronged him. A man who thinks he has not been understood or appreciated is apt to fancy thaf Tiis sudden taking off in a mysterious way will open the eyes of the world to the talent and ability- that was allowed to perish With him, and, animated by this thought, he takes his re'venge on the public by an act which he hopes will tear their hearts with remorse. The letters left by many suicides show that in some such spirit they contemplated self-destruction. Others write as though they were simply tired of life, and disgusted with--their-own infirmities. Others, again, write not at all, but carry all clew as to motive with them into the beyond. While the public looks upon suicide as cowardly, it is easy for the person who has determined on suicide to convince himself that his act is in some sense heroic. Certain ife is,that much thinking on suicide makes men mad, and in~seeking causes for the increased rate of selfdestruction, we may find the principal one in the fact that with the change in public opinion toward the suicide has come a disposition to dwell more on the romantic and peculiar features of suicide cases.

In the old time the suiqide was counted in the list of outcasts. The act itself received the severest condemnation of the Church, and was looked upon with horror by the people. There was in public print and common conversation no disposition to excuse and no tendency to justify the act by an array of causes, or by enlarging upon the troubles and trials of the deceased. There was no encouragement to dwell on the subject in secret or public, but popular sentiment, custom and tradition all were so many influences to direct men’s minds away from the subject. The sentiment in the churches, the attitude of the Church itself, and the feeling among the people at large, all have changed, there is now more charity for the act, and more consideration for the person who commits suicide, than formerly, and the means of directing public thought to such occurrences having greatly increased, are used without scruple. In this change of public sentiment we may find one reason for the increase in the suicide rate. Supplementary to thisis the fact that suicides find apologists and defenders in many brilliant and erratic writers. An article is published, written years ago by John M. Binckley (who is said to have committed suicide a fe\v days 3incc), which is in effect a strong plea for charitable judgment on the suicide. If Mr. Binckley did commit suicide, he applied to the disappointments of his

career the reasoning common to diseased minds, and the article written in former years shows that bis inind had been dwelling on the subject, and that he had taken the first stop in the direction of danger. Many seek causes for the numerous suicides in the hard times and incident privations. As a rule, however, the trials of people struggling against poverty tend to rouse the very qualities in human nature that contribute to wholesome and practical thought, eyon though it be commonplace and prosy. —Chicago Inter-Ocean.