Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1909 — ALARMING BATE OF SUICIDE [ARTICLE]

ALARMING BATE OF SUICIDE

During the month of January .thir-ty-two people In Indiana took their own lives. Of this number eleven were women. “This is a frightful rate of suicide,” said Secretary Hurty. “This is more than one a day. This means practically 365 people a year who kill themselves—almost enough people to populate a small town.” The officers of the board of health endeavor to ascertain the cause of suicide when one is reported, but find it an up-hill job. “We are not able,” said Secretary Hurty, “to find what the trouble is. When we try to investigate these cases no one seems to know anything about the case of suicide.”

Dr. Hurty, who has made some special research as to the cause of so many suicides in the state finds that women when they contemplate self-destruction seldom mutilate their faces. In the opinion of the secretary feminine vanity lasts until the end. He believes that when a woman decides to kill herself she adopts a method of ending her life which, will not mar her features.

“Women who kill themselves,’’said Secretary Hurty yesterday, “usually shot themselves through the heart No doubt this is because they do not desire to mutilate their faces, which might make them unsightly when their faces are exposed to their friends for a last view. When a man kills himself he picks up a revolver and shoots himself in the head or in the mouth or in the eye. He does not for a moment think how he will look when his friends come to view his features for the last time.”