On Suicide and Hard Times

1878

Suicide and Hard Times

Plenty of suicides are still reported, says a New York correspondent. Many of the victims are persons who were of no account in the world, but now and then we hear of the suicide of a man or woman who promised well and who might have done well. Failure to find work is frequently the cause of the act on the male side, but not always. Domestic trouble usually leads to it among women.

A few days ago a Spaniard, a man of good family connections and fair personal accomplishments, committed suicide in his boarding house. He had made a living by singing in opera, but latterly this resource failed him, and as his prospects in life were growing dark he closed accounts with the world by leaving it. One of his fellow boarders testified before the coroner that the Spaniard had frequently expressed a horror of work and said it would be more honorable to die.

But most of those who take the last desperate leap do so because they cannot, or fancy they cannot, find means to live. New York swarms with men of fair capacity who cannot get employment of any sort. As a rule, such men fare worse than men of a coarser fibre, because they are disqualified for taking hold of the odd jobs that men of the rougher class occasionally pick up. It would be almost suicidal for a stranger to come to New York expecting to find a situation.