Show SUICIDE AMONG THE SAVAGES AS WELL AS IN OUR CITIES Explorers Explore rarely mention ih the the fact lac that suicide is prevalent am among ng barbarous barbarous bar bar- barous barons and savage tribes as well as in civilized countries Many travelers never naver he hear r of it end pud cd what we we know v about this practice among primitive peoples comes comes omes to us chiefly nom from missionaries mis is and othar r white men who live Jive among them I From all the they tell tE-Ii us i it seems that tha sui suicide id js is s as frequent among untutored folk rs as 4 in in highly c civilized countries in in proportion to population says the New Naw NewYork York Sun We might mig think that living liv liv- living ivin ing in inon on a simpler plane th they y were l less 3 subject than we are to anc and int intense nse nervous nervous strain Their troubles way may maybe be different from ours but they are just jast as intense intense- and here or there therea a man woman or 01 child enild reaches a point where life is a burden burderi to be got rid oJ of somehow or other W We are apt to think that our kind oJ of civilization develops in us acuteness oJ of feeling and a degree of sensitiveness to tc which the savage is a stranger strang The Th fact is that a great many BO so called called sav ages are as DS easily and as deeply hurt hurl by real or in- in n- n c or m misfortune fortune as we are A while ago a young man of If tho tribe jn in i West Welt Africa was aCtus l of f from of f the sealing one I white traders t lie lie He simply cOUl could l not endure the accusation He lie told a friend that he did not wish to live lire any long long- longer longer er and soon after he went qui tl into the bush a and d killed himself There are influences we never feel feelth th that t weigh heavily upon the live cf f these less favored mortals The be dark superstitions that wrap them round are among them thom If we believe many of the things that are filled with real terror terror terror ter ter- to them the suicidal tendency might become still greater in civilized lands A black man on the lower Niger made a geed g cd living by turning logs into canoes for the white traders He lie was a faithful workman but in the course of time it was evident that he had come to be unhappy though he would not taUt tali of his troubles roubles One day ho he shot himself but a skillful doctor doc doe tor kept him alive The poor fellow said he didn didn't t wish to live Jive He said the spirits of the trees amon among which he worked had become hostile hostile to him and were bent on taking his bis life The fellow was not crazy but his head was filled with the superstitions superstitions super super- that breeds and his life had become a burden These children of nature also are f far r. r more ore impulsive than the average civilized d person They are often unreasoning un uno reasoning and do rash things on the spur of the moment and on the whole are a little more likely t to do them than we are Not long ago a native of East Africa was scolded by his wife one morning whereupon he hanged banged himself from the limb of a tree His exaggerated impulsiveness really reany cost him his life It has has- often been said in civilized lands that no one can commit suicide by simply holding his breath This is not said in Africa however MJ Mr Leonard Leonard Leonard Leon Leon- ard who has lived long on the lower Niger says that one of the commonest methods of self destruction there is simply to refrain from breathing Though this seems almost a physical imp impossibility impossibility it is accomplished in Africa by the fiercest determination not to breathe and Mr Le Leonard nard thinks that the victims of this kind of suicide are usually persons who imagine that malignant spirits or other evil influences are trying to ruin them |