94 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



much more steady and remunerative in comparison to any found here ; 

 tradespeople, skilled workmen, and mechanics, often commit suicide, 

 who find it difficult to obtain employment, and finally hunger and 

 disappointment drive them to this step. 



The prevalence of strikes, and trades-unions, with their dangerous 

 restrictions and foolish oaths of allegiance, are fruitful causes of sui- 

 cide. Men are afraid to work in opposition to the threats of their 

 fellow trades-unionists, and, as poverty stares them in the face and 

 they become desperate, they commit suicide. 



A necessary attendant upon increase in population is immorality, 

 engendered by vice attendant upon civilization. The more depraved 

 forms of theatrical amusement found at the low theatre halls, two or 

 three of which now exist in New York, wipe out all of the original 

 purity from the nature of the weak-minded spectators. The low songs 

 at some of these places, abounding in double entendr^s and suggestive 

 gestui-es, inflame the dormant instincts of lust in the minds of the 

 deeply-interested audience. 



Prostitution is a very easy way leading to suicide. The attendant 

 vices of this class very soon destroy the mind. Opium-eating, ine- 

 briety, and snuff-chewing, are habits which nearly all prostitutes 

 follow after a time. The classification of these causes of suicide and 

 their victims is very incomplete, and prostitution is placed on the 

 records in only one instance in 1871, 18V2, and 1873, as the calling of 

 the individual. 



The prevalence of seduction in lai'ge cities is perhaps greater 

 among the lower classes the workers in factories and shops. Indeed, 

 the chance for this crime among the many thousand young girls and 

 men who are herded together indiscriminately in the large tobacco, 

 hoop-skirt, paper-box, and other factories of great cities, is often 

 made use of. Suicide follows ruin, though not in as many cases as it 

 would in France. I do not doubt but that the large rivers, upon 

 which most American cities are built, give up a great many bodies of 

 unfortunates who end their moral ruin by suicide. In fact, the num- 

 ber of cases reported as " found drowned" may be assumed in gen- 

 eral to be suicidal. 



In our own cities, as I have before shown, clerks seem to be the 

 class that most often take their own lives. This seems reasonable 

 when we consider the peculiar careers of a great many of them the 

 temptations of vice, the struggles for situation and support, and the 

 pitfalls of a large city. 



How shall we prevent the increase of this crime which advances 

 at the rate of 300 per cent, in seven years ? What sanitary measures 

 can be taken to defeat its moral and physical causes ? 



It is a stupendous undertaking. To reduce its statistics would re- 

 quire an attack upon our whole social system. 



I have pointed out the rapidity of our way of living, the excessive 



