A SUICIDE'S BUREAU.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 53, 2 March 1907, Page 13

A SUICIDE'S BUREAU.

HUMANE SCHEME TO HELP THE DESPAIRING.

The bureau opened by General Booth at 101 Queen Victoria-street, London in connection with his recently developed plan of crusade against suicide, seems likely to justify its existence from the very start. rTo establish a proof of the presses need there has been for so humanitarian a rendezvous by the mentally afflicted. A newspaper representative had an interview with Colonel TJnsworth at the bureau, and from him learnt the following graphic details of the revealed misery o£ the many hopeless ones in various waits of life ' "To-day has been the worst, or the best of all," said Colonel Unsworth. "I have had more callers than on any, other day, and the stories they have had to tell have been more pitable than I could have imagined. "The effect a little advice has had on the applicants has been extraordinary. One poor fellow came here in the depths of misery- He had tried to kill himself, and had come from the padded room of a London hospital. "When he had told mc the story of the starvation which had brought him to this pitch he was already relieved. After X had. spoken to him and promised him help, he could not express his thanks in words, and he promised he would never think of suicide again. He left the building .;*' different man. - RESPECTABLE HEN IN WANT. "I have had many cases of respectable men who are in the greatest want. Will any employers give these deserving fellowe a chance, and save them from death from starvation? There have been men who have had good positions in banks, drapery, houses, and breweries, and who have the best credentials. Only 111-fortune has brought them to their present state. "They have gradually got out of toucfc wtih employment, and have lost all nope. In all cases they are realJy worthy men, cabable of satisfying any employer. "One old man told mc he and his wife had both determined to commit suicide, for they did not know how to live. He was a business man, and although he was craving for manual work, no one would have htm because lie was not physically strong enough. "A different case was that of a foreigner who had married an English girl, with whom he was deeply in love, and nad stolen his employer's money In order to provide her with luxuries. He was sent.to prison, and when he came out he found that his wife had thrown him over. Think what his state of mind must have been! "A third man had been earning £600 a year at one time, and was a university, man. He lost his post without being to blame, and now cannot get even the inferior work which kept him going for a time. His wife has had to go out as a governess. '• 'It is tie humiliation of the thing that goes through me,' he said. 'No one will believe mc, and callous repulses have givea mc a tiorror of the stony-hearted, -unfeeling world." It is not inordinately strange to hear that it is not the poor, the outcast, the miserably destitute, and the hopelessly afflicted who are tempted to flee to the tools of death, for relief from life's unequal burden. SUICIDE FROM SHBEK LONELINESS. Very striking has been the number ot men in well-to-do circumstances who have declared they have been driven, to thoughtsof suicide by sheer loneliness. They are bachelors who have been forced to leave towns where they had many acquaintances, men whose wives have left them, old men whose friends have all died. In: the town with the largest population in the world they feel mora lonely than if they lived on a desert island.. As they wander along the crowded streets they think of themselves as outcasts foe whom nobody cares, and whose death no one would mourn. They have money to spend in amusement, but not the iaculty; of being amused; material comforts and even luxuries, but not the power of ing them. A horrible brooding melancholy seizes them, and increases its grip on them every day. They even learn to hate their fellowmen, and long to be out of such a callous, heartless world. There must be thousands of such men in London. Sometimes they drag on their cheerless lives to the end, sometimes they end it all by a jump into the Tiver or by a bullet. For one real friend they would, give up everything else; but that is the one thing they cannot find. Although the rule that no financial assistance can be promised has been strictly adhered to, and not a single applicant has asked for money, a number of very deserving cases of extreme poverty have been, met with by Colonel Unsworth. These belong chiefly to classes which are not reached by any existing organisation, and consist of solicitors' clerks, office handy men, business men, and mechanics They' would not think of applying to any charitable organisation, and are Hot suited for the work offered by unemployed committees. In all cases they are men of good character and ability, and hare credentials extending over long. periods. Employers who have stress of work at times are urged to give these men a chance and save them from starvation. Letters should be addressed to Colonel Unsworth at 101 Queen Victoria-street, London, E.G.