The prevalent mania of self-murder - typical classes and varieties of method illustrated - Death wooed by land

and water, by poison, asphyxia, the halter, the razor, the six-shooter and the locomotive.

Hard times, increasing fear of poverty, loss of property and income, hunger and destitution, despair and disgrace—these combined have made the years since the commercial panic of 1873 more than usually prolific in suicide. Of late, the prevalence of the crime has been more marked even than ever before, especially on the Pacific coast, where the heavy losses in the recent shrinkages of mining stocks have brought sorrow and despair to thousands, and impelled them, in moments of mania, to self-destruction. A number of typical cases of suicide receives, in our columns, this weeks, graphic illustration.

Illustrated Police News, January 4, 1879.