yet) the land of suicides.  In a single year there were one hundred and six in San Francisco alone.  The whole number of suicides in the State would, if the horror of each case could be even imperfectly imagined, appall even the dryest statistician of crime.  The causes for this prevalence of self-destruction are to be sought in the peculiar conditions of the country, and the habits of the people.  California, with all its beauty, grandeur, and riches, has been to the many who have gone thither a land of great expectations, but small results.  This was specially the case in the earlier period of its history, after the discovery of gold and its settlement by “Americans,” as we call ourselves, par excellence.  Hurled from the topmost height of extravagant hope to the lowest deep of disappointment, the shock is too great for reaction; the rope, razor, bullet, or deadly drug, finishes the tragedy.  Materialistic infidelity in California is the avowed belief of multitudes, and its subtle poison infects the minds and unconsciously the actions of thousands who recoil from the dark abyss that yawns at the feet of its adherents with its fascination of horror.  Under some circumstances, suicide becomes logical to a man who has neither hope nor dread of a hereafter.  Sins against the body, and especially the nervous system, were prevalent; and days of pain, sleepless nights, and weakened wills, were the precursors of the tragedy that promised change, if not rest.  The devil gets men inside a fiery circle, made by their own sin and folly, from which there seems to be no escape but by death, and they will unbar its awful door with their own trembling hands.  There is another door of escape for the worst and most wretched, and it is opened to the penitent by the hand that was nailed to the rugged cross.  These crises do come, when the next step must be death or life-penitence or perdition.  Do sane men and women ever commit suicide?  Yes—­and, No.  Yes, in the sense that they sometimes do it with even pulse and steady nerves.  No, in the sense that there cannot be perfect soundness in the brain and heart of one who violates a primal instinct of human nature.  Each case has its own peculiar features, and must be left to the all-seeing and all-pitying Father.  Suicide, where it is not the greatest of crimes, is the greatest of misfortunes.  The righteous Judge will classify its victims.

A noted case in San Francisco was that of a French Catholic priest.  He was young, brilliant, and popular—­beloved by his flock, and admired by a large circle outside.  He had taken the solemn vows of his order in all sincerity of purpose, and was distinguished as well for his zeal in his pastoral work as for his genius.  But temptation met him, and he fell.  It came in the shape in which it assailed the young Hebrew in Potiphar’s house, and in which it overcame the poet-king of Israel.  He was seized with horror and remorse, though he had no accuser save that voice within, which cannot be