A Safe Business

1895

A big, burly looking fellow, a picture of health and strength, walked into the office of a prominent accident insurance company the other day and applied for a policy.

"Certainly," said the secretary. "Are you engaged in any hazardous business?"

"Not in the least," replied the applicant.

"Does your business make it necessary for you to handle loaded firearms or weapons of any kind?"

"No, sir."

"Would your business ever require you to be where there were excited crowds — for instance, at a riot or a fire?"

"Very seldom."

"Is your business such as to render you liable to street cars or runaway horses?" "No, sir."

"Does your business throw you in contact with the criminal classes?"

"Very rarely indeed, sir."

"I guess you are eligible. What is your business?"

"I am a policeman." — New York Dispatch.

Why Some Men Don't Get Insurance

1895

Men who make application for insurance in considerable amounts, say for upward of $10,000, are not only very carefully examined by physicians appointed by the insurance companies, but during the period while their application is being examined are kept under surveillance by a well organized detective service.

Some of the reports which are made of a man's habits and mode of life, with perhaps some of his pet secrets, as made to the detective bureaus of the different companies, would prove mighty interesting reading. Of course such matters can never become public property, and, in fact, the records are destroyed as soon as the application is passed upon. This fact, which is not generally known, may explain much to solid citizens who, for some unknown reason, have had their applications postponed indefinitely.

The insurance companies are entirely justified in employing such an instrument to learn the facts about their risk. Men who live rationally, like men who fill positions of trust honestly, have nothing to fear from being watched. — New York Press.

Didn't Kill Himself

New York, 1895

Cornelius B. Seaman, a blacksmith of Port Washington, on Tuesday got a verdict in the Supreme Court of $525 against the Prudential Life Insurance company on two policies that be held on the life of one of his workmen, Jacob Mettloch. In January a year ago Mettloch was found dead in Seaman's barn. A rope used to lower feed from the haymow was found wrapped around his neck and his body was in an upright position leaning against a ladder. A Coroner's jury found that Mettloch committed suicide. The insurance company refused to pay the policies, asserting that the man had taken his own life. Lawyer Merrill set up the theory that Mettloch was seized with heart disease while descending from the mow, where he had been sleeping after a spree, fell, and became entangled in the rope, which had nothing to do with his death. The jury rendered a verdict for the full amount with interest.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 18, 1895, unknown page number.

The Ketchaboneck House Burned

New York, 1895

The Ketchaboneck house at Westhampton, one of the largest summer hotels at the beach was destroyed by fire at three o'clock Sunday morning. The family of Mr. Raynor barely escaped with their lives. Nothing was saved, not even sufficient clothing to keep them warm. The hotel could accommodate about 100 guests. The building and furniture were insured for $10,000.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 18, 1895, unknown page number.

Insures Prize Hen for $5,000 Policy

1919

Washington Chicken Holds World Record for Egg Production.

PORTLAND, Oregon. — It isn't every hen that can carry around a $5,000 life insurance policy, but that is the amount of insurance placed on one of the hens at the poultry show here.

This hen is a White Leghorn, owned by Dr. Tancred of Kent, Washington. She set a world's record for production by laying 300 eggs in 365 days, ended Sept. 16. This is about four times the production of the average hen, so her value in the poultry world can easily be seen.

Her owner consented to allow her to be placed on exhibition by one of the poultry feed companies, but stipulated that she must be insured for $5,000.

He Gets No Pie or Custard

1919

Such Is Hubby's Plea in Cross-bill for Divorce.

FINDLAY, Ohio — It was all right for the wife of Larson L. Brown to take hubby's pay envelope every Saturday and out of the contents pay a premium on the life insurance of her former husband, but when Mrs. Brown fed Larson side meat and boiled potatoes about 365 meals each year then he balked. This was learned when Brown's cross petition to his wife's petition for a divorce was filed. Brown intimated that a little pie and cup custard would have appeased things.

Have Got Beyond Feeling

1902

The people of Martinique, or those who still cling to that unfortunate island, will probably not be alarmed by the scientific report that it is likely to sink out of sight, says the Chicago Inter Ocean. They are probably beyond the reach of alarm by this time.


Lucky Old Maids

Woman insure against being old maids in Denmark, says the New York Mail and Express. If they marry before they are 40 what they have paid goes to the less fortunate, and these last are pensioned for the remainder of their lives on a scale proportioned on what they paid in.


Starving in Galicia

In Galicia the wage of the farm laborer has been so reduced that he is starving to death on a pittance of from three to 16 cents a day.


Index of Cleanliness

The average French person uses six pounds of soap in a year; the average English person uses ten pounds.


Will Follow a Swiss Model

Swiss postal officials are to be employed to assist in the reorganization of the Japanese post office. The Swiss postal system is to be taken as a model.

Insurance Against Surgical Operations

1902

In England people of moderate means are beginning to insure themselves against surgical operations. The plan is that subscribers who pay an annual fee shall be entitled either to free admittance to a hospital or nursing at home and a free operation or to a fixed sum paid down to defray the cost of an operation if one becomes necessary.

In England, as here, the cost of surgical repairs to the human body has become oppressively great to persons who just manage to pay their way. People who are obviously poor get a great deal of excellent surgical and medical treatment in hospitals and elsewhere for nothing, but for the next class above them a serious illness — especially if it involves an operation — is almost ruinous. It would seem as if the time was near when societies for insurance against specialists might be profitably organized in the larger American cities.

The specialist has come to be a very important — indeed, an indispensable — institution, especially to families in which there are children. The office of the family doctor has now become simplified to the task of coming in and telling the patient which specialist to go to. It is not that specialists charge too much, for their honorable services are above price. It is that landlord, butcher, baker, grocer, milkman, coalman, dentist, and trained nurse do not leave you money enough to pay them appropriately.

To subscribe a considerable sum annually and have all the repairs and desirable improvements made in one's family without further disbursement would be a comparatively simple way out of a troublesome predicament. — Harper's Weekly.

The Life Insurance Cure

1900

Result of a Dying Bachelor's Plan For a Novel Funeral

"I don't know that life insurance is a cure for disease," said the retired life insurance solicitor, "but I know of an instance which makes it look that way. In the town where I first began business was a bachelor of about 50 years, who was quite alone in the world and had some years before taken out a $5,000 policy on himself for the benefit of a maiden sister, who had died a year before the events of this story. He kept his policy going, however, because it was a good way to save money, and one day he was taken down with some kind of fever. He grew worse day after day, until one day the doctor told him that he would in all likelihood be dead within the next 24 hours.

"This suggested his life insurance money, all he had to leave, and he immediately began to talk with the doctor on the subject of a proper disposal of it. He concluded after some thought that the best thing to do with it was to blow it on a tremendous big funeral for himself, including a banquet for all the people he knew. This was an entirely new idea for a funeral, and when the doctor left him that night to the care of his nurse his mind was entirely occupied with his funeral. He talked to the nurse about it, and when the nurse made him stop he lay and thought about it. In fact, he became so much interested in the details of his funeral that he quite forgot about having to die to make it possible.

"In the morning when the doctor came he found his patient in a wild perspiration and his pulse beating in much better fashion than it had been doing for some days. He also found the general condition of the patient much improved. He was greatly astonished and at once began to ask questions. The patient told him with eager interest of a lot of new things he had thought of for the funeral and some that bothered him a good deal and said he had been thinking of it all night. Then the doctor laughed and told him he guessed the funeral would have to be postponed, for he wasn't going to die just then anyhow. Nor did he, and he isn't dead yet, but he is married and has his policy paid up for his wife's benefit." - Chicago Inter Ocean.

Hearing for the Deaf on Pike's Peak

Editorial briefs, Sept. 1910

A deaf man who climbed Pike's Peak found he could hear at that altitude. But the difficulty of the cure practically lies in the fact that it takes up his residence where he can hear there will be nobody for him to listen to.

Tarred, feathered and bitten is the New Jersey variation according to that story of the victim wbo was left thus scantily attired as the prey of the mosquitoes.

When a young married couple go away by aeroplane on their honeymoon their destination is sufficiently uncertain to fulfill all the requirements.

Perhaps the same fellows who are searching for germs in ice cream this summer will be hunting for them in our buckwheat cakes next winter.

If they insist on confiscating ice cream cones the small boy and some big ones, too, will be robbed of one of their most palatable enjoyments.

Will the insurance companies demand increased premiums from those who love to see the airships go round?

Trade Unions — Savings Bank Lifts Load of Anxiety

1910

By Daniel J. McDonald

Trade unions are formed to elevate humanity by increasing wages and by bettering the condition of the laboring classes. In work along each of these two lines they have been far more useful and effective than is generally believed. Each dollar increase in wages and each hour of leisure secured gives larger opportunity for education, thought and the gaining of knowledge.

Among the greatest of the loads borne by the workers are uncertainty of employment, heavy expenses of sickness and of death of the worker himself or of those dependent upon him or of those upon whom he is dependent; the loss of wages during such times of trouble and the lack of provision for old age. So small is the utmost possible amount of a workingman's savings that almost invariably it is swept away, sometimes repeatedly, by one of these causes, and old age finds the worker penniless.

Any movement like this of savings bank insurance that proposes to lift the financial load at times of sickness and non-employment, and make provision for old age, is in direct line of trade union effort. By providing for future emergencies it promotes independence and lifts a load of anxiety. The man is more able to fit himself for advancement.

The British labor movement has been noted from the beginning for the variety and extent of its financial assistance to its members in times of trouble. Unity, solidarity, steadiness of purpose, devotion and faithfulness of members have been the results. The splendid achievements in English labor legislation, far surpassing anything we can hope for in many years, are due to the unity of purpose and action produced largely by the fraternal care for each member. In this country we need to exercise more care for the welfare of each member, in order that each member may be more devoted to the welfare of the whole.

The ideal method of affiliation, if there is to be affiliation, between the labor movement and savings bank insurance, is for each union to insist that each of its members shall be properly and adequately insured.

"Specialties" at Beehive Store

1899

All retailers like to have and announce their specialties ; and sometimes, it seems, such commercial specialties may take on a very general character. A travelling man tells the Washington Star that, while visiting lately a small but enterprising town in West Virginia, he came upon the following sign:

"THE BEEHIVE STORE,
"Ronceverte, W. Va.

"Dealers in General Merchandise and Country Produce of Every Kind.

SPECIALTIES: Coffins, Caskets and Burial Supplies; Salt, Bacon and Lard; Hides, Furs and Live Foxes."

In addition to these somewhat diverse specialties, the proprietor of the store carried on the business of a fire insurance agent. — Youth's Companion.

Man Profits by Limp Wrist, Claiming Injuries

1915

Hand Would Fall Limp After Fall in Rail Car, Insurance Claim Following

Minneapolis. — How an obedient wrist bone served as a means of livelihood was told in court by Lester Edward Mills, who confessed that it had netted him $2,000 in the last year. It finally caused his downfall, however, and he will serve an indeterminate sentence in the Stillwater penitentiary as the result of sentence by Judge W. C. Leary, before whom he pleaded "guilty" to a charge of attempted grand larceny on complaint of Ralph Wellington, claim agent of the Duluth Street Railway company.

All that Mills has done to separate $2,000 from railroads, street railway companies and merchants within the last year has been to fall prostrate over a suitcase in the aisle or any obstacle on the sidewalk, gasp for breath and allow his left hand to hang limp from the wrist. Six rides has he taken in ambulances, six fair nurses have smiled at him as the color slowly returned to his face. Five claim agents have drawn checks against their companies and as many times has Mills pocketed the same.

Among the recent settlements made with Mills, according to his story in court, are:

Kennedy Brothers, $400; Northern Pacific, $1,200; Great Northern, $125; Great Northern, $250; St. Paul Street Railway company, $250.

"I have been in just one wreck," Mills told Judge Leary. "That was March 13, 1905, at Fond du Lac, Wis. I was brakeman on the old Wisconsin Central. My left wrist was broken. About a year ago I thought I could use that injury to collect damages from others. At Duluth I got a fellow with a suitcase to get on the street car, and when the car was rounding a curve I fell over the suitcase. I complained that my wrist was hurt. They took me to a hospital. Later I came to Minneapolis and met the claim agent at the West hotel. It was only a few days afterward that I was arrested."

"This may be your first arrest," said Judge Leary, "but it is not to your credit, for all these other claims have been faked the same way, have they not?"

The prisoner glanced to the back of the courtroom, where was seated his young wife. When he raised his eyes to the judge he admitted that he had done nothing but work up fake claims for the last year or more.

Although Mills was arrested at No. 1604 Stevens avenue, his wife gave her address as No. 86 Thirteenth street South. She said she had no idea that her husband had been collecting money in the way he admitted. She thought he was working for a railroad company, she said.

Under the sentence Mills may be confined to state prison not to exceed two and one-half years.

The Luckless Procrastinator

1914

The procrastinator is always liable to be luckless. To postpone a duty that should be discharged at once is to invite trouble for all concerned.

Many a man who is well disposed toward life insurance is still deferring the purchase of a policy which would be a boon to his family in the event of his death. The would be insurant is in good health today, but tomorrow he may be stricken with a disease that may bar him from the ranks of the insurable.

His reason for putting off securing a policy may he that it is inconvenient at present to pay the premium. But he should consider carefully the fact that life insurance will never be cheaper for him than it is today. His yearly premium on a policy taken out now would be appreciably less than would be the premium on a policy of the same amount taken out when he is a year older. Delay, therefore, will add somewhat to the yearly burden he would have to carry. The best thing for any uninsured man to do is to insure at once. — Leslie's Weekly.

Insurance Collected, "Dead" Man is Alive

1922

CLARION, Pa. — A. W. Weed, formerly an "oil shooter" of Oklahoma, today told how he wandered about the country for nearly two years, his mind a temporary blank, following an explosion of a magazine of the Osage Torpedo company at Pawhuska, Okla., where he was employed. Weed, whose wife collected $6,000 insurance in the belief that he was blown to atoms, related his experiences from the time he found himself lying beside a small stream following the explosion, until he was arrested and lodged in jail here for driving an automobile without a license.

—The Lima News, Lima, Ohio, Aug. 26, 1922, p. 2.

When Asked To Sign His John Hancock, He Did

1920

Examining Physician Has Odd Experience

Policy Seeker's Name Furnishes a Strange Coincidence

ELDORADO, Kan. — "What's in a name, anyway?" has been asked frequently and the answers have been divided about 50-50 as to their import. Among those who have realized that there is something in a name is an Eldorado physician, who passed through a peculiar experience recently.

A man came to the doctor to be examined for insurance. Everything went along swimmingly and when the time came for the applicant to sign his name the doctor said jocularly:

"Just sign your John Hancock right there," at the same time pointing to the line reserved for the signature of an applicant.

Imagine the physician's surprise when the man returned the document with the name "John Hancock" legibly inscribed on the line alluded to.

"Oh, I meant for you to sign your own name," the doctor exclaimed, at the same time having visions of a spoiled application blank.

"Well, I did," replied the man. "My name is John Hancock."

"Can you beat it," exclaimed the physician, as he folded the blank and turned it over to the insurance agent.

Farm, Orchard, and Garden - 1903

March 8, 1903

By J.S. Trigg, Rockford, Iowa

Rice feeds ten persons, taking the world at large, where wheat feeds one.

The losses by reason of hog cholera last year in the state of Indiana are placed at near $6,000,000.

The American farmer is getting the daily paper habit as a result of rural delivery, and it is a good thing for him.

Steam transports having a capacity of 900,000 bushels of wheat each will soon be plying between the Pacific coast and Japan.

The modern harvesting machines are now in use by twenty-nine different nations of the earth and represent in their ability to harvest the crops of the world the labor of 20,000,000 men.

We do not know that the time will ever come when the lion shall eat straw like the ox, but the time has come when the hog will eat hay — alfalfa hay — like an old cow. It is a staple winter ration for Kansas hogs.

An export dealer in butter stated recently that he would rather handle butter which scored 92 and which would remain at that scoring until disposed of than to handle an extra grade at 93 and have it drop to 92 before it could be sold.

A second cutting of timber land — oak, hickory, maple and basswood — of twenty-eight years' growth yields about eighteen cords to the acre, worth net to the owner about $72. This fact explains why forestry is not profitable in a commercial sense.

A farmers' mutual insurance company of a county in a Western state paid $2,375 on thirty-nine losses during the year. Of this amount $2,284.84 was for losses caused by lightning, stock killed, while only $129.75 was paid out for fire losses. This goes to show that lightning in these days of barbed wire fences is a very destructive agent.

The stockmen of the West are bitterly opposed to the proposed packing house trust, believing such a combination will have the cattlemen completely at its mercy in the matter of fixing prices. This opposition is so marked and emphatic that with its threats to establish packing houses of its own it may defeat the proposed packing house merger.

Years ago when black walnut was plentiful and cheap it was used largely for the construction of the wooden bridges by the pioneers because of the ease with which it could be worked and its well-known durability. Such a bridge built fifty years ago in the state of Indiana, 150 feet long, contains timber valued at present at $15,000, which would more than twice pay for a steel bridge to take its place.

We are asked whether the production of cucumbers for pickles is a profitable business, what the yield is and what the profits. In such cases as we have known the crop will yield a gross return of from $40 to $70 per acre. There are two difficulties in the way of this crop — one to protect the vines from insect pests, the other to secure necessary help to gather the crop, which has to be done every two or three days during the season.

If one starts out as a breeder of registered cattle of any breed, he must produce animals of such a grade of excellence that his yearling males will bring him at least $100 each. If he cannot do this, he had better confine his efforts to the production of beef or milk and let others breed for the market. Not every man is cut out for a breeder. There must be individual excellence as well as pedigree, and some men cannot combine these qualities.

A large purchase of Belgian hares by an Eastern canning factory was logically followed by a large shipment of choice selected boned turkey from the cannery soon after. After all, it's what you think you are eating rather than what you really eat, evidenced by the serving of fried cat for squirrel as a joke at a party, the participants at the feast pleased and satisfied, only to undergo a serious digestive disturbance later when informed of what they had really eaten.

With the exception of the peach, orange, grape, nectarine and apricot, it may be said that nearly all our other fruits thrive best where there are the least extremes of temperature, where neither excessive heat, cold, moisture nor aridity prevails. The climatic conditions which prevail in Nova Scotia, lower Canada, northern New York, northern Michigan, Washington and Oregon, whore it would be difficult to mature a crop of corn, furnish the apple its very best conditions, also the pear, cherry and all the small fruits.

Insane Man Threatened to Kill Restaurant Keeper

Lincoln, Nebraska, 1920

Threatened to Kill Restaurant Keeper

Man Under Arrest Knew How to Use Gun

Told a Physician That He Intended Shooting Up the Place During the Evening Meal Hour

When two deputy sheriffs and a deputy United States marshal dropped into a South Tenth restaurant during the supper hour Tuesday evening and gazed curiously around and then consulted in whispers with the proprietor, cashier and other attaches, interest upon the part of everyone in the place became quickly apparent. The patron who had been but a moment before busily engaged in the mastication of a chop turned quickly upon his high stool and gazed with suspicion upon his neighbors on either side. Soon everyone in the long room as well as those in the kitchen to the rear had been apprised of the fact that an insane man had threatened to appear and shoot up the place and that the officers were looking for him.

The crazy man failed to reach the restaurant, but had he arrived it is thought he would have found it necessary to content himself with shattering dishes and coffee urns with his bullets, as it became speedily apparent there would have been no human targets in sight. As a wise general has at all times a line of retreat available, so has the long headed proprietor of a bean bureau who has been warned that armed invasion is imminent. So everyone from the boss to the dishwasher was prepared to duck and decamp at the first indication of hostilities. One well known lawyer gulped down what was in his mouth, slid from his altitudinous perch and throwing a bill at the alert cashier, vanished through the front door. He is said to have reached his office in record time.

But the madman came not. Deputy Sheriffs Anderson and Moore and Deputy United States Marshal Carroll went from the restaurant to the room which he had been occupying at 1448 0 street and there found him. He is named in the insanity complaint which had been lodged against him in the office of the clerk of the district court as M. L. Munger and during the afternoon he had called at the office of a physician and announced his intention of shooting up the restaurant.

He assured the doctor that the people at the place had been taking his meals, were determined to kill him, and had been putting poison in his coffee. It was his intention to go there at supper time, and upon the slightest indication that there was anything wrong he would kill everyone in the place. As soon as the man had left his office the physician reported the matter to the proper officers and steps were taken to place Munger under restraint. The deputies first visited the restaurant and after ascertaining that the slaughter had not as yet taken place, they went to the room of the demented man.

A knock at the door was responded to by Munger, who was at once taken charge of. The man had in his possession a large automatic revolver with a box of shells, and in his room was also a rifle with ammunition. He was very friendly with the officers, but insisted upon forcing cigarets upon Deputy "Bob" Anderson. He frankly assured that officer that the "pills" would lull him, that being the end avowedly aimed at. He was convinced that Anderson had a large family and carried life insurance and he thought that "he would be worth more dead than alive." Munger was locked up in the county jail and it was thought he would be given a hearing before the insanity commission some time during the day.

Nothing was learned by the officers of the family or antecedents of the unfortunate man, who claims to be a mechanic and an inventor. He had in his room a suit case, lined with sheet iron and fastened with five locks, and it was stated his patent is kept in this receptacle.

—The Evening State Journal and Lincoln Daily News, Lincoln, Nebraska, February 25, 1920, page 3.

Faust Story in Court

1901

Des Moines, Dec. 28 — Suit has been brought in the district court by J. R. Faust against the Hawkeye Insurance company to recover on a policy of $2,000 of insurance on the property of Faust which was burned several years ago on his farm in Marshall county.

The suit is the sequel to the startling story which was made public some weeks ago in regard to the life story of Faust. His statements were so strange that many persons believed them to be the vaporings of a disordered mind, but in the suit just brought this matter will be fairly tested.

Faust sets up that his property on his farm in Marshall county was insured by Hawkeye Insurance and that it was burned, but the company refused to settle with him. Before he could fight the case in court he was arrested and accused of having set fire to the property, and for this he was sent to the penitentiary on testimony which he declared was false.

Later another person made full confession of having set fire to the property for the purpose of robbery, and declared that Faust was in Des Moines at the time and could not have been guilty of arson.

Faust was released from the penitentiary after serving his time and was seized and spirited away to the Ohio State Insane asylum, where he was kept for several years. He finally made his escape and rejoined his wife in Cedar county, Iowa. His wife had supposed him dead.

Now he comes to the front to collect the insurance money and to test in the courts the entire proceeding by which he was deprived of his living. He is either strangely insane or has been a terribly abused man, and this fact will probably be demonstrated in court.

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, December 29, 1901, page 3.

Being a Good Fellow, Providing for Your Family

Being a Good Fellow

The man who has an income of $10,000 a year and spends every cent of it on his wife and family and friends is a good fellow and is blessed by everybody even after he has died and left not a cent to keep his children in school, to save his wife from going to work for their bread and butter or to pay his bills scattered around the town. He dies a royal good fellow, with the reputation of living only for his family.

The man who takes $1,000 a year off his wife's back in clothes and $1,000 a year off his own back and off his drinks and cigars and puts it into insurance for them against the time when he is dead and another $1,000 a year out of other things that make a man generous and lovable and puts that into a bond every twelvemonth for them and then dies and leaves them where his children can stay in school and his wife go on living in comfort — well, he is a curmudgeon with a mind not above sordid things, every time! — New York Press.


Economy.
Monahan-Poor Clancy!
Donegan—Why, man alive, 'tis great luck he's in!
"P'hwat; D'ye call it luck to have wan o' yer legs cut off?"
"Av coorse. It'll only cost him half as much now for shoes and pants." — Philadelphia Record.

—The Marion Daily Star, Marion, Ohio, February 27, 1902, page 7.