Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1869-04-30
The Insurace CIerls--IIosy He Lost His
Place.

aItswas downfall indeed, -or it seom
cd so then.
There was |, as comfortable a young
fellow as wore nice kid gloves in Boston.
NY place was easy enough and hard
enough My salary was eighteen hun
dred a year. / had a reasonable vaca-
ton. liked the other clerks and they
liked me. understood my business, MS
it proved, only too vel. Best of all,
perhaps, had fitted up my two rooms
at Mrs. Thayer's as prettily as heart
could wish. The bed was large enough,
and YOU could mir the bedroom. The
carpets were ingram, OF small figure;
they were cheap, but of that dark claret
and black which give o warm tone and
make things feel comfortable. Not'too
many pictures,-but those hung low
enough Not too many books, but the
free list at the old Boston Library, four
or five cards at the public library, and
three or four friends on the staff there, a
minister's right at the Athenaum, and a
pleasant intimacy with Loring. owed
no man dollar. | had no enemy in
the world. was at home 10 a do zen
nice cordial families of friends; and what
more could man require /? Of sudden
the bolt fell Or is it sword that falls ?
| believe it is a sword. Make it sword,
Mr.. Proof Reader. Of sudden the
sword fell
The Office that was in was the new
" established Methuselah and Adme-
tus Life Assurance company To say
assurance, instead Of insurance, is rather
natty; it sounds English, and people
fancy the Earrings and the bank of Eng.
land pay the bills. Methuselah' was to
attract the biblical, and : Admetus' the
classical gudgeons. For, though the
great hope of the man who insures his
life is that he may be beloved of the
gods and so die young, yet practically
people insure in the vague feeling that
they thus take bond against Death, or
turn him the cold shoulder. 1t is some
what as you carry an umbrella in the
hope of preventing rain. We had got
our advertisements and prospectuses out,
and really We had great many new fea-
lures. If you held your scrip eleven
wears and four months, and then did not
sell it for two years and one month more,
at the end of that time we declared a
dividend of four-ninteenths of all the
profits before undivided. after striking a
balance between two-eleyenths of the
risks, and scventy-three per cent. of the
premiums, reserving, of course, $751;
273, 642l7 to secure the cousins of the
bondhoders. That feature may have
been in some other companies, but l new
er SAW it. We had very fine sign in
front of our Office in Queen street, with
a picture of Methuselah kissing Admetus,
and Alcestis crying in the corner, because
her husband could not die, l believe.
Within, we had velvet carpet for the
presidents room, a tapestry carpet for
the directors room, English brussels for
the secretary's, American brussels for
ours, and that nice, clear Russian mat,
that smells so pleasantly of tar, for the
customers. We had comfortable chairs,
and all the newspapers.
/ should have been there to this hour,
suppose, but that one day very stupid
customer came in. Not but this often
happened. But, this day, the president
| found his velvet lonesome, and had come
forward into our office. l thought he
was reading the 'Cornhill,' but as it
happened, he was listening over his spec
| tacles to me. That sentence is not quite
right, but cannot alter it. People do
not listen over their spectacles, they lis
ten over their collars; they peek over
their spectacles. Perhaps he did that
too. Well, explained aud explained to
the customer. who finally went away
without customing. He took the little
pink book, and the large blue pamphlet,
and the card with the head of Methuse-
lab, and both the little cards, but he did
not take out policy, and he did not say
he would. / am sure did not wonder,
but it seems the president did.
"What did you say to that mani"
said he.
explained the system OF life insur
ANGEL mean life assurance" said |,
AS well. as could s.,..s
Yes" said the president. "But
what did you tell him about invalid lives e.
20, | had shown him the Norlhamp-
ton tables, and the Carlisle tables, and
the equitable tables, and l repeated to
him Cowpers lines TO the Registrar" (
/ know, | know" said the president,
who is little hasty, though he is my
aunt Lucy's brother-in-law, which &C
counts for my being there indeed. 81
know all that, but what were you saying
about invalid lives?"
"Why, | explained to him that moth
ing was so certain as the average law of
death. We had these tables,--and so
we knew, on an average, just how long
people would live. And we fixed our
risk accordingly, so as to meet the aver
age. And be asked me why be was to
go to a medical examiner then. And l
told him that it was because we only
wanted to insure healthy lives. And he
asked me whether only healthy lives
came into the tables of mortality
whether they were only healthy people
who lived in Carlisle and Northampton
and the rest,--and why We did not do