Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-01-19
NOT A PUFF.
An Insurance Company that Don't
Insure wounded Confederates.

We have few plkin remarks to sub.
NIT to the prblio concerning certain
life insuranes company which operates 10
this city aud ct other points in the South.
In doing so we are merely actuated by
desire TO put disabled ex-Confederate
soldiers on their guard, and especially 10
save all such the annoyance Of making
application to be insured in tina: COM
psny, for they are most likely to be re-
jectsd. A single instance will be suf-
fcient to justify our position and course.
Some weeks ago young man, not far
from thirty, applied to The local agent
here, very pleasant gentleman by the
way, for a policy Of $4,000 on the life
plan. The applicant, though following
a sedentsry life, was in perfect health,
and his only defect, physically, Yves the
absence of a leg, shot away at the knee
during the war, and ultimately cut of at
the middle third, leaving q sound stump
which has perfectly healed, and leav-
ing him in better health and greater vigor
than he WAS before the war. Two com
petent physicians examined him care
fully, aud made very favorable, not to
say Aattering, report The gentleman
left the Office feeling much encouraged in
regard to his chances fer green old
age" The application was duly for
warded to New York, aud in ten days
came back rejected
A simple explanation was given that
the mortality in that class had been con-
siderable since the war, and that the
company could not take such risks. Now
whatever excuses or pretexts the Neto
York Equitable Life Insurance Com
pany may make for such course, we
cannot help believing that they are in
auenced by political and sectional pre-
judce, and that, while willing to pick up
all the money they can in the South,
they don't want any crippled Confeder-
ates on their list. This being apparent,
we submit these facts to all Southern
people without making any special sug-
sestions.
The opinions of the medical fraternity,
and the statistics of the highest colleges
in this country and Europe, do not sus-
tain the course of the New York Equita-
BILE. A learned and distinguished physi-
clan Of France, in lecture at Paris not
long since, stated that the losa Of limb
seemed to be compensated for by addi-
tional longevity, and alluded to the long
life attained by many of the crippled sur
vivors OF Bonapsrte's wars. We can il.
lustrate this principle, however, without
going to France, or even to New York.
Look at the dozen or so well known gen.
tlemen in Mem his who had the misfor-
tune to lose limbs in the war. A more
robust, healthy looking set of men could
not be selected out of FIVE hundred. They
are all stouter and more .aeshy, with pos
sibly an exception, than before the war.
We have carefully noted the same condi-
tions and facts in the principal cities
and States of the Union. Disabled men
are proverbially careful, and fewer acci-
dents happen to them than any other
class, because they arc sensitive of their
condition, and, one might say, morbidly
careful.
Take old General Santa Ana, for in
stance. He lost leg in battle in the
Mexican wars, and yet thirty years later
went back to his native land hale old
man of at least seventy.fve, and was
able. to inaugurate revolution which
threatened to involve our country in
another Mexican war. We might write
whole columns of such facts and srgu-
ments proving that the New York Equi-
table has taken On untenable position,
and one which will cause them to lose
more than they would save, even if they
were correct. There are companies who
will insure one-armed and one.legged
Confederates, provided they are sound
otherwise; but we advise our fellow
sufferers not to apply to the company
mentioned, as it takes no such risks.
If we had suggestion to make at all,
| it would be to try some reliable Southern
company--some home institution-and
thus patronize real friends and keep the
money at home among ourselves.