Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1876-04-28
lie Didn't Want Any.


Z
Philadelphia Bulletin.
When Benjamin p Gum. the life insur-
ance agent. called upon Mr.. Butterwick
the following conversation ensued
/ Gunn-"Mr. Batterwick, vou have no in
surance on your life, believe | dropped
in to see if | can't get You to 90 into our
company. We offer unparalleled induce
ments. and
Butterwick don't want to insure
Gunn-"The cost is Just nothing worth
speaking Of mere triAe And then we
pay enormous dividends, so that you have so
| much security at such little outlay that
you can be perfectly comfortable and hap
~"
Butterwick-" don't want to be
comfortable and happy. I'm trying to be
miserable
Gunn-"Now, look at this thing in a
practical light You've got to die some time
or other. That Is dreadful certainty to
which we must all look forward. 1t is fearful
enough in any event. but how much more so
when a man knows that he leaves nothing
| behind him We all shrink from death, We
all hate to think Of it the contemplation
of it fills US with awful dread but reflect,
what must be the feelings of the man who
enters the valley with the assurance that IN
a pecuniary sense his life has been an utter
1 failure Think how"
Butterwick-"Don'ts scare me bit.
want to die been wanting to die for years.
Rather die than live any time"
Gunn-"I say, think how wretched will
be the condition of those dear ones WHO'S
you leave behind YOU. Will not the tears
| of YOUR heart-broken widow be made more
bitter by the poverty in which she is sudden
| ly plunged, and by the reflection that she is
left to the charity of a cold and heartess
world. viii not
Butterwick-''I wouldn't leave her cent
| i'll had millions It'll do the old woman
| good to sknmish around for her living.
Then she'll appreciate me"
Gunn-"Your poor little children, too.
Fatherless, Orphanded, they will have no
one to fill their famished mouths with bread,
no one to protect them from harm. You
| die uninsured and they enter life of suffer
| ing from the keen pangs OF poverty. You
insure in our company and they begin life
with enough to feed and clothe them. and to
raise them above the reach Of want"
Butterw ck-''I don't want to raise them
above the reach of want. | want them to
want. Best thing they can do is to tucker
| down to work as | did
| Gunn-"Oh, Mr.. Butterwick try to
! take higher view of the matter. When
you are an angel and you come back to re-
visit the scenes of earth, will it not fill you
with sadness to see your dear ones exposed
to the storm and the blast, to hunger and
cold?"
Butterwick-"Im not going to an angel,
and if | was, | wouldn't come back.
Gunn-"You are a poor man now. How
do you know that your family will have
enough when you are gone to pay your fu-
neral expenses, to bury you decently?"
| Butterwck-'.I don't want to be buried. -
Perhaps Mrs. Butterwick will be
so indignant at your neglect that she will
not mourn for you, that she will not shed
tear over your bier"
Butterwick-"I don't want a bier, and
I'd rather she wouldn't cry any
Gunn-"Well, then, s'pssen' you go in
on the endowment plan and take policy
for $4,000, to be paid you when you reach
the age of sop
Butterwick-''l don't want S5 900 when
I'm so. | wouldn't take 1t if you were to
fling it at me and pay me to take it,
Gunn-'sI'm afraid then I'll have to say,
'Good-morning.
Butterwick-'I don't want you to say
good-morning you can go without saying
it."
Gunn-"I'll quit"
Butterwick-'.Aba, ba now you've hit it ~
do want you to quit, and as suddenly as
you can
Then Mr.. Gum left. He thinks he will
hardly insure Butterwick.