New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1880-04-14
4 Strange Insurance Policy.

4 Strange Insurance Policy.
Just you crowd boy out Of his seat
In the car, snub him at the stamp-win
dow in the post-ofice, or ignore his
presence in the crowd around fallen
street-car horse, and he'll got even
with you if he has to sell his skates
and hand-sled to do it.
{ a Detroit life insurance agent lived
to be forty-fve years old before he
realized this fact. It SO happened that
IN going up on the car he many times
encountered a tow-headed boy about
twelve years old. One day he lifted
this boy off his seat to make room for
himself, and then added insult to in
jury by calling him :. Bulb y and offer
ing his knee as seat. The boy went
ont on the platform and vowed that
he'd hit that agent hard if the sign
ever came right, and he shed a few
tears OF Indignation to clinch the vow.
Time sped along. The boys father
had been thinking some" Of life in
surance, and the agent heard Of it and
went for him. He called at his Office.
his house, and nabbed him on corners
and in the cars, and the citizen finally
said he would take policy home.
study its clauses, and return 8 final
answer. The tow-headed boy sat figur
ing out his school examples one even
ing, when the father said:
John, want to hear how we'll YOU
can read; | haven't got my glasses
here, and you may read this Insurance
policy to me. Read slowly, and don't
skip the hard words.''
So You got it of that man .wno stood
at the gate yesterday, didn't yot?''
asked the boy, and when satisfied on
that point he felt the balmy feeling
that creeps into mans heart when
he's got the dead wood on the fellow
who stole his hens. The old gent got
his feet to the fire, leaned back in his
chair, and the boy began:
Witnesseth, that the Bang-bang In
surance Company" etc. When he got
down to the proper place he cleared his
voice anew and read:
If the said person whose life is
hereby insured shall pass beyond the
settled limits of the United States or
Canada. or shall attend a pole-raising,
or caucus, or dog-fght, Or
WHAT! exclaimed the father, "does
that policy forbid me to 20 down to the
caucus and help lay out the bummers?
Forbid me to be present at a pole-rais-
mgr
"Ora dog fight" put in the boy.
- dog fight-yes! That's q direct
insult, that is! That's as much as to
say I'm in the habit of patronizing such
things, and I feel the insult!''
"Or if it is found that the insured
deliberately lied," continued the boy,
Cor"
deliberately lied, Ell! That's an
other insult. They think I'd tell bold
lie, do theyv'
And it is expressly stipulated that
no baldheaded man who insures in this
company shall use bar soap to wash his
scalp" read the boy.
"Does that policy read that way!
Why. it's succession of Internal per-
sonal insults! Bar-soap on my scalp!
Why, I'd kill the person who rAder-
took to soap-suds my badness! That
insurance company must be set of
lunatics! What other insults have they
got thereP''
"And the insured shall be required
to 60 before Notary Public or Justice
of the Peace and make oath that Meth
er of his parents has ever been regu-
lar inmate of a lunatic asylum for over
three months in any one year,
"By Gum!' exclaimed the old man,
as he put his foot down" that's rather
too much! I suppose that a life insur-
ance company has perfect right to
protect itself, but when it intimates
that my father was fool and my
mother a lunatic it is more than 1 can
stand. John, fold that policy and put
it in my overcoat pocket!'
The other morning the tow=headed
boy was on the eight o'clock car. So
was his father. The life-insurance
agent got on at a crossing, jamming the
boys hat over his eyes as he pushed in,
and seeing his "patient'' at the front
end of the car he crowded forward and
said:
"Good morning! Glad to see you
looking SO we'll. Did the conditions of
the policy please youP''
"Mr. Blank" replied the citizen, as
he handed out the document, sshere's
your policy! Keep it! don't want it!
won't have it! won't talk about it,
"But -" began the astonished
and frozen agent.
The other rose up, rang the bell and
got off the car, followed by his son
John, whose sad eyes seemed to be
gazing at something far away. and
whose mouth was puckered into a most
solemn and sedate-looking big o.
Detroit Free Press.
Form Of Type VITA Reference to Its
Legibility.
We find some interesting remarks on
the form of letters in Typography in
recent paper on reading and eyesight
by M. Javel. We are not to suppose,
he says, that in reading line one passes
successfully from the lower part of
letter to the upper part, then down the
next letter, up the next, and SO on, the
vision describing wavy line. The fix
alton takes place with extreme pre-
cision along a straight line, passing
along the junction of the upper third Of
the letter with the lower two-thirds.
Why is this line not in the middle? Be-
cause variations in the form of the let
tiers are more. frequent above than be-
low, in the proportion of about seventy
five per cent. One may understand
this by applying on a line of typo
graphic characters sheet of paper
covering the line in its lower two
thirds, and leaving the upper third
bare; one is then able to read the let
tiers almost as well as if they had not
been concealed in greater part. It is
not SO, however, if we cover the upper
two-thirds Of the line; the lower third
OF the letters alone does not furnish
sufficient for recognition. The charac-
teristic part Of the letters, then, lis
chiefly in their upper part. Comparing
next the ancient characters with those
of modern books, N. Javel maintains
that the latter have too much uniforms
ity, SO that, taken in their upper parts
alone, many Of them may be confound-
cd in rpa1inn Tho n1d 1nt<oru ~, %l,<