Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-10-08
III BEATS LIFE INSURANCE.


How Young Couples Contemplate
ing Marriage May Get Their
OUTFIT and n Little
Money Free.
New York Sun.
HAMBURG, PA.-The following
marriage notice appeared in one of
the neighboring weekly newspapers
to-day
On Sept. IA, by Rev. Y. r. Lem
bach, Mr.. EnOs l.. Boyer, of Maid
en- creek, to Miss Lizzie Catherine
Holman, of Lebanon county. No
cards.
Mr.. Boyer is an honest young ore
miner of good character. His bride
is a farmers daughter, educated in
the kitchen, and graduated first
class, intelligent hOusekeeper. He
is 80 and she just 20. Their parents
are only in moderate circumstances.
Six months ago the young people
were quite poor. They had inten-
ded to board with a poor family
after their marriage. Instead, how
ever, of doing this, they were ena-
bled to go to housekeeping i'll first
class style, and all by a novel streak
of luck. No secret is made of the
fact that they were insured by spec
ulators for about $4,000 in dozen
or more marriage insurance conf
panies. Mr.. Boyer, the groom, was
asked if he had any objection to
giving his experience in this en-
tireIy new method of starting in
life, and lie promptly replied, with
a smile:
"Of coarse not. I am willing to
let everybody know all about it, so
that Othe.. young people may enjoy
good luck also. Thirteen months
ago Lizzie and myself were engaged
to be married. The wedding-day
was fixed, but suddenly the mines
stopped short, and / was thrown
out of q Job. Lizzie was living
home with her parents, and after
had told her of my bad luck, we
concluded not to get married, be-
cause we had no money to COM
mence housekeeping, and had
very poor prospects ahead. One
day George Merritt, neighbOr of
mine, called to see me. He taught
school at Dry Rock during the win
ter season. He said he heard that
/ was going to be married soon, and
/ told him OF my bad luck. He
told me not TO LEI that worry me,
and said that if / would let him
take out a marriage insurance pol
icy on me and then marry, he
would buy me an $50 walnut bed
room set of furniture, with mar
ble-tOp washstand bureau and table
He said he was the agent of one of
the new companies, and that he
would take out a policy for $4,000
and have il transferred to himself.
/ said | was willing that he should
if Lizzie was. Ny friend Merritt
then told me that he had few
friends who would use me well if
they might have the same privilege
of iDsuring me in other companies,
and l said it was all right, and that
they should come along. The very
next evening another agent came
and offered to buy me a lowered
carpet for front room, lowered
carpet for a sittiug-rOom and rag
carpet for the kitchen. was de-
lighted with the business, and /
told him he might take out the pol
icy. In the meantime l had seen
Lizzie, and sire seemed first to dis
like the idea, but finally told me to
use my own judgment. Along
came another agent, and he agreed
to furnish two bedrooms for the
privilege OF insuring us. accept
cd this offer, and looked for the
next agent. To make long story
short, fifteen agents agreed to take
policies for $4,000, and thus be-
came insured for SO, 900 in about n
dozen companies. Every agent
made a present of some kind, and
when all the details were ready to
be carried out / rented this modest
two-story house here, and Lizzie
and her friends scrubbed and
secured It from top to bottom. l
met the agents over at my uncle's
tavern i'm back room. 1 signed
the applications and the assign
ments one after another, until the
large, old-fashiOned table was COW
cred with printed matter, blank
forms, etc. Each agent either gave
me an order on a store or the cash
money as soon as / had signed the
papers. Afterward / learned that
the orders were on stores owned by
the officers of the insurance cOmpa-
mics. Well, with this money and
the orders in hand we got married,
and then furnished our house as
you see it here. invite you to eX-
anime il from top to bottom. EV-
erything is new, so you see how the
marriage insurance business works
for us. Yes, those vases and the
pictures, and that parlOr organ were
also bought for us in the same way.
The agents explained to me that
one year after our marriage each
one of those $1,000 policies would
be worth about 81, $50 each. That
Is why they were so anxious TO fur
nish my house.
Two other agents, wanted us to
have a bridesmaid at our wedding.
They went to my wife's sister Hell
en-, and asked her If she would ac-
cept a handsome silk dress to wear
at the wedding as a bridesmaid.
She got mad and told them they
were in q shameful business, and
that If she couldn't buy her own
dresses she would do without. She
told them to clear out. They next
went to the bride and asked her to
name another bridesmaid, but Liz
zie said that the thing had gone on |
long enough, and that the insurance
#iness must stop right there.
&C is the reason why we had no
idesmaicl. / suppose enough /
agents could have been found TO
dress up q groomsman, too had he
one. I have heard that at
ny number OF weddings the bride