Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1881-12-15
MARRIAGE BENEFIT SCHEMES.

The indianapolis qnd.) RcUisp of
late date says: On Thursday afternoon
the Reviewer called at the Office of the
secretary Of state, and looking over the
articles OF association, found the mar
riage benefit business fairly booming.
The first one o! these associations that
filed articles OF incorporation was the
Royal Marriage Benefit association of
Union City. which opened the coDnu-
bial prize-package business early in
October, and they are now Hocking in
at the rate OF eight or ten day. The
following is list of the companies or
ganized up to Thursday afternoon
Here follows List OF seventy-one com.
panies organized in Indiana.
Following this marriage benefit busi-
ness, which bids fair to have at least half
a dozen associations in each county,
comes q new scheme, the first Of the
series being the Mutual Benefit Birth
association OF Logansport. The para
graph describing the purposes Of this
manner of association reads thus:
1.-THE object of this association shall
be to provide a fund from which each
member may draw benefits at the time
OF the birth of q child to her upon
whom the certificate Is issued or upon
the maturity Of claims against the asso-
citation"
The following advertisement is clipped
from daily paper Of this city:
XxTANTED go TO si5 WITHOUT IN
w yesiing money or lime. The above
amount will be paid 70 males or females who
will inform us Of the date OF their approaching
marriage. Ihose engaged 70 be married viii
find Il 10 their Interest TO call Gu address the
avenue Vance block, NJ. II. Daniels, Manager.
All information strictly confidential.
The scheme of this broker is to In
d uce people contemplating marriage to
call on him and inform him when the
wedding is to take place, and for this
information (as strictly confidential as
female pillsl he pays "from $40 to ESQ"
for the privilege of taking out certifi-
Gates on the candidate for mAtrimony
in his (the broker's) own right The
broker pays for the certificate and all
the assessments, and reaps his profit
when the marriage takes place. The
amount paid for each certificate Is
s3, and the broker can get Is many
certificates as he chooses TO pay for.
sometimes in different companies, plac-
ing as many as 8 hundred certificates
on one candidate. The companies
promise TO pay at the rate of sixty
cents a day on each share or GER
tiacate, from the time the insurance IL
taken until conjugalization takes place.
Say that q candidate takes out q hun.
dred certificates, and marries in ninety
days. Por these hundred certificates
he Tor shel pays $500. which goes into
the breeches OF the Ave or seven incor-
porators who run the benefit; (''benefit"
has the same number of letters in i.
that "policy" has. and though played
differently, Is not altogether 8 dissimi-
lar game and, for this investment, Is
TO oTeceive, when married, at the end of
nihety days, ct the rate of sixty cents =
day on each certificate. total Of Sc, 400.
Now that looks pretty on paper. II is
more glowing when exhaled by 8 silver
tongued marriage bene6ter.
The bottom Is sure 10 tumble out of
every oae of these institutions, and it
is safe 10 predict that there isn't one Of
those now organized that will be alive
six months hence. The certificate buy
ers who 60 into this marriage benefit
scheme go In 10 win. They will marry
in from thirty TO ninety days. These
companies sre young nov. Wait until
the marrying gets lively. Say that
there are, ninety days hence, twenty
five members in one of these CON-
panies, and twenty.four hundred of
them marry within that time As the
assessments on each certificate are
one dollar ii il easy 10 zee that some
thing will happen when these con-
jugal atoms coalesce. But the
proprietors Of the companies won't
lose nickel. They give security for
nothing. They knock down the three
dollars on each certificate and get
twenty cents on each one dollar as
sessment. Some of the companies are
nov making money hand over fst. One
Of the Union City associations l. said
to be $50, 900 lahead. The five incor-
porators of another company are di-
viding weekly dividends Of 81, 900, $500
q head.
This system Of insurance can bat
have . most pernicious outcome. 1t