The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-09-01
miscellaneous.
COL GIBSON ON LIFE INSURANCE

The "Laurelton Birth Association" is
conducted on the same plan as the Mu-
tual Graveyard Insurance Company.
Young couples are enticed to join the
Association and certificates are then
given them for sums ranging from $500
to $4,000. At the expiration of one year
the member will be assessed for every
birth in the family Of other members.
The terms for certificates Of membership
as proposed by the enterprising young
men Of Laurelton are $3.50 for a $500 Ger.
tiACate; $S for a 81 900 certificate; SIG for
$1,000, and $34 for a $1,000 certificate.
Having secured the $1,000 certificate, at
the close of the year, if the company
shall be that long in existence, the new
member shall be assessed So 40 for every
birth in the families of other members,
and should there be a birth in his own
family he will be paid $4,000. This is
enough to explain the nature Of the
Birth Association. ... .a,
We have never before heard Of Lau-
relton and may never hear of it again,
nor have we ever heard of Birth AssoCi-
ations where life is mortgaged on the
other side Of the cradle, but we remem.
Der some years ago having heard Col. R.
M. Gibson, in celebrated insurance case
draw picture Of life insurance as prac.
tiCed in the New England States, and as
tits pertinent now and exceedingly sug-
gestive, we reproduce it and Commendit it
to the coming youth of Laurelton. The
suit was brought to recover sum Of
money claimed to be due the company
by it's agent in this city, whom M. Glib.
son defended, After stating the case he
said;
you see gentlemen Of the jury, with
what persistent malignity and bitterness
these gentlemen (pointing to the officers
of the company present) follow a poor
brokendown invalid and demand, like
ShyloCk, the money vender Of Rialto,
their pound of flesh, These gentlemen
whom you have heard belong to that
class Of grasping, cold blooded people
known as insurance brokers and hail
from the little city Of Hartford. Hart
ford has no green groceries such as we
have here, her people live on "risk," ," and
the mistoruues and the regretful phases
OF life which hang like funeral pals in
other communities brings grist to Hart.
ford's constant grinding mills. You
never laugh in Hartford, they are not an
en- ,tionsl people, and exhibitions of
temper or feeling are inIulged in only
when some poor, guiltless creature has
loaded himself to death with policies and
seeks to get even by commit ing suicide.
We, Of the West, are a solicitous, friend.
lypeople-liVe and let live,--but down
in Hartford their sympathies take the
shape of good big policies on the "Mutu-
al" plan, and friendship means mort
gage on your life. Go where you will in
Har ford, and great guided signs con-
front YOU It's the "Globe" here, the
"Etna" th re and the "Provident" over
the way, he Hartford up and the 'Pt oe
nix down the street, and the very air
you breathe, is filtered through an en-
dowment process. When you and / look
upon a prattling child and fondlo it, we
bless the babe and say it has it's moth.
er's most bewitChinG smile, but down In
Hartford they ask how much it weighs,
grid it round the waist and with an eye
to business say, "That's what we call
healthy risk" We note the deaths each
day and from the dismal list pick out
our friends and offer up prayer in hoI Q
that mercy with her sheltering wings
will hover near their resting place until
the Just and Loving Judge prepares for
their reception an abode in paradise.
But VII en- you see funeral Cortege down
in Hartford, a hundred eye.glassed anx.
ious men are scattered here and there
and ask whose risk is that-who placed
the policy-how much of that's in ours
l rather guess that policy is lspsed, and a
hundred other such exclamations, show
ing ConClusively that human life is vslu-
ed in Hartford only as commodity that
yielded 80 much during life and exact
the fulfllment of bond at death."-
| Pittsburg Post.