Arizona weekly enterprise., 1882-04-29
Graveyard 0alnoiing.


 There seems to be no limit to the re- sources and devices for gambling. The cheUdlter G5aGustrie has developed along with the artisan and the business man in the march of civilization. The mania for speculation has seized upon all classes and all degrees, from the street qanai,as who toss pennies in the alley to the church deacons who man. age rallies at the charity fairs. It will be learned with astonishment, however, that the staid, sober old State of Penn sylvania has promoted a species of gambling which exceeds in grotesque- ness anything of the kind that has yet been discovered. A stroll through Gamblers alley" in Chicago, which is made up of confusion of Boards of Trade, bucket shops and pool rooms, with the click of checks from neighbor- ing faro and keno banks, would lead one to believe that gambling had there been reduced to g fine art, and that the most yaulting speculative spirit or the most threadbare and desperate sport could be accommodated with every possible va riety of gaming. But the Quaker State has invented new scheme. It is known as death-bed insurance, but might be more accurately designated as graveyard policy-playing.
 The origin of this new system of speculation was probably the assessment plan of life insurance, which has led to the organization of various associations of mercantile clerks, railroad men and other branches of trade for the payment of stated sum upon the death of any one of the members. This payment is assured by an assessment levied upon the surviving members. It has been found to work satisfactorily for a time, but the system is peculiarly exposed to fraud. It has finally been seized upon ill Pennsylvania by professional experts, who run the business very much after the manner of "policy shops" Death bed insurance IS described as follows:
 A company formed for the purpose, or a decayed Reinsurance company, adopts the assessment principle of life insurance. All the policyholders are assessed at certain fixed rate upon the death of any person whose life has been | insured. For example, whenever 6 death occurs, every person owning g policy of 1000, usually upon the life | Ol oOAiO Ot11O1 ROl 6Ol1, lO ttooCooCo ypls ZO, and larger policyholders in proportion 1 A is farmer who has a neighbor, B 1 generally believed to be at the point oi death. Now, if A can take out in some accommodating company 8 policy O S1, 900 on B's life, and B dies after, say only ten deaths have occurred in tn, company, A will have paid SIP 50 in as sessments. and can collect $1, 900, get ting very handsome return on his in vestment.
 It appears that there is set of ghoul who make business of prowling abou houses, discovering the sick, aged or in firm, and taking ont policies on the live of such persons. In other words, the, bet on the chances of a certain person dying within O few weeks. If thei srisk survives after the payment of few assessments, the graveyard gam blers abandon their subject as bad in vestment, and allow the policy to b forfeited. If death occurs within th limit of risk they have determined t take, they realize $1,000 upon tn corpse. An enterprising and courageou speculator will probably take on larg line of old men, q few smallpox cases one or two dipththeria patients; ant occasionally, perhaps, risk a love-sic maiden. An operator, we will say, d' termines to "go short on twenty-fv lives, in which Bright's disease of th kidneys, chronic dyspepsia, alcoholism consumption, old age and general d. } bility are the leading features of th market. He estimates that by the tin he has paid out ten assessments of $1 c each of his twenty-five risks, or $250 all, he will have corpse ready on whic he can realize $1, ,000. If the mark goes against him and he has no cadave
 to deliver, he "lays down" and forfei his margins. Speculators in grain al , stocks will readily recognize the sim larity between their operations and u graveyard policy business.-Micas Tribune.