Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-06-28

multiplication, and the less time is allowed
you for other accumulation the larger the
insurance multiplication is. You knew all
this before2 Very likely: but get it dis
tinctly before you that as respects leaving
an accumulation to your family it is life in
surance or nothing. Certainly-and there
fore you are going to insure. s-Going to''
insure, let US be very particular not to for
get that.
Now consider another thing. perhaps not
so familiar to you: Everybody and every
thing is insured. Everything which has
any producible quality and money value is
always insured; this covers your life
hence it is strictly true that you are insured
already, and you need not take any trouble
about the matter, if you think this sort is
wise insurance. If your store burns and
you have no policy on it, you have saved
the premium, but you are the sole insurer
and you pay the entire insurance; that's
not good business, and you take care to
bring in others to divide the loss by having
a policy. If you die without policy, who
pays the insurance. Plainly enough, your
family: hence they are insuring you now.
Such insurance is actual, but it is counter
felt and disreputable. You wouldn't buy
cotton stuffs for wooden, or heated grain
for sound; you wouldn't take :. htefying'
commercial paper or counterfeit money, for
YOU are no fool in business methods. But
because your wife and children don't under
stand the matter, and can't demonstrate and
refuse, and can't even speak to you about
it, you quietly compel them to insure your
But you are "goingn to transfer this risk
from them to an insurance company. and it
is ''only'' for little while. Let US look at
that little while moment.
Finally, somebody must put up dollar for
dollar on you, for you will surely die. The
risk meanwhile is less, but is still actual
Here's a test: Pick out the strongest man
you know; one whose physique you admire
and envy; one of those who don't need any
life insurance, because he is ''going to- re-
tire with fortune at forty and then enjoy
it to ninety. What will you take to write
an insurance contract on him for his whole
life! How much to insure him for twenty
years; for fifteen, ten, five, one year, or
even three months9 You won't insure him
at all, for any time. you say; you are not a
corporation and can't afford to take single
risk, especially as you've seen strong men
go off unexpectedly. Here is evidence on
this point: of the entire number of men in
sured during the year 1886 in one of the
great companies, sixty-one died within
twelve months, Twenty-Five within six
months, twelve within three months, four
within one month, and one within three
days. All these had passed the most search
ing examination of which medical science
10 SdpdDlO, sluu N0tc SOOu duu lOF
number of years, if anybody is. So you
are certainly right; yet what you wisely
refuse to risk on another you make your
dependent family risk on yourself!
But you are ''going to- transfer this risk
that's fully decided, and not to be forgot
ten. Let us take another look.
''Goiug to" involves two risks-one. of
actual death; the other, of uninsurability.
Ii either of these comes to you one is eX-
actly as fatal as the other, as respects car
rying out your intention. Each one of US
is born with some seeds of disorder and ac-
quires others; within US may lie the seeds
of twenty disorders, any of them equal to
our taking-off and sure to produce that IN
less some other one cuts off the time or
some external cause interveneS. While we
are busy these germs are busy, too. What
is going on under our skins nobody knows
until the symptoms tell, and when the
symptoms appear there is danger of their
telling too much and too plainly. Your
family is long lived, maybe, but that is no
warrant for delay. There is a day up to
which the rejection symptoms do not APP
pear, and day when they do. You may
cease to be insurable, and still may live
many years; but as soon as you are unin-
surable you are dead, as far as insurance
goes. ''Going to" thus involves the double
IRISH of dying, either physically or insur-
ably, while YOU are getting ready, and you
have no guaranty of single day more in
respect to either. Can your family afford
to take this risk any better than the othere
Now then, all wisdom is old. A very old
part of it warns against procrastination.
Since the insurance company can afford to
take the risk on your life and health, and
since your family can't, and since you are
for that reason ''going to'' transfer the risk
from them to it, why don't you do it 1bwl
Intentions won't help them. What you are
''going to-" eat wouldn It prevent your starv- |
ing. and the insurance you are 'tgoing to''
take out is no protection; it is nothing at |
all until it is done. Grapple the disagreed
Make sure of it, get it out of your way, and |
honor your conscience and self-respect, by |
doing it now. Not to-morrow-something |
which no man ever saw or will see-but |
this very day. j. w.