Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-17

principal life insurance companies of this
country previous to 1874, including the
records of over 1,000, 900 of lives, insured
for over s, ,6oo, ,0o0, 200.
Records OF Insurance Companies
From these records we learn that the
States and Territories in which the insur-
ance companies had the least loss by being
compelled to pay the money they had
agreed to pay in case of the death OF the
persons insured in them, or in other words,
where fairly healthy, full grown white men
and women, sufficiently well off to pay in
surance premiums, lived the longest were
the following: Nebraska, 81; Iowa, 76;
Wisconsin, "; Vermont, 80; West Vir-
ginia, 81; Maine, SO; Massachusetts,, Sc;
Kansas, Sc; Oregon, sc; Illinois, 81; Col
orado, 81; Delaware, So; New Hampshire,
SO; Rhode Island, SO, and Michigan, SO. In
this list the figures following the names OF
the State show the proportion of the loss
by death, if the average loss is considered
to be 100, so that the smaller the figure
the greater is the average length of life in
dicsted
On the other hand, stated in the same
way, the States where the loss was greatest,
and the length of life least, were: Louis
lana, 176; Texas, 175; Arkansas, 172; Flor
ida, 167; Mississippi, 164; Tennessee, 1853;
Alabama, I34; and Maryland, 129. The
corresponding figures for some of the other
States are: California, 81; Connecticut, "a;
Georgia, 96; Kentucky, 10S; Minnesota, 1O1;
Missouri, Ill; New York, 95; Ohio, SO;
Pennsylvania, 90; South Carolina, 115i
Virginia, 1O4
These figures also show that life is shorter
in the South than in the North, and in the
fat, low lying grounds than among the hills
and mountains.
How to Measure a Life.
Thus far have been speaking of the
length of life as measured by ordinary time,
by days and weeks, and years. But there
is another way of measuring the life of
man or of boy, and that is by the number
of new things that he sees and hears, the
number of thoughts that he has, the amount
of work that he does. There have been men
who for several years slept 20 hours out OF
the "a each day, and in one sense such q
life, though extended many years, is but
short one.
It is not only how long a man lives but
how much he lives that is to be considered
Every boy knows that a week of one part
of his life is worth a month of another part.
Where, then, do men live the most? You
they live the most, for they are the places
where there are the most men-that is, the
great cities. There is where q man lives
not only his own life, but a part of dozen,
a hundred, thousand other lives as well;
where be has the strongest inducements to
make the most Of every hour he can
spare from sleep, either for work or for
plav. What almost all BOYS desire is to have
much life and many kinds of it; to see the
entire show and not have to wait too long
for something new. And you all know that
the more life you get in given time, the
more ,ensations and changes you perceive,
the more you do, the shorter seems the
time.
Long Life in a Few Years.
When the same things and the same peo-
pie are seen day after day, mans days
may not only seem long to him, but actual
ly be long in the scripture sense-that lr,
increased in number, and yet give him less
life. 1t is the instructive recognition Of
this fact that makes the farmers boys dis
satisfied with unending country life, and
leads the young men and women to
seek the cities And hence it is that our
cities are growing so fast, although in many
parts of them the people are dying SO fast.
But is this shortening of life in the cities
a necessity? Is it not possible to obtain
many days as well as full days, to have
most of the opportunities, the excitements,
the society, and the pleasures of city life,
or at least all that are really worth having,
without giving up the prospect of a peace
full and pleasant old age?
Certainty it is; and people are beginning
tc understand this, and to ask that it shall
be made possible for them to do it. This is
q piece of work that the boys all over the
States, country boys as well as city boys,
will have to undertake, and they will have
full lives in doing it How is it to be done
that as Kipling says, is another story.
which may be told hereafter.
JOHN S. BILLINGS, NJ. D.,
Census Bureau.