The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1893-10-26
BILL ARP.
Says What He Would Do If He Could
Live Over Again.

1T l had my lie to live over again L
would insure it. | would begin at
twenty-one. | would take life
policy for the benefit of my wife or
my mother or my sister or some
body very near and dear to me. Ii
was poor [ would insure for 81 900,
for that would take only 50 twice
year. Any young man could pay
that much and if he died young the
thousand dollars would help his
mother or his wife or his sister so
much. Funerals are expensive nova
days, and a poor man can't afford
to die unless his life is insured. Ii
young man who is getting from $50
to $1GO salary does not spend any
thing for whisky or cigars he could
safely take a policy for So, 900 and
pay $27 twice a year. Ii he was
twenty-five years old it would cost
him only $50 semi annually-not as
much as his cigars. If his salary
was $50 a month he could afford
SO of it each month for insurance,
and that would carry a policy OF
$1,000. What a blessing that sum
! would be to the wife or the mother
or the sister. | know young man
who carries $4,000 for his father
and mother. They are cid and poor.
He supports them out of his earn
| ings, but fears he might die before
they do and then they would be help
| less. If be outlives them the policy
becomes his own.
Life insurance is the best savings
bank in the world for young man.
| He gets it so cheap. Now, here | am,
| old and poor, and am carrying only
| $4,000 on my life and it costs me
$175 a year and it is a hard struggle
| to meet the premiums. lbegan only
five years ago. Too late, too late,
but l must hold on until | whip the
fight. III whip it sure if l hold on.
for old Father Time is backing me.
| If l had begun at twenty-one or
twenty-five the premiums would
have been about $40 and the divi-
dends would have paid that long be
| fore this. Heard q man say the
other day that he paid on $4,000
| for twenty years and now has paid
up policy and draws dividends on it
| Just like it was stock in a bank. l
wish / had done that when / was a
young man. Wouldn't it be glorious
| if | had such a document for my wife
and the girls.
But if a young man seriously
objects to make money by dying for
| it let him take out an endowment
policy for twenty or twenty-five
years. 1t will cost him about twice
as much, but he can, if he lives, walk
up to the captains office and call for
his money and do what he pleases
with it. If he happens to die before
hand his wife or his mother or his
sister can draw it for him. Every
| young man should take out two
policies if he can, one for life and one
on the endowment plan-one for
others and one for himself 1t is a
| comfortable thing for a man of
forty-fve to have paid up policy
that is drawing dividends. 1t is still
1 sister or a child to Inherit both
policies if he should die before he eX-
pected to.
Insuring ones life for the benefit of
others is the most unselfish act that
a young man can perform. No sci
fish or thoughtless young man will
do it. 1t is like looking death square
in the face, but few young men will
do that. 1t is the next thing to get
ting religion. 1t is a confession OF
mortality But death is a fact and if
the young man would stop and
think, he would take a business view
of it and leave the religion out of the
question. Let him ponder upon the
fact that not half of the men at
twenty five live to be fifty-that halt
his life is already gone, that the
chances are against him, that he will
leave somebody behind him who has
been dependent upon him and may
suffer without him. Then if he is a
reasonable man he must admit that
he ought to insure his life, while it
costs SO little, and not wait until it
costs so much.
Why not? For forty-four years l
have insured my house and furniture
and no fire yet. The insurance com
pany has got all that money for
good and yet have taken comfort
all that time. | have Slept better at
home and felt better when abroad in
knowing that if IA fire did come and
destroy my dwelling the loss would
be made good.
That fire may never come, but here
is case where death is sure to come
"a death which in most cases of
manhood deprives the family of one
of it's pillars-perhaps it's chief sup
port, and yet how few of the young
married men are carrying a policy
for the wife and children. They are
just going it blind. 1t looks like
defying fate for young man whose
only income is his wages to live a
day without policy. He can't
afford TO. Even the rich insure their
lives as an investment. In fact ii |
could make the laws l would require
every young man to take policy for
at least 81 900 when he applies for II
marriage license. If he couldn' t
raise SIS or $50 to protect the girl
he loYed for one year, he is Lot fifteen
to have her nor fifteen to get fitten.
If he begun With policy he would be
very apt to keep on. The ordinary
should be prohibited from issuing a
license unless the policy was pro-
duced and was approved by him. A
young married man has no right to
die and leave a widow and one or
two children helpless. A policy of
one or two thousand dollars would
be good document to court on.
Every man should pay his own
funeral expenses and not die a pauper.
There is a family pride about such
things and the parents or the widow
will sacrifice everything for the loved
| one. The doctors bills, the drug bill,
| the burial case, the burial lot, the