The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-28
aunER FoRms or 1NsuRANcE.
DlizsarIs and College Eduoations,
Snake Bites and Boiler Explosions.
Ftom Tho Now York Tmcs- ID

suggested practical scheme by which
parents might insure a college education
for their sons and daughters. Il was
proposed that the parent should pay to
some reliable insurance company a GER
tain sum annually, beginning with the
third year Of the child's age. the company
guaranteeing TO pay the child, beginning
with his eighteenth year, the sum Of S400
per annum for the next four wears To
the mind of the layman there was an at
tractive novelty about this scheme, al
though 10 is in fact only new way Of
| proposing n very attractive form of con
| tract offered long ago by life insurance
! companies under the title of deferred
annWties."
| The fact that college educations may
| be insured suggests the constant multi
| plication Of all kinds of assurances. Fifty
! years ago this country knew very little
about insurance of any kind save the sim
| pie contracts of insurance against death
and fire. To-day there are various forms
| of accident insurance, marine insurance,
| insurance against billiards., hurricanes,
and floods. live stock insurance, plate
| glass insurance, steam-boiler insurance,
! insurance against burglars, mail-matter
! insurance, and, queerly enough, insurance
against damage from automatic sprink-
! lers, which are themselves a part of
/ insurance against loss by fire.
Nearly all of these schemes are the
| out-growths of yankee ingenuity, save in
the case of insurance against live stock,
| which, according to Paul du Chaillu, did
! a i1OuriShing business in Iceland 900 years
| ago. Many of the other forms of insur-
ance owe their origin to special calamities,
| against the recurrence of which shrewd
| business men proposed to take chances.
| Insurance against floods, for example,
| originated with the Conemaugh disaster
| in the spring of 1889, and insurance
| against cyclones began Just after the
| town of Grinnell, Iowa, was devastated
| in 1888
One of the most interesting forms of
| insurance is the accident business, in
which the companies make their profits
on broken bones, cracked skulls, taran-
tula and snake bites, sprained muscles
| and scalded bodies A man in Syracuse
recently broke his arm, and twenty days
| later, having failed to take precautions,
he died of pneumonia The court held
| that he died of an accident, and the in
surance company in which he held an &C
! cident policy had to pay. Another man,
| who lived in MorristOwn, N. J., got Up in
| the night to close window. While walk
| ing across the room in the dark he struck
| his shin on chair. Inflammation devel-
! oped, followed by grave complications,
| and the man died after having his leg
amputated. The insurance company con
| tested that he had neglected to take
proper precautions in not lighting o can
| die before crossing the room, but the
court held against this theory and the
| company paid the loss.
The court of appeals of this state re-
Gently affirmed ruling of the supreme
court in the case of M. M Paul, who was
suffocated in his sleeping room by escap-
ing gas Both courts held that he died
| from an accident. These rulings tend TO
show that there is no little difference of
! opinion as to what constitutes an acct
dent
In England the courts hold views as to
the meaning of the word "accidentn that
differ widely from the interpretations of
| the American courts. The court of ap-
| peals in England, for example, recently
| decided a case of a farmer who was
| killed by bull in crossing one of his
fields 1t was the opinion of the court
that the man incurred an obvious risk in
crossing the field in the presence of the
bull; that any man taking reasonable pre-
cautions would not have incurred such Z
risk, and that his death was not due Il
an accident, as employed by that term il
the policy.
Another English case was that of Cole
VS.. Accident Insurance Company. Cole
went to his barn one night to get some
-hbHltiut WHICH ub hepb JucIG. ~ 3 uSb VI
| wind blew out his candle, and in the dark
he took from the shelf bottle of cor
rosive sublimate, of which he took large
dose. The court held that this was not q
case requiring the accidental company to
pay any loss, though it is hard to see why
it was not an accident pure and simple.
Some very remarkable, almost ludi-
crous, cases frequently come to the notice
of accident insurance companies. A Mis-
hot r,tlof fool
out an accident policy because of the
peculiarly hazardous occupation in which
he was engaged A few months later he
died from a spider bite. A gripman on a
Chicago cable car took out an accident
policy TO provide for his family in case OF
his death while on duty. He accidently
swallowed a cookie burr while drinking
some months later, and died.
| A curiOns insurance risk was recently
placed at Lloyd's, London. 1t was an
insurance against the marriage of the
| Duke of York, and the pre-
MUM paid was Dos per hundred 1t
| appears that tradesmar in the illum.na-
tion business had, several months pre-
| viOusly, made great preparations for cele-
brating the marriage of the Duke of
Clarence, who. it will be rememb ered,
died before the ceremony took place.
! This untimely mishap caused the trades
man heavy loss, as he had laid in great
| stock and made many preparations TO
illuminate half of London. When the
proposed marriage of the Duke Of York
was announced the tradesman made SINH
lar preparations, but this time he was
careful to take precautions. Accordingly
| he took an insurance which provided
that If the Duke of York's marriage
should not take place total loss on the
| policy wohld have to be settled by the
| underwriters in favor of the payer of the
premiums. If the marriage took place
| according TO the arrangements under
| writer's would net the premiums paid.
Life insurance, while apparently very
simple undertaking per Sc, is sometimes
| employed in abstrUse and complicated
business methods. Some of the heirs of
the late l. V. Williamson, who died in
! Philadelphia in March, 1889, have recently
resorted to a novel contract in life insur-
ance for the purpose of realizing on an
estate that, according TO the terms Of the
| will would not have been theirs until 1899.
| MIR Williamson left an estate valued at
| $11, 1853, 500, Of which g. 000,0 600 was placed
in trust to accumulate for ten years, when
It was to be distributed equally among
| thirty-five relatives, if they survived. Six
of these relatives desired, however, TO re-
| alize at once on their inheritance, and it
was accordingly proposed to crafty their
| desire by an issue of 100000 bonds
for each person These bonds are secured
| by an assignment of $4,000 of each per-
| sons interest IN the estate, or 1860, 900 in
/ all Ae bowpvpr each inheritance do