River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1896-09-17
WHY THE PAPER STOPPED.

way travelling IN Ing thuu - - sdIe Inal
very rarely anyone is killed, yet never
theIess on the of chance. hundreds of
thousands of papers are sold every
week. and many of these estimate
journals have their life insurance pol
icies so arranged that unless the train
does some eccentric thing, such as stand
on its head OF turn three sOmersaults,
no money can be collected by the
mourning relatives.
There are running in London several
journals that have offered millions in
insurance. and yet never have paid a
penny. This all comes about because
the editor is man of ideas who blazons
the announcement of innumerable
pounds on his title page. and then wraps
up the conditions in small type some
where inside so that even the most i'm
pecunious of US do not hail railway
accident in which we are interested,
with unseen JOY.
When johnson thought of starting
his paper TO be made up of clippings
from the American press, he deter
mined to offer thousand pounds in
Eurance TO a subscriber who died from
any acciden whatever. so long as he had
a copy of JOhnson's Weekly in his
pocket at the time of the disaster. John
son had only thousand pounds capital
when he started. and he was naturally
very anxious that his money should not
be looted from him the first week by
some one stumbling over a cliff with
the paper in his pocket, so he went to his
solicitor, told him frankly the state of
his case and as ID him to draw up set
of conditions which would make IL i'm
possible for fhe relatives of the dead
man to collect the money. The lawyer
thought OvC the matter very seriously
for few minutes and then said;
I'm afraid, Mr.. johnson. You will
have % many cases ON your hands IL
you send out such general accident
policy like this with your paper that
some one will be sure to collect from
you. You see the safety of the other
papers lies in the fact that there are
so few railway accidents. a paper Of
fering a railway insurance has so few
claims that there isn't much publicity
even when a claim is not paid. but so
many accidents happen entirely uncon-
nected with trains that YOU would be
almost certain to be brought into court
BY somebody on an average of once a
week"
Il should not mind that" said John
son. If the paper went up 10 100000"
''The danger IS" put in the man OF
law. that YOU would have 50 many
claims 10 settle that If your paper went
up to a million the legal expenses alone
would cripple you. Now. how would il
be if YOU were to offer insurance of this
kind? Suppose you allow the taker of
the paper to insure somebody else. not
himself. and then when that other per
son happened TO be killed you pay the
thousand pounds To the one who in
sured the Others life. IL sounds little
involved. but perhaps you understand
what mean"
Il understand what YOU n-ean." said
johnson. but don't see the advantage
OF it,"
Why. my dear fellow. the advantage
is thiS-sO many men hate so many 9TH
ers that they live perpetuaIly on the
verge Of killing their enemies. Now.
this offer Of yours would throw the bal
ance completely over. and some man
who wanted to slay that other man
would insure him in order to draw the
thousand pounds
YES" obviously ventured johnson.
but don't want to pay the thousand
pounds at ALL"
Certainly not" answered the law
Yer. land you wouldn't need TO; the
murderer would not dare 10 claim the
reward; he would do the murder as
quietly as possible. of course. and when
it was done would get frightened and
make no claim. The oddity of the Of
fer would attract great attention every
where. and probably some case would
come up in which il would be shown
in all the papers that this subscriber of
YOURS had committed murder for the
sake of getting the thousand pounds:
then the gov eminent would step in and
make YOU stop offering a thousand
pounds. which was practically an in
ceutive to murder. You would protest
that YOU had no such idea and would
withdraw your offer, declaring that the !
governments compelled You 20 do So
Meanwhile Johnson's Weekly would be
advertised up and down the land, and
everyone would want to see a copy, and
YOUR fortune would he made"
~By Jovei" said johnson. Il believe
there's good deal in the idea. I'll
adOrt 4" And he did.
The -cheme was arranged I'm this wav
Instead Of the defunct one requiring to
have n copy Of the paper on his person
when found. Johnson issued q card 10
the person efIecting the insurance; ON
his card vzs the Insurers name, ard
also the name OF the person insured 4
duplicate of this carJ was kept in job 4
sons Weekly office, snd the lawyt said
the duplicate would be available in
fighting of the applicant for the I.Ooo. !
The person applying for one OF Ties. |
insurance cards had been sent IN az an !
rual subscription for TIE paper. When |
the first number II .Iuhnson's Weekly 1
came out he received few applications |
for the insurance. ut not So many as |
he expected. Curiously enough. he
found most Of the applicants were
wives desiring to insure their husbands. |
or husbands desiring 10 insure their !
wives, and johnson looked forward |
hopefully towards hearing of some do |
nestle tragedy within the next week or
so. and in this he was rot disappointed |
Among other applications he received |
was one from Mrs. Kiidominie, of Man |
chester, who wished 70 insure her hus- !
band. Patrick Kildominie. so that she |
might have some money 10 go on with. |
should he meet with sudden and vio- /
lent death. 4 week later Mr.. johnson /
was called upon by legal gentleman |
from the north who brought Mrs. Xii |
dominie's insurance card with him. He /
wanted 20 know. he said. il this was all |
right and proper, because Mrs. Kildom- |
inie seemed 70 have great faith IN Il. |
whereas the legal gentleman was rather |
e0ubttul regarding IN validity. john