The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-26
INSURANCE FUNERALS
HOW THE POOR PROVIDE IN ADJ
VANCE FOR DECENT BURIAL.
Insurance Companies Reap a Great
Profit from This Class Of Business
Babies Lives Insured.
New York Evening Posi-.

What to eat and drink, how to be housed
and clothed, the wherewithal for business
and social advancement, these are vital con-
siderations; but the poor, those who, in ia
miiar phrase, live from hand to mouth, add
another query to the list, namely, the get
ting out of life and being decently buried.
It's hard raking and scraping to put by
this insurance money every week." said
tenement-house mother, but 1 sleep easier
at night when / know that there's some
thing to fall back on in case of trouble
I'm always worried till the baby gets to
be d year DID," said a west-side matron.
THE agents won't give no policy on a. child
that's that young, and just the very minute
the year is up makes application
why do you worry?" she was asked, as
the visitor glanced at the chubby-faced
children playing about.
why worry?" she repeated. "Them what
lives in this thick-settled part sees things
to remind EN- of worryin'. when people dies
sudden, and there amt a dollar in the
house to promise the undertaken or to git a
carriage or a flower. Then, the very ground
to put 'em away in can't be touched with
out money. I'll scrimp all fashions and save
every penny l can to keep my papers paid
up prompt. No such dread a-hangin over
my head Let me seei There's 20 cents
for the old man and 10 cents apiece for the
five children that's a good deal to pay out
each week, besides the rent to to; but
think about Potters field staring us in the
face, and when the agent comes to the door
pays him cheerful"
The life-insurance agents are regular Wis
itors in the tenement houses. Amy day
they may be seen, notebook in hand, jot-
ting down the dimes and quarters, the pre-
miums'' from a slim exchequer Then, when
the long-dreaded trouble does come, and
the company has been notified, the "claim
inspector appears with another notebook,
10 investigate the circumstances OF death,
and certify to the business of the claim.
when the sum received at child'S
death is large is the money all spent on
the funeral?' was asked of a mission
worker.
Invariably; but the average insurance
obtained on very young children is only
about $2S or $50. 1 once suggested to the
mother of a family that the $140 insurance
money that she had collected was too much
to squander on burial charges. She did
washing for her living. and her children
stood in need of proper food and clothing.
1T does seem like lot of money she
admitted, "but l couldn't use cent Of
JimmieS insurance money for anything but
his funeral 1t would be like using blood
money to buy the others things that right
fully belong to him..
THE PRESSING NEED.
''You see. the life insurance men have
some forceful texts to preach FROM" she
went on, should a poor person hesitate
about taking out a policy. Here is an in
stance: A little girl came to my sewing
class as usual one morning, and when the
teacher greeted her, said. in the most
stoical way, My ma is dead in bed at
home The teacher went home with her,
and, sure enough, the woman was in bed
just as she had been in the night, dead
She had not been touched because, the
death being sudden, they waited for the
coroner. She had been a drinking woman.
When it was certified that she died of heart
disease the undertaken was summoned and
agreed to bury the body for $27.
THE coffin bought, and the dead, de-
the funeral hour came, the undertaken stip-
ulated that $40 of the $27 must be paid down
before the procession could move. The hus-
band went out and tried to raise the money,
but failed and what did the undertaken do
but tumble the corpse out upon the floor,
like a sack of flour, and walk off with his
coffin to the horror and astonishment Of
everybody present. The city buried the
woman in Potter's field / doubt if there is
a single person who was present on that
occasion, or who heard of the circumstance
who has not since taken out policy That
one undertaker'S act did great deal for
the life insurance people, and L doubt IT,
from business standpoint, the undertaken
was to blame. Selling collins was his means
of making a living, just as selling br1ckS is
another mans business, or selling stoves
anothers. He had probably buried two or
three people and had never received pay;
indeed. a woman present remarked that If
the undertaken had let that coffin go, 1t
would be "a sight of free buryin's he'd ha
had a hand in In contrast to such pic
ture the absurdly fine funeral is to be pre-
After ALL" continued this observer.
there is something touching in these peo-
pies devotion to their dead, and the con-
ISOLATION they derive from spending their all
upon them. While snowstorm was raging
1oC vii
was interested, and the other mission work.
ers as well. L really should like TO SEND
some flowers said my co-Worker, out they
are so scarce now. and so expensive, that l
think I could put the money to better use
went to that poor; snaDoy Ioaging, where ere
days, and the room where the child lay
was full of flowers, procured by the ram
lily or sent in by friends. Iife-insurance
money buried the child. The working
classes are kind to each other IN distress,
and death seems to touch them more than
suffering in life does.
THE UNDERWRITERS QUESTION.
Occasionally, though, the nonchalance
with which they accept calamity of the
kind is grotesque. What kind of coffin
will you have? asked the undertaken of a
man who ordered a child's coffin. He meant
the quality of the lining, casing, trimming,
etc. OH the same kind l usually get he
answered. He had buried his wife and a
daughter previously. You may be sure they
were all insured, or the undertaken would
not have treated him with such difference.
is there a policy?' is the first question an
undertaken asks when his services are in
Voked."
Inquiry discovers that in the old city of
New York q single Observation-Disclosures
company has nearly half million policies
in force. and in Greater New York there
are nearly three-quarters of a million of
industrial policies on record at the present
time. This industrial insurance often in
Guides every member of the family. from
the age of two to seventy, with sometimes
five six policies on one life. In Newark.
n. J.. out of 100000 people, there are 90
Observation-Disclosures policies in force, in two
companies.
Are Observation-Disclosures policies of fixed
value?' Haley Fiske vice president of the
Metropolitan Lifs-inSurance Company, was
asked.
No" he answered. they are not in full
benefit until after one year has elapsed from
the date of issue. If. for instance, policy
should be taken out for 1919. and the subject
should die within three months of the date
of application the amount of insurance
would only be SIS. The full amount is paid
after the policy has been in existence for Il
year This fact has some bearing on the
Zanoh case. If the BARRIERS last wife, of
whom he collected insurance. had lived nine
months longer the policy would have been
worth 1910. whereas. she lived only three
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