The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-24
INSURANCE FUNERALS.
Aspect of Two sides of the Subject.
The ZanO1i Case.
From the New York Post.

From the New York Post
What to eat and drink, how to be housed
| and clothed, the wherewithal for business
and social advancement, these are vital
considerations; but the poor, those who, in
familiar phrase live from hand TO mouth,
add another query to the list, namely, the
getting out of life and being decently
buried.
ITS hard raking and scraping to put by
this insurance money every week, said a
tenement house mother, but 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 10
be year old,' said a west side matron.
The agents won't give no policy on
child that's that young, and just the very
minute the year is up / make applica-
tiOn.'
"Why do you worry?" she was asked,
as the visitor glanced at the chubby-faced
children playing about.
"Why worry?" she repeated. Then
what lives i'm this thick-settled part sees
things to remind EN- of worryin', when
people dies sudden, and there ain a dollar
in the house to promise the undertaken or
to git a carriage or a flower. Then, the
very ground to put EN- away in can't be
touched without money I'll scrimp all
fashions and save every penny | can to
keep my papers paid up prompt. No such
dread hangin' over my head. Let me
see! 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 see to; but l 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
visitors In the tenement houses Any day
they may be seem note book in hand, Jot-
ting down the dimes and quarters, the
"rremiums" from slim exchequer. Then,
when the long dreaded trouble does come,
and the company has been notified, the
"caim inspector appears with another
note book to investigate the Circumstance
es of death and cehtify to the business of
the claim.
when the sum received at a childs
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 SIS or $50. l once suggested to the
mother Of a family that the $40 insurance
money that she had collected was too
much to squander on burial charges. She
! did washing for her living, and her chill
dren stood in need of proper food and
clothing"
" 1T does seem like a lot of money she
admitted, but 1 couldn't use a cent of
| Jimmy's insurance money for anything
| but his funeral. 1t would be like using
| 'blood money to buy the others things
that rightfully belongs to him.
You see the life insurance men have
some fearful 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 sro-
ical 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
| rot been touched, because the death being
| sudden, they waited for the coroner. she
| lad been drinking woman. When 1t
| was certified that she died of heart DIS
| ease, the undertaken was summoned and
agreed to bury the body for $27
THE coffin was brought, and the dead,
! decently robed, was placed in IL; but, when
| the funeral hour came. the undertaken
| stipulated that $40 of the $27 must be paid
| down before the procession could move.
| The husband 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
| ana establishment of everybody present.
/ The city buried the woman in Potter $
son who was present on that occasion, or
| who heard Of the circumstance, who has
not since taken out a policy. That one
undertaker's act did a great deal for
| the life insurance people, and l doubt If,
from a business standpoint the undertake
was to blame. Selling collins was his
means of making a living, just as sell
ing bricks is another mans business, or
selling stoves another's. He had probably
buried two or three peSple, and had never
received pay; indeed, a woman present
remarked that if the undertaken had lei
the coffin go. II would be a sight of free
buryins he'd ha' had hand in In con
| trast to such picture, the absurdly fine
funeral is to be preferred.
After ALL" continued this observer
there is something touching in these PEG
ples devotion 70 their dead, and the con
ISOLATION they derive from spending theii
all upon them. While a snow storm was
raging last winter, a little boy died, il
whom l was interested, and the other mis-
sion workers as well. I really SHOULD
like TO send some flowers, said my co