The times., 1899-10-15

clerks consult often. They hold insurance
unaps. which are unlike any others. While
they are in the main fairly accurate as 10
metes and bounds, their great reason for
being is to show to the insurance com
panies as exactly as may be the nature Of
the risks they underwrite and the amount
of insurance underwritten within a given
area. Making them is business in Itself,
and pretty big and lucrative one. 1t was
founded thirty years ago. Its head
quarters are in New York City. and today
the concern has agents all over the United
States. Ii has never gone outside their
borders nor is tt known that a parallel
company exists in any foreign country
The name United States must now be
taken with a reservation, however. The
concern is careful 10 specify that there are
as vet no insurance maps for Porto Rico,
Cuba, the Philippines. or Hawaii, though
such mans VIII be forthcoming as soon as
there is q healthy American demand Tor
them All told the map making concern
employs about 500 men. Salaries run from
Sl00 a month to up in the thousands. For
this work certain special abilities and more
special training are requisite
"A civil engineer who had practiced his
profession ten or 2 dozen years would be Of
the concern. Our business is unique. The
only way to get irst-class men for ii is TO
catch them young and let them grow up
into q knowledge Of il. l doubt, though, II
II Is POSSIBLE for any man 10 know all about
1t. / have followed il thirty years, and am
still learning The man who knows IL all
has no place in our business economy In
fact he loses his usefulness 10 US and be-
comes. pretty much a nuisance as soon as he
even begins to suspect be knows ii all.
I'VE do not undertake in our maps 10
show the location OF lues; fues are aboul
the most inconsidsrable element in fire
risk Neither Go We have a word 10 say
as 10 the possible origin Of suspicious fires.
] mean our maps are not made 10 have
bearing upon such points They have moth
ing whatever to do with geography or
topography. They aim simply to show the
exact condition by street. number, or post
Office. Of every piece Of insurable property
in the United States. They give the di-
mensions OF the buildings, whether OF
brick, stone wood, iron, glass, or COM
posite. their height, the number OF stories.
how occupied and how reached. whether by
stsirways, hoists, or elevators; and, most
particularly Of all. how bounded, and
whether it is possible to insure building
as a separate risk.
'It is the separate risk feature which
makes the party walls so important. OF
two buildings abutting, one may be very
nearly fireproof, the other a regular fire
trap. If here is an open air space be-
tween them through which fire can pass
they are practically one risk. II there are
openings IN the wall without an air space
the case is even worse. This is true If the
openings are boarded or even bricked Up.
On the other hand, a solid wall Of good
brick sufficiently thick viii often stay the
progress OF q onitN and fierce FIRE.
The risks which insurance companies
take under precisely similar conditions
vary as much as the temPeraments Of their
individual managers. BY this ! mean 10
say that caution is no sign of weakness.
Plenty OF the strongest companies viii
underwrite only 5000 on property that
another company Of equal financial rank
viii underwrite 10 the extent OF $4,000
But none Of them likes to put too many
eggs In one basket, nor too many dollars
OF risk IN one circumscribed area. Just
there is where our maps come most into
play. The company's officials Of course
never see one hundredth part of the prop
er-y they insure. They have to depend on
very many agents, who work independently
in many cases. Thus il might happen that
8 single company would get let in for heavy
wipe out With our maps at hand glance
shows them the exact location OF what
they are to insure. A company that might
be glad 10 underwrIte S. .000 0e0 in q city
OF the second class, provided the risks
were scattered all over il, would not TN
reasonably shrink from piling up such a
liability within the bounds OF, say. half
E dozen blocks.
Another odd thing. one that few people
among insurance men to underwrite big
risks on a building whose neighbors carry
only small risks Few Of them stick at
$4,000 policy II such policies are a rule
in that immediate vicinity. But $50, coo.
where the limit is about s. .00o, is very
much another story. II is not an indi-
cation or fraudulent intent on the part
Of the insured. II shows rather consen-
sus OF opinion that that particular risk is
not overdesirable. BY marking down the
policies as soon as issued upon one OF our
maps an insurance official can tell In half
q minute whether an application is in pro-
portion or beyond it.
Insurance companies have been occa-
sionally burned out OF existence quite as
as completely as the things which they in
sured II is certainly desirable that such
caianities should not be repeated-as much
80 III aNSo4lA u hlt pSitCt ADlutfs as OF
the companies themselves. Hence. both
insured and insurers should have a good
word for the maps, which are such sub
Etantial helps In preventing oYerinsurance.
A city block, for example. is commonly
bounded by four streets. Men who have
never been or the ground are TO be ex-
cused for not knowing, as might easily
be the case IN an unmapped city, that say
~ Vine Street, upon which il was pro-
posed 10 place heavy Insurance. ran back
10 "a High Street, which was already car
rying big policy, or that III West
Eighth, also insured. ran square up to the
other two. But put them all down in
black and white. add that II is a brick
shell with lath and plaster partitions. and
windows al the back looking out over a
say further that - High Street is q glass
and iron fronted structure. sufficiently
solid, but with an opening into a ram
shackle neighboT upon the south side. and
that III Is a tenement with stores below;
and the man. or the company, which takes
a risk upon any OF them knows exactly
what he IS doing
"All the insurance companies buy our
maps though we are entirely independent
OF any Of them. Perhaps. as you suggest.
they can do without US as little as we can
do without them. OF course our men have
no legal right of entrance 10 make the
surveys upon which our maps are based :
but there is seldom trouble on that score.
Occasionally the boys run across cranky
tempered individual who objects TO their
ffow's This?