Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1905-09-22

An especially undesirable form OF
gambling Is growing up among the
worl,ins rl1sses In certa,l ~ oar
'nrge towns, A gambling In which the
lives of men women and children are
the counters.
Insurance Is constantly recommends
ed 10 the poor rs n Of the read!tst
and safest forms Of thrift, To judge
by the number OF agents brass'p'aics
which decorate houses IN working
class districts a stranger might 'mag'
me that the poor have taken the rs.
son 10 heart and unanimously insured
themselves, The proportion genuine.
~ insured for reasons Of providence
and forethoueht IL surprisingly large.
A National Scandal.
hut the keen competition among
the companies and the agents them
selves has brought about n state Of
NTairs which bids fair to become a
national scandal. The agent has only
ne object In view--tO secur rev
'olicies and premiums. whereby he
wy NUIu we ulUIpNuI vi Ills iltdN
office and his commission. He knows
that !" he INQUIRIES too closely into The
details he nay scare away clients ~.
rive them into the hands of his Wv
"'s. SO he Is ant 10 take risks on be.
half of his companv that ere very seri.
II risks. It Is this careless accent.
ance of nolicies for amounts under
loo pounds. without a medical certif-
cate. that has opened the way to
gambling in lives.
A common practice among the poor
IS for friends or neighbOrs of a sick
nerson. as soon as they hear from the
doctor that the patient has some in
durable disease. to at once insure his
or her life. Mrs. Brown learns that
her bosom friend Mrs. Jones has, let
MS say, the dropsy. and she forthwith
seeks ont an agent. insures her
friends life by weekly payments, and
thereafter Is second to none in her
ANXIOUS solicitude as to the progress
of Mrs. Jones. Strangers often insure
\ sick person In the same way, having
heard of his or her condition through
a friend as a "sure thing" in exactly
the same way as one gets a 'tip"
about a stock or a racehOrse.
Cancer. heart disease. and phthisis
are the ~favorite diseases for those who
speculate after this manner.
Justification Of Age.
IN the filing up of the necessary
forms the most glaring lies are set
Town. A medical man told me n case
where. to his knowledge, the person
whose life had been insured had been
beG-ridden for three years, and a dec
laration had been made that there
had never been any illness. Deliberate
Justification of age is also cutie COM
mon. II is not unusual for a medical
~,nn wheo s~'orir~ the dooth certificate
to be told by the relative who has
called for It that the deceased was
fifty years Of age. when from all APP
nearances the true age is more like
seventy Or eighty.
The recently qualified doctor in his
inexperience wonders why this APP
pdltful ullSi Sbduulu6 VI sd6C SoHoulu NC
so common among his poorer patients.
At first he i%nnocently attributes it to
lack of knowledge Of what the real
age is; he learns eventually that Il
is a common practice to reduce the
declared age of an ellerly person by
ton or fifteen years for the purpose
of insurance.
No blame rests on the medical man
in such a case. as he has no legal right
to question a relatives statement rs
tn age. As he Is not the servant
Of sn insurance companv, It is not bis
his hess tn make In ,ui:,.e with the
object Of discovering Tn, Q panv N
witch the deceased was insured ard
to write to them Of his suspicious.
A Typical Case.
The following incident, which hap