AN INQUIRY ABOUT INSURANCES.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 551, 16 October 1871, Page 3

AN INQUIRY ABOUT INSURANCES.

BY MARK TWAIX

Coming down from Sacramento tie otlier night, I found on a oentre-table in the saloon of the steamboat, a pamphlet aoyerf of an Accident Insurance ComfnblH t interested me a good deal with ft I ?»1 accidents, and its naz.-irdoux fa* < and extra-hazardous furniture of th - i 'c description, and I would like to kriva 'oniething more about it. It is a ncr -ig to me. I want to invest if I com e v, hko it- I want to ask merely a few questions of the man who carries on this accident shop. For lam an orphan He publishes this list as accidents he is willing to insure people against:— General accidents include the travelling risk, and also all forms of dislocations, broken bones, ruptures, tendons, sprains, concussions, crushings, bruising, cuts, stabs, gunshot wounds, poisoned wounds, burns and scalds, freezing, bites, unproroked assaults by burlgars, robbers, or murdereres, the action of lightning, sunstroke, the effects of explosions, chemicals, floods, and earthquakes, suffocation by drowning or choking—where such accidental injury totally disables the person insured fr'onifollowiiig his usual avoca lion, or causes death within three months from the time of the happening of the injury. I want to address this parly as follows : INow, Smith—l suppose likely your name is Smith—you don't know me and I don't know you,'but lam willing to be friendly. lam acquainted with a good many of your family—l know John as well as I know any man—and I think we can come to an understanding about your little game without any hard feelings. For in>tance: — Do you alow the same money on a dogbite that you do on an earthquake ? Do you take special risk for specific accidents? —rtliafc is to say, could I, by getting a policy fordog-bitee alone, get it cheaper than if I took a chance in your whole lottery ? And if so, and supposing I got insured against earthquakes, would you charge anymore for San Francisco earthquakes than for those that prevail in places that are better anchored down ? And if I had a policy on earthquakes alone, I couldn't collect on dog-dites, may be, could I ?

If a man had such a policy, and an earthquake shook him up and loosened his joints a good deal, but not enough to incapacitate him from engaging in pursuits which did not require him to be tight, wouldn't you pay him some of his pension? I notice you do not mention Biles. How about Biles ? Why do you discriminate betwren Proyoked and Unprovoked Assaults by by Burglars? If a burglar entered my Louse at dead of night, and I, in the excitement natural to such an occasion, shonld forget myself and say something that provoked him, and he should cripple me, wouldn't I get anything? But if i provoked him by pure accident, I would have you thcie, I judge ; bpcause yon would have to pay for the Accident part of it, anyhow, seeing that insuring against accidents is just your strong suit, you know. IS row, tliat item about protecting a man against freezing is good. It will procure you all the custom you want in this country. Because, you understand, thejpeople hereabouts have suffered a good Jpl from just such cliimtic drawbacks as that. Why, three years ago if a man —being a small fish in the matter of money—went over to Washoe and bought into a good silver mine, they would l«?t that man go on and pay assessments till bis purse got down o about thirty-two Fahrenheit, and then the big fish would close in on him and freeze him out. And from that day forth you might consiber that man in the light of ft bnnkrupt community; and you would have him down to a spot, too. But if you are ready to insure against that sort of tiling, and can stand it, you can give Washoe a fair start. You might send me an agency. Business? Why, Smith, I could get you more business than you could attend to. With such an understanding as that, the boys would all take a chance.

You don't appear to make any particular mention of taking risks on blighted afiections. But if you should conclude to do a little business in that line, you might piit me down for six or seven chances. I wouldn't mind expense—you might enter it on the extra hazardous, I suppose \ would get ahead of you in the long run anyhow, likely. 1 have been blighted a good deal in my time. But now as to those " Effects of Lightning," Suppose the lightning were to Rtrike out at one of your men and miss him, and fetch another party —could that other party cojieonyou for damages? Or couifi the relatives of the party thus suddenly snaked out the bright world in the bloom of Itis youth come on you in case he was crowded for time? as of course he would be, you know, under such circumstances.

You say you Lave " issued orer sixty thousand policies, forty-five of which have proved fatal and been paid for." JS ow, do you know, Smith, that that looks just a little shaky to me, in a measure? You appear to have it pretty much all your own way, you see. It is all very well for the lucky forty-five that have died " and been paid for," but how about the other fifty-nine thousand nine hundred and fifty-five? You have got their money, haven't you ? but somehow the lightning don't seem to strike them and they don't get any chance at you. Won't their families get fatigued waiting for their dividends? Don't your customers drop off rather slow, so to speak ?

You will ruin yourself publishing such damaging statements as that, Smith. J tell you as a friend. If you had said tha' the fifty-nine thousand nine hundred and fifty-live died, and that forty-five lived, youAould have issued about four tons of poises the next week. But people are not going to get insured when you take so much pains to prove that there is such precious little use in it. Good-bye, Smith 1