Baby Insurance.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 217, 27 August 1887, Page 4

Baby Insurance.

saw a young man of my acquaintancee emerge from a house in a crowded tene ment section of New York. I was surprised, and asked what he was doing there. "Oh, my employment now brings m. here every day,' he replied. "In fact, I spend most of my time in this district." "And what is your business?" 1 inquired. " Insurance." " Life or fire?" 41 Well, neither. To tell you the truth, I got rather hard up a little while ago »nd went into the baby insurance business. I'm doing right well, too, though it's hard work to collect the premiums from these poor people. We insure the funeral expenses of infants in case they die. " As soon as there is a baby born in one of these tenements I go and offer to insure it for a few cents a week. That ie to say, wo agree to provide the funeral facilities if the child dies within a year. The style of things depends on the amount of premium money paid. Some insure for a plain coffin mid one carriage ; others for a handsome casket and half a dozen vehicles. It is a great comfort to these poor parents to know that, no matter what may happen to baby, ' it will have a decent burial." "But the cify authorities always bury the poor free of charge," I remarked. "Why do these folks buy what they can get for nothing ?" " Bless you, responded my friend, "you don't know them. They've got as much pride in this matter as you have. They consider it an everlasting disgrace to a family if any member of it is buried in the Potter's Field. Their neighbours would never let them hear the last of it."