PORTUNITIES.

had been in hiding at the town for many days. cise great care in passing n," said he, "for every one of a desire to capture me." t last, a dark, gloomy day. chance," said Opportunity, I will be abroad." So with ps he started along the decreed he must travel. pied the Pessimist coming is head was bowed and he > himself :

! The pleasant days have my season is upon us, and er find Opportunity. He venture out in this beastly me! Woe is me!" was thus engaged in betunity slipped by unseen. r down the street Opporthe Optimist also coming e Optimist's head was not contrary, he was gazing at xultantly exclaiming :

n dark clouds the sun is
on, soon it will dry mists
der dark veil, and then-
ity will come out into the
and I will find him."
thus communing, Oppor-
unobserved, and went on

ghed, "I am saved. I did

1901

not much fear the Pessimist, but I scarce expected to get by the Optimist so easily. Now I can breathe freely again," and so' saying he turned a corner and ran plump into the arms of the Alert man, who had spied him afar off and was laying for him. Philadelphia Inquirer.

IF YOU TRY.

There's a heap of satisfaction
In the knowing, if you know,
That this world is just an Eden
If you try to make it so;
For no one can monopolize

The King of light and day;
And you can scatter sunshine,

If you chance to feel that way.
There is joy behind each sorrow,
There's a lesson in defeat,
There's a lecture in experience,
Philosophers can't beat;

And nothing like, "I've been there,"
Can teach you, day by day,
To scatter wads of sunshine,

Which produce the joys that stay.

When you stand before your mirror
And you see reflected there
The image of your Maker,
With a face of blank despair,
Just reason for a moment,

Let Nature have full sway,
After every storm there's sunshine,
When the clouds have passed away.
Author Unknown.

HOW TO BE AN AGENT.

Go to the dentist, thou agent; consider his ways and be wise.

Once upon a time a young dentist was so considerate of the feelings of his patients that he always drew their teeth on the instalment plan. After a preliminary pull, "to loosen things up," as he said, he would send a patient away and tell him to come in a week to have it out. Somehow that dentist failed to thrive.

Now, the business of the life agent is to extract premiums from applicants. But what joy to the applicant when it is all over! And if the agent has nerve and knows his trade, and administers a little laughing gas as a preliminary, he can extract the premium without delay and without inflicting any pain.

"What!" says the applicant, "is it out? I never felt it! I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this relief. You have added to my riches, and the aching anxieties which I have had for years about old age and the future of my family are all things of the past."

Why should the agent lose his time, and add to his labor, and increase the difficulties of his task, by giving a series of inadequate pulls, when his client, after signing the application, has a pen in his hand with which to sign his check?

All this is so obvious that the question may be asked, "Why does it ever happen that an agent fails to collect the first premium in advance?" Of course, the shallow agent will have many reasons at the tip of his tongue. He must not press his customer too hard. He must not appear to be grasping. He must not exhibit a mercenary spirit. He must wait for a more fitting season, etc., etc. Every agent must, of course, exercise common sense; there may be occasions, now and then, when it would be preferable to postpone the collection of the premium until a later date. But such cases are not the rule; they are the exception, and they are the exception because it is better for the applicant if you collect the premium when you secure the application.

Have you ever thought of looking at the question from the applicant's side? Has it ever occurred to you that while it is important for you that the premium should be

collected in advance, it is infinitely more important for the applicant. The other day Mr. S. S. McCurdy, our Assistant Registrar (who had not been absent from the office on account of illness within the memory of man), after attending to the business of the morning, discovered that he had a slight pain in his side, and went home to rest until the following day. The next afternoon he was in the hospital, and had undergone an operation for appendicitis. To-day he is perfectly well, but the surgeon reported that his recovery was almost a miracle, and that if he had neglected his case a few hours longer, that would have been the end of him, Now, if Mr. McCurdy had applied for a policy the day before he felt the pain in his side, and if he had failed to pay the premium, and if his surgeon had been a less skilful man, the assurance applied for would have been irrevocably lost As it is, he must wait some time before he can secure new assurance. But, let me instance another case, about which I have been reading only to-day in the newspapers. A resident of Boston, so the newspaper alleges, applied to a certain company for $240,000 of assurance. The risk was accepted, the policy was issued, but the premium remained unpaid. A few weeks slipped by. Then a lawyer appeared at the office of the company, paid the premium, took up the policy, and withdrew. Two days later it was rumored that on the day the premium was paid, or the day after, the applicant had been operated on for appendicitis and had died under the knife.

I know nothing of the merits of this case, or if the facts are as here quoted. and it is on account of this very ignorance that I select it to illustrate my point. Now, if the agent had collected the premium when he secured the application, and if the fact had subsequently been demonstrated that, as in the case of Mr. McCurdy, this gentleman's attack of appendicitis had come as a surprise to him and to his physician while he was seemingly in rugged health, after he had applied for his assurance, and after he had paid for and received his policy, then the estate of this gentleman would certainly be more than $200,000 better off than it was before this assurance was applied for. Nor is this

were the established be no possible question as good faith of the assured atives. But what is the as indicated by the newsof this transaction? Inn is aroused as to the good cant, who is dead and unhis own behalf. It is the the company not to conHence it can not admit id is suspected, and even -oved that the company is the delay in the payment was due to altogether inthink of the delays, and Innoyances, and expenses unavoidable now, might oided in the beginning. will think of thousands of s of the dangers of delay, should remember that even mpted to collect the preinning, on his own account, s client to collect the prepplication is signed, on his

W. Alexander.

PROTECTION

THAT

PROTECTS

STRONGEST

IN THE

WORLD

THE EQUITABLE

LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY OF THE U. S.

BUT CRAZY POETRY.

i and very pitiable, ill not protect his wife, irance in the Equitiable Life.

wfully deplorable, tive that's much too mild, not for his adorable

child.

ause for joy or laughter, is eyes with tears to dim, the de'il will be after

him.

e gnash his teeth in rage, will bitterly repent listen to the ag

ent.

above, the poet says, "it is : don't send any more.-ED.]

LOSS OF CONSCIENCE.

Our medical examiner recently had an amusing experience with an applicant. In asking whether he had had certain diseases, among them was enumerated "loss of consciousness." The applicant understood the doctor to say "loss of conscience." He thereupon very soberly admitted that there had been times in his life when he hadn't done the right thing always; but was sorry for it, and hoped to do better hereafter.

When the doctor corrected his misinterpretation, you can imagine that the applicant was very much relieved to find that life assurance companies, fortunately, didn't gauge a risk on such high moral grounds as lapses of conscience.

I. L. Register.

[If they did, there would only be a very few of us assured. ED.]

THE GEORGIA AGENCY.

Messrs. Perdue & Egleston, who have so long and honorably represented the Society in the State of Georgia, having resigned, we take pleasure in announcing the appointment of Mr. Robert L. Foreman as their successor, and the general agent for the Equitable in that State.

Mr. Foreman, while yet a young man, is one of the best known and most successful life assurance men in the South. He started his career in this business in 1889 with the Atlanta office of the Mutual Life, and worked his way up until he was made a superintendent of agents, which position he held for a number of years, only leaving it early in 1900 to accept the office of third vice-president and general manager of the South Atlantic Life Insurance Company, of Richmond, Va. This office he has just resigned to become general agent of the Equitable in the city where he started his business career. Mr. Foreman owes his advancement entirely to his own energy and pluck. He is a hard worker, a "pusher" and a business getter, and always masters whatever he undertakes. He is well known socially in Atlanta, and numbers among his connections some of the best and most influential families in the State. With his own high standing and extensive acquaintance, and the honorable

name of the Society, and his predecessors to back him, we predict a great and increasing success for our new manager for Georgia. Mr. Foreman will retain offices in the magnificent Equitable Building in Atlanta, a cut of the entrance to which we show on the opposite page.

The Atlanta Journal says, editorially, of Mr. Foreman: "It is a notable fact that many men, especially men of ability and promise, who leave Atlanta for other fields of opportunity and labor, return sooner or later to this city. A gratifying instance of this kind has recently been given.

"Mr. Robert L. Foreman a few months ago resigned an important position with a great life insurance company in this city to become one of the chief officers of a new and well backed life assurance company that has been established in Richmond, Va.

"He had there a wide and inviting field. and one which he would have cultivated well.

"He has left it, however, to return to Atlanta to take the State agency of the Equitable Life Assurance Society.

"Mr. Foreman is a Georgian well identified with Atlanta. The foundation of his business reputation was made here, and all who know him are confident that it will be still further increased by his services in

ROBERT L. FOREMAN.