QUERY COLUMN.

When the next Equitable Blotters are prepared, I venture to suggest that the blotter which has one smooth side is the most satisfactory blotter, and is the best advertisement of that kind. N. J. R.

Answer. If that is your opinion, we think you are one man in a thousand. The average business man claims that the blotter with one smooth side is productive of more profanity, and imperils the safety of more immortal souls than any of the other triumphs of ingenuity ever invented by his Satanic Majesty. This, however, is merely giving you the opinions which we hear. With regard to ourselves, we never use profane language, so we can not be considered a good judge. Ask Mr. Van Cise.

The agent of the in this town, is advertising the settlement of a policy in this Society, in which the assured only paid in $2,200 during twenty years, and at the end of that time drew out $7,500. Do you know of any policy issued by any company that will show results like that? D.

Answer.-Nixie! So far as our knowledge goes, we can best answer your conundrum by asking you another: "The boy said, 'She's my sister, but I'm not her brother.' Question-What was the boy? Answer-The boy was a 1-r.”

Will you please publish a detailed statement of the manner in which it is calculated that the twentieth century begins on January 1, 1901. L. W.

Answer.-Sorry, but we are too busy publishing detailed statements of the Society's business during 1900.

STRIKE A MAN ON HIS BIRTHDAY, WHEN HE IS FEELING GOOD.

I desire to offer a suggestion to our brother workers about a thing that may, at first glance, appear almost trivial, and yet I think it has been the means of landing many a case for me. Go to a man on his birthday, not the day before or the day after, but on the very day, and if you are intimate enough with him, offer your congratulations on his having lived to see another birthday, and your wishes that he will continue to see many more, etc. Ninetynine men out of one hundred seem to be in particularly good humor on their birthday, and are so thoroughly satisfied with themselves that they are ready to lavish a portion of their wealth, on themselves. The idea of being reminded annually, by the payment of this premium, that their birthday has again come around, seems to strike some people rather favorably, and it also appears to be a very pleasant thing to contemplate the magnificent birthday present, which will come to them in fifteen or twenty years. I have landed men in that way whom it has been absolutely impossible to land in any other way.

I shall be glad to hear from the NEWS whether any of our other agents have ever tried this, and whether it has been successful with them. L. Samuel.

"Each morning sees some task begun,
Each evening sees it close;
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night's repose."

No great achievements are wrought by accident. They are the result of thoughtful planning and deliberate action. Whether it be the building of the smallest machine or the construction of a locomotive, a plan must be conceived before the work is undertaken. Otherwise unforeseen obstacles would delay progress, and, perhaps, prevent ultimate success. Haphazard effort in any line cannot bring the best results, and it may bring failure.

Every man should outline his work and stick to his plan, as far as circumstances will allow. It is the daily attempting of some specific task and the accomplishment of it before sundown that forms a successful career.

AN AGENTS'

JOURNAL

No. 14

OPPORTUNITIES.

Opportunity had been in hiding at the outskirts of the town for many days.

"I must exercise great care in passing through the town," said he, "for every one seems possessed of a desire to capture me."

There came, at last, a dark, gloomy day. "This is my chance," said Opportunity, "for few people will be abroad." So with cautious footsteps he started along the path which Fate decreed he must travel.

Ere long he spied the Pessimist coming toward him. His head was bowed and he was muttering to himself :

"Such weather! The pleasant days have fled and the stormy season is upon us, and now I shall never find Opportunity. will surely never venture out in this beastly weather. Woe is me! Woe is me!"

He

And while he was thus engaged in bemoaning, Opportunity slipped by unseen. A little further down the street Opportunity discovered the Optimist also coming to meet him. The Optimist's head was not bowed. On the contrary, he was gazing at the heavens and exultantly exclaiming :

"Ah, behind yon dark clouds the sun is still shining! Soon, soon it will dry mists and penetrate yonder dark veil, and thenah, then Opportunity will come out into the welcome sunlight and I will find him."

While he was thus communing, Opportunity shied past unobserved, and went on his way rejoicing.

"Ah, ha," he laughed, "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