WHERE DID THEY GET THESE-?

The above photograph of Third Vicepresident Wilson, his brother Jack, and H. W. Devitt, was taken during the Coronation Dinner to the Poor, in "dear old Lunnon," at which the trio had secured positions as waiters. We notice in the background a soldier-or is it a policeman? Can it be that they were arrested? No! Perish the thought. Jack Wilson's clothes seem to fit where they touch, and Devitt runs him a close second. However, they are all members of good standing in the Equitable family, and all is forgiven.

Toward the close of the college year a Yale senior, famed for "bluffing" abilities that carried him through many an unprepared recitation, interviewed Prof. William Lyon Phelps for the purpose of giving him a "jolly" over his standing. Now, Prof. Phelps is a rather capable "jollier" himself.

"I trust, professor," said the student, "that you find that I am doing strong work in your course."

"Strong!" echoed Prof. Phelps. "Why, sir, your recitations have always reminded me of the Rock of Gibraltar."

As the senior moved away, grinning complacently, Prof. Phelps added:

"The resemblance that has struck me, however, between your recitations and the rock is not so great in point of strength as in the fact that both are such windy bluffs." Travelers' Record.

THE LIFE INSURANCE WORLD. Notes and Doings of Interest to Policyholders and Others.

Dying members of the standard American life insurance companies left their families a total average of over $12,600 every hour last year.

Stick to your policy. Do not let it lapse, and do not be talked by anybody into dropping it to go into some other company.

In meeting a life insurance agent you listen to an admirable conversationalist whose mission is to save a good deal of money for you and make a little for himself.

The supposed beneficiary in an assessment life insurance concern writes to know how she can realize on a now long overdue claim against the association. It is hard to answer. The French fleet is getting something of a reputation in the way of collecting bad bills. Might send for it.

"The supreme finance keeper" of "the Supreme Tent" of a secret society life insurance organization, with headquarters in Michigan, confesses to the theft of $57,000 of the concern's funds. His official title was evidently not a misnomer. It is soothing, from an actual standpoint, to be assured that the stealing cannot hurt the association a bit, as it still claims to have almost $1,500,000 on hand with which to meet $350,000,000 of its alleged "insurance."

Napoleon fancied that after him would come the deluge. Yet there still seems to be something doing in the world despite the death of the man who had never seen a locomotive, ocean steamer or international exposition, never sent a telegram or talked through a 'phone. Men who die uninsured have as little idea of what may afterward happen to their survivors as Napoleon. But had there been any life insurance in his day worth mentioning it is dollars to door nails that he would have carried a big chunk of it.

Indianapolis Journal.

Purchase protection in THE EQUITABLE to-day. TO-MORROW may be too late. Surplus, $71,000,000.

THE MOMENTOUS DECISION OF HYDE.

By President James W. Alexander in the Chicago Record.

The strenuous life is not absolutely modern, nor is it exclusively American, but the verb "to hustle" has in it a flavor peculiar to Columbia, and suggests a quality which has contributed to the march of success with which the Yankee has attracted the wondering gaze of the world.

Among the "hustlers" who have already left their indelible mark on the history of their times, I know of none who deserve distinction more than the late Henry Baldwin Hyde, of New York.

Some have stormed citadels; some have founded nations; some have penetrated the hidden mysteries of science; some have built up mammoth industries. Hyde chose a work of human beneficence and achieved a conspicuous supremacy. It was he who, of all others, made life assurance what it is to-day in America and from America throughout the world-a gigantic influence for good and a vast financial instrument.

It would be difficult, if not impossible, to find a more emphatic illustration of the effect of a "momentous decision" than in the life of Henry Baldwin Hyde. A poor country boy, he found himself alone in New York in the year 1850, without friends, without experience, without money, with nothing but his own character and courage, and an unknown future before him. started as a clerk in a dry-goods store, and worked early and late. One of his employers, at this date, William A. Wheelock, Esq., became afterward a director in the Equitable Life Assurance Society, founded by Hyde, and sits to-day on its finance committee.

He

But Hyde was destined for higher things, and he became later the cashier of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. The scientific and beneficent character of this business attracted his interest and taste, and he made it a study. His far-seeing intelligence showed him possibilities in it which had never been dreamed of. Up to this time the affairs of the life companies had been conducted in an easy-going way. The most prominent of them all was the Mutual Life, which was then nine years old, and was doing about three millions of as

surance per annum. Its total outstanding assurance was only a little more than seventeen and a half millions, and its accumulated assets a little over two millions. Besides this company there were about forty American companies. There were not more than sixty thousand or seventy thousand people insured in these companies at that time. The amount carried on these lives hardly exceeded one hundred and twenty millions of dollars; and the annual payment of claims to deceased policy-holders was about two millions. These statistics are given in order that the contrast presented by the business to-day may be clearly appreciated. There are about eighty companies (omitting the very small ones) in the United States. Their combined accumulations are about one thousand nine hundred millions of dollars. Their outstanding assurance in force is about seven thousand nine hundred millions. Their annual new business is about one thousand four hundred millions, and the annual amount paid to widows and orphans is about one hundred and eighteen millions. I unhesitatingly assert that this tremendous change, involving what it does of comfort and protection to thousands and thousands of women and children bereft of their support; involving thrift and a provident habit; involving the wise distribution of wealth without pernicious communism; involving the minimizing of poverty and the lessening of pauperism; involving the creation of centres of capital for loaning purposes, thus assisting the masses; involving the honorable and lucrative employment of hundreds of thousands of people engaged in securing and conducting the business; is the direct result of the work of Henry Baldwin Hyde, and of the decision made by him, at the age of twenty-five, which is the subject of this article.

This is a bold declaration, and should not be made unless there is evidence to support it. Those who have been intimately acquainted with the progress of this institution of life assurance during most of the past half-century, as the writer has, know it to be a fact. For the instruction and encouragement of those who have not, let us pick out for observation some of the leading

events.