ndowment Policy, in which the amount
assured is payable when the party attains a certain age, or at death,
should he die before reaching that age. This policy is rapidly gaining
favor, as it provides for the man himself in old age, or for his family
in case of his death. It is also fast becoming a favorite form of
investment. We can show instances where the policy-holders have received
a _surplus_ above all they have paid to the company, with compound
interest at six per cent, and no charge whatever for expenses or cost of
insurance meanwhile.

The Term Policy, as its name implies, is issued for a term of one or
more years.

Policies are also issued on joint lives, payable at the death of the
first of two or more parties named in the policy; and on survivorship,
payable to a party named in case he survives another.

Some companies require all premiums to be paid in cash, while others
take the note of the assured in part payment. These are denominated cash
and note companies, and much difference of opinion exists as to their
comparative merits.

The latter is at first sight an attractive system, and its advocates
present many specious arguments in its favor. The friends of cash
payments, however, contend that the note system is detrimental and
delusive, from the fact that these notes are liable to assessment, and,
in case of death, to be deducted from the amount assured; also that the
notes accumulate as the years roll on, the interest growing annually
larger, and the total cash payment consequently heavier, while the
actual amount of assurance, that is, the difference between its nominal
amount and the sum of the notes, steadily lessens; and thus a provision
for one's family gradually changes into a burden upon one's self.

But whatever differences of opinion may exist as to the comparative
value of various systems, few will deny the advantages which life
assurance has conferred upon the public, especially in America, whose
middle classes, ambitiously living up to their income, are rich mostly
in their labor and their homesteads,--in their earnings rather than
their savings; and whose wealthy classes are rich chiefly through the
giddy uncertainties of speculation,--magnificent to-day, in ruins
to-morrow. In a country like this, no one can estimate the amount of
comfort secured by investment in life assurance. It is the one measure
of thrift which remains to atone for our extravagance in living and
recklessness in