Delivered In Hartford, At A Dinner To Cornelius Walford, Of London, 1875
Gentlemen, - I am glad, indeed, to assist in welcoming the distinguished guest of this
occasion to a city whose fame as an insurance centre has extended to all lands, and given
us the name of being a quadruple band of brothers working sweetly hand in hand - the
Colt's arms company making the destruction of our race easy and convenient, our
life-insurance citizens paying for the victims when they pass away, Mr. Batterson
perpetuating their memory with his stately monuments, and our fire-insurance comrades
taking care of their hereafter. I am glad to assist in welcoming our guest - first,
because he is an Englishman, and I owe a heavy debt of hospitality to certain of his
fellow-countrymen; and secondly, because he is in sympathy with insurance, and has been
the means of making many other men cast their sympathies in the same direction.
Certainly there is no nobler field for human effort than the insurance line of business
- especially accident insurance. Ever since I have been a director in an
accident-insurance company I have felt that I am a better man. Life has seemed more
precious. Accidents have assumed a kindlier aspect. Distressing special providences have
lost half their horror. I look upon a cripple now with affectionate interest - as an
advertisement. I do not seem to care for poetry any more. I do not care for politics even
agriculture does not excite me. But to me now there is a charm about a railway collision
that is unspeakable.
There is nothing more beneficent than accident insurance. I have seen an entire family
lifted out of poverty and into affluence by the simple boon of a broken leg. I have had
people come to me on crutches, with tears in their eyes, to bless this beneficent
institution. In all my experience of life, I have seen nothing so seraphic as the look
that comes into a freshly mutilated man's face when he feels in his vest pocket with his
remaining hand and finds his accident ticket all right. And I have seen nothing so sad as
the look that came into another splintered customer's face when he found he couldn't
collect on a wooden leg.
I will remark here, by way of advertisement, that that noble charity which we have
named the Hartford Accident Insurance Company is an institution which is peculiarly to be
depended upon. A man is bound to prosper who gives it his custom. No man can take out a
policy in it and not get crippled before the year is out. Now there was one indigent man
who had been disappointed so often with other companies that he had grown disheartened,
his appetite left him, he ceased to smile - said life was but a weariness. Three weeks ago
I got him to insure with us, and now he is the brightest, happiest spirit in this land -
has a good steady income and a stylish suit of new bandages every day, and travels around
on a shutter.
I will say, in conclusion, that my share of the welcome to our guest is none the less
hearty because I talk so much nonsense, and I know that I can say the same for the rest of
the speakers.