more than five annual premiums. And the same liability shall also be agreed to in writing by each subsequent subscriber or applicant for insurance who is not a merchant or manufacturer. And each subscription before incorporation shall be accompanied by a certificate of a justice of the peace of the township or city where such subscriber resides, that the subscriber is, in his opinion, pecuniarily good and responsible to the extent of the contingent liability agreed to be assumed.

"Mutual Fire Insurance companies organized under this act may thereafter charge and collect in advance upon their policies a full annual premium in cash, but such policy shall not compel subscribers, insured or assured, to renew any policy nor pay a second or further annual or term premium.

"Any such company must in its bylaws, and must in its policies, fix by a uniform rule the contingent mutual liability of its members for the payment of losses and expenses; and such contingent liabilities shall not be less than three nor more than five annual cash premiums as written in the policy; but such liability shall cease with the expiration of the time for which a cash

premium has been paid in advance, except for liability incurred during said time."

While legislation on this subject is not uniform as to features of procedure among the States, it is so on the general principles of the Mutual system. The laws of some States provide for premium notes instead of annual cash premiums, and again some provide for cash in a given percentage, and for premium notes as a further guarantee. It is believed, however, that a fair idea of the system may be obtained from its operation in Ohio, where, as shown by the legal requirement, a policy holder must pay in an annual premium, and must also agree to pay from three to five times as much if needed, and must furnish proof that he is capable of so paying.

As the result of this system, the holders of policies in Ohio Mutual Fire Insurance companies have had to pay annually from a very small fraction per cent to meet modest office expenses up to one-half of one per cent for insurance.

The usual custom is to return the unused portion of premiums as dividends, although in some States Mutual companies are permitted to retain a percentage to apply to a surplus fund.

T

I

JONY was kneeling on the cushioned seat of the carriage, gazing through the window at the ever-varying scene the street presented. He felt quite a man because he had been permitted to come up-town that afternoon alone for his father. Usually, when such a trip was allowed him, he was accompanied by his nurse or his mother. To-day his nurse was sick and his pretty mother was receiving. Tony was too small a child to know the meaning of that big word; but it was associated in his mind with a crowd of fussy women, who kissed him and in other ways disturbed his peace of mind when he ventured to join his mother. Hence he was glad when his mother said he might come down in the carriage for father.

He had sat very erect and dignified while the trip down to the city was being made; for had not his mother called him her little man when she kissed him good-bye? Men always sat up straight and crossed their hands on their knees when they rode in carriages, and Tony followed the custom religiously. But when Ben stopped the horses before the big bank in which his father spent so much of his time, the panorama of the street conquered his dignity, and climbing up onto the seat. he began to gaze on the hurrying crowds. What were all those people's names, he wondered, and where were they going in such a hurry? At first he thought perhaps they were all doctors hastening to see the sick nurses of little

boys, for it was thus the doctor had come to his home that morning. A second glance, however, showed him. that this could not be, for few of them were dressed as fine as Doctor Danton, and the majority of them were women, and doctors were always men. Some of the women pushed babies in the prettiest of little buggies, and when he saw a little girl, with long golden hair, walking demurely past with a big doll clasped in her arms, he clapped his hands and cried aloud with delight.

The exclamation caught the ear of a man who was passing, his eyes bent darkly on the ground. He turned his head and, seeing the face of the child at the window, stopped short. In one sweeping glance he took in the dark eyes and brown-tinted skin, and the long curls, black as night, that fell around his neck.

"The very one!" he whispered, and without a moment's hesitation he stepped out of the passing crowd and, opening the carriage door, said to the negro seated on the box:

To the Strand Hotel!" Ben had been dozing-for the summer sun acts like an opiate on the colored race and never doubting that the unseen owner of the voice was his master, he slapped the reins over the backs of the staid horses, and in another moment the bank was left behind. Tony crouched into the corner of the carriage, his dark eyes big with fear.

"Your father has gone to the hotel, my little boy, and he told me when the carriage came for him to get into it and bring you to him," said the stranger,

and Tony's fears grew still. The man's voice was soft and quieting, and the face he bent toward him was magnetic in its beauty. He was well dressed, and Tony's education had led him to trust appearances of wealth and to fear only tramps and beggars. Moreover, the gentleman was one of his father's friends, so he was safe in his company. "What's your name?" inquired the stranger, as the horses trotted along. The question did not awaken any suspicion on Tony's part, for ever since her could remember his parents' friends had put that senseless question to him.

"Anthony Lanes Webster," he answered politely, as he had been taught to do.

"How old are you, my son?" the man further inquired.

"I'll be five years old in August," he responded, proudly.

"Are you sure you haven't made a mistake?" questioned the man, in surprise. "You are so big, you surely must be six years old! Now think right hard, and tell me if you weren't six last August and will be seven next month."

The puzzled expression came into Tony's face. He was certain that his mother ought to know more about his age than this friend of his father; and yet, suppose he were seven years old! Then he could go to school and could have a dozen boys to play with instead of being shut up in the house half the time with a nurse who always had a sick headache and objected to fire-engines and steam-cars in the nursery.

"I think you have forgotten your exact age," persisted the man. "Now don't you think you will be seven in August?"

The deep, gloomy eyes were bent upon him and they exercised a strange influence over the child's mind. It could not be called fear, but rather a

A

desire to please, because of the uncertainty of the consequences that might follow his displeasure. Perhaps his mother had made a mistake, for Tony was not ready to admit that he had done so.

"Maybe I will be seven next August," he said, slowly. gust," he said, slowly. "I only know what they all tell me. And I reckon big people get things mixed up sometimes, don't you? They have so much to remember, you know."

"That is true," rejoined the stranger, affably. "And mothers and fathers have so many children's ages to think of it is no wonder they sometimes make mistakes."

"But my parents haven't any other child but me," said Tony, lifting his surprised eyes.

"Of course not! Of course not!" said the man hastily. "Your father has told. mė about his only child often. But your parents have many things to think. about. Just imagine all the money your father has to take care of other people's money at that, of which he must be doubly careful. He has to keep an eye on all the clerks in the bank, so they won't run off with any of that money, and he has got to lock it up securely each night so that burglars cannot get it. Your father has so many things to remember, it would not surprise me if he were to forget the exact number of your years.

"Yes," said Tony, "and my mother has more things to remember than my father."

"How is that?" inquired the stranger. "Why, you see, she is receiving to-day and ever so many ladies will come to the house, and she has to remember the name of every one of them. I never could do that, for some of them have the funniest names you ever heard."

"That is a fact!" said the man, and Tony thought how handsome he was

affection was only feigned in order to ward off suspicion when I should have accomplished my wicked designs.

"She was a very fascinating woman and had my father completely in her power. She began to poison his mind against me, and so far succeeded that from being the kindest of parents he became the cruelest. So miserable did he make existence for me that I was glad when the time came for me to leave home for college. But college days could not last forever, and when they were over and I went home to take my place in affairs for which my position and education fitted me, I found she had not only turned my father completely against me but my brother also. He hated me now as intensely as he had once loved me, and I began to fear for my life from their combined malice. Still I bore with it, because I was sustained with the belief that at length I should overcome their hatred by proving to them I loved my brother. In various way I advanced his interest, even at the sacrifice of my own.

"Gradually a change began to come. over my stepmother, which was soon repeated in my brother. They who had previously been cold to me now became friendly. I was happy for a time in my fool's paradise, but I was hurled out of it by a visit from our family lawyer-a shrewd but perfectly honest old man. He came one day and told me plainly that if I wished to preserve my life and liberty I must be watchful, for it had been told to him by one whose honor was unquestioned that my stepmother and brother were plotting to have me committed to an insane asylum. I was different in many ways from other young men, not loving social pleasures as they did, preferring the society of a few choice friends, and the seclusion of my library at other times, to the gayety of the fashionable world.

"Besides, I was fitting myself for work which I had felt called upon to do. My country was distracted by the tyranny of a foreign government and warring factions at home. With a few patriotic and congenial young men I was studying the situation in the hope of finding a remedy for her distress. We felt there was the highest and holiest work for us to do, and we were preparing ourselves for it when the blow fell.

"The intelligence conveyed by the old lawyer almost drove me insane. I had not dreamed until then there was such depravity in human nature, and it made me as wicked as themselves. I wanted to kill my brother, because I knew his death would be worse to my step-mother than death to herself, although she was the guiltier of the two. I did not yield to my passion, but I feared if I were to remain there I might. Moreover, the position was full of danger to me. The wickedness I had discovered in my family led me to suspect every one, even the companions of whom I have just spoken. There might be traitors among them, I thought, who were working with my brother and his mother for my ruin. They might accuse me of plotting against the King, and I might be sent to prison to languish there until the day of my death arrived.

"I took all these things into consideration and resolved to quit the country until such time as the death of my father should leave me in full possession of the property, when I should speedily rid the house of that wicked woman and her son. In this decision the lawyer fully agreed. I announced my intention to my father. His wife immediately suspected that her designs had been discovered, and she glared at me with all her undying hate in her eyes. She pleaded with me to stay, told me that my father was now an old man, unable to look after the interests of the vast estate and