LIST OF SPRING BOOKS A Satchel Guide for the Vacation Tourist in Europe. By W. J. ROLFE, Litt. D. New revised edition tor 1904. With maps. 18mo, flexible leather binding, net, postpaid..... The Song of Roland. Translated by ISABEL Butler, Malory's King Arthur., Book I., Merlin; Book II, $1.50 1.50 1.50 1.25 The Horse-Leech's Daughters. By MARGARET D. JACKSON. Crown 8vo A Country Interlude. By HILDEGARDE HAWTHORNE, 1.50 Joan of the Alley. By FREDERICK O. BARTLETT. 11 1.50 If You Are a College Man You probably have retained your interest in college sports and wish to THE ILLUSTRATED SPORTING NEWS Is the only publication of national circulation giving special attention, in text and illustration, to college sports. Indeed, it is becoming generally recognized as the official organ of all colleges on athletic events. Our COLLEGE BASEBALL NUMBER The issue of THE ILLUSTRATED SPORTING NEWS dated June 11, will be largely devoted to college baseball, treated by the best writers in the country, and profusely illustrated by exclusive photographs. This number will be interesting to all baseball enthusiasts and especially to college men. THE ILLUSTRATED SPORTING NEWS, 7 West 22nd Street, New York THE AMERICAN PILLAR OF HERCULES. PHOTOGRAPHICALLY ILLUSTRATED BY ARTHUR HEWITT. WHEN the Greek scholars carried the new learning into Italy, the Middle Ages had to give way to light. age For ideas with life in them have spread light from the stone until now, in every century where they have been wisely brought. The spread of thrift and saving in America in con nection with insurance is a striking illustration in point. A little over a quarter of a century ago a young New Englander introduced from England the idea of life insurance for the masses of the people. For a number of years that idea had been growing in Great Britain, and it had gained a broad foothold at the time it was transplanted in this country. And when brought here it was so fully adjusted to American conditions by the Prudential that it grew from the beginning, like a native. That record of growth is an amazing story of human achievement, but it is the old story - always absorbingly interesting-of the abounding power of an idea with life in it. Ten years after the close of the civil war a period so recent that its history has scarcely been written the Prudential was established in Newark. As if foreknowing the great rock to which it would grow, it began its foundation in a basement office. It was like the be ginning of the New York Herald by Bennett, the elder, in a basement on Ann Street. But it would be an idle play with words to make a basement office the real foundation of the Pruden tial. It was something much deeper down than that, nothing else than the bed-rock American principle of democracy. The Prudential applied the democratic principle to life insurance. As Senator Dryden, of New Jersey, the founder of the company, has said, "Life insurance is of the most value when most widely distributed. The Prudential and the companies like it are cultivating broadly and soundly among the masses the idea of life insurance protection. To them is being carried the gospel of selfhelp, protection, and a higher life." And what has been the result of the democratic American principle worked out in life insurance? In 1875 the first policy was written in the Prudential. At come grew from something more than $9,000,000 a year to more than $39,000,000 last year is amazing as a general statement, but when made in relation to A STAIRWAY IN THE HOME OFFICE BUILDINGS the end of 1903 there were 5,447,307 policies in force on the books of the company, representing nearly a billion dollars. The assets in 1876 were $2232, while twenty-seven years later, in 1903, they were more than 30,000 times greater, or $72,712,435.44, the liabilities at the same time being $62,578,410.81. This is a record of growth that is without precedent in insurance. and that is hard to match in the whole range of industry. The rise of the The rise of the Prudential to greatness reads like a romance in big figures, but, in fact, it is a record of business expansion that has been as natural as the growth of an oak. The corn crop of the country seems too big for comprehension until one sees the vast fields of the Middle West, and then it appears as simple as the growth of a single stalk. So with the Prudential. To say that, in ten years, the company's in the broad principles on which that growth has been based, it becomes as much a matter of course as the corn crop. There is no mystery about it; but there is in it, from the day when the principles were planted in Newark until these great harvest days, the genuine American spirit of achievement, strong, hopeful and expansive. The Prudential Insurance Company of America is a national institution. It was founded to provide insurance for the American people on the broadest possible basis consistent with strength and safety. Just as Grant and Lee organized their armies, or as Kouropatkin and Yamagata plan their campaigns in Asia, so does the Prudential work out its national insurance propaganda. The company's organization is essentially military. It is a wonderful combination of big grasp and outlook with the most painstaking thoroughness and system in details. And, as is always the case in every organization that throbs throughout with intelligent energy, there is a man at the centre of it. This man has a constructive imagination lighting up a New England brain. To business prudence there is added the large vision which sweeps the horizon for opportunity. Naturally, to such a vision the application of the democratic idea to insurance was an opportunity of the first magnitude. When seen, it was grasped and developed. The Prudential was founded. In the most careful way, its idea was tested, just as the Secretary of Agriculture tests seeds at the Government's experiment farms. Here was where prudence kept the large vision in proper focus. |