"DATING BACK" AND "BONDS" 425

selection for the greater office, he resigned as president of the company, and not long after-wards an investigation by the insurance department of a neighbouring State pricked the bubble. Then both companies reinsured and retired their stock, the managers escaping without punishment and with the spoils. Iowa by new laws and rulings purged herself so that now such things cannot be done there and many other States closed their doors to it. A few yet indulgently permit this business to be carried on by life insurance concerns, however, and both because of that and also because a like business is now being promoted by a so-called banking corporation, we are by no means out of danger. Recently this plague has extended to Great Britain and is raging there, much to the discomfiture of Britons, who had serene confidence in the sanity and prudence of their countrymen.