siness maxim of the twentieth century.

No man is sure of his job once an inventor gets on his trail.

Twenty years ago it was said that nothing on earth, with less intelligence
than a human being, could set type, play the piano, add figures, or tie a
knot in a piece of binding-twine.

The inventors said, "We can make machines of wood and steel--machines that
have no brains and no feeling, that can do these things, and do them
better than a man."

The world haw-hawed at the silly inventors, but the inventors have made
good. In England, to-day, there are showing us a machine that can hand out
an insurance policy, properly stamped and signed.

The machine, which defies fraud, looks like a clock. When the applicant
drops his coin into the slot he pulls forward a handle, when out drops a
pencil, already sharpened, and an opening is disclosed through which the
signature is made. Then the client pushes back the handle and
simultaneously the space closes and an insurance policy is issued through
another slot.

Against the signature inside the machine is printed the exact date and the
time to the very minute when the policy was issued. If the insured meets
with an accident within seven days he applies to the insurance company for
his weekly allowance, and if his name is on the register retained by the
machine the policy is paid.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ARITHMETICAL SIGNS.

HOW THEY FIRST CAME TO BE USED.

Prone to Short Cuts and Abbreviations,
Man Has Chopped Words Into
Lines and Crosses.

A little mark or sign, used in every-day life so frequently that its users
concern themselves only with its necessary meaning, may have a very
elaborate history--may embalm much tradition. Take the English sign for a
pound--L. How many persons have stopped to inquire as to its meaning? L
stands for the Latin _libra_, as "d," used to indicate the pence, stands
for the Latin _denarius_, and as "s," used to indicate the shilling,
stands for the Latin _solidus_.

The origin of arithmetical signs is explained as follows:

1. The sign of addition (+) is derived from the initial
letter of the word plus. In making the capital letter, it
was made more and more carelessly, until the top part of the
P was placed near the center; and hence the plus sign was
finally reached.

2. The sign of subtraction (-) was derived from the word
minus. The word was first contracted into m n s, with a
horizontal lin