The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-10-26
"wIld Cat" Insurance.

10 We EdttOf OF We HreSS.
There seems to be great deal said in the
papers here and elsewhere in connection
with the late fire in Eastport in regard TO
wild eat' insurance, and great deal of
sorrow is expressed by some that those peo-
pie VINO insured In such companies would
not receive their insurance IL such should
turn out to be the fact. as In many cases it
undoubtedly will. the insured may thank
only themselves for their stupidity in ac-
cepting such policies, simply because they
could obtain them of upscrupulous and un-
reliable persons at little less rate than a
policy could be had In a first class reliable
company, legally admitted to do business in
this state, and paying tax for the privilege
OF so doing. Such people do not receive
much sympathy, ard ought not TO expect IL,
when calamity 0vertakeS them.
But we have no need TO go outside Of our
own city for examples Of this sort Months
ago, the columns Of the PRESS contained q
warning TO its readers 20 avoid having any
thing to do with the "Anglo-Ameriean In
suranee Company of Washington. ID. c."
whose policies were then being spread broad
cast over the city. Thousands and thous-
ands OF dollars were taken out Of this city
alone, and passed over 10 this wild cat"
company, less the enormous comm ssiens al
lowed by them to the person whJ handled
their policies. The company put eat a per
jured statement, and that statement was
spread all over the city and State. 1t made
no difference to the company what il was a
person wished to insure hre or marine, 1t
was all the same 70 them, "all fish that came
to their net, and they were not at all par
tlcular about the rate. The orders were,
get the business, no matter about the rate" I"
With misguided confidence people accept
ed those policies, when alas! all Of a sudden
the bubble burst and the fun was over for
that cOmNapE and ifg apqnfs and hroLQra
The two men who run the fraud in Washing
ton divided the money In their possession,
reported to be about 100000, and skipped
one fine morning. one for Australia and the
other one for Europe, and that Is the last Of
that company" Leaving hundreds of
thousands of dollars Of unpaid losses all
| over the world, not even leaving as much as
a postage stamp, or one cent to buy one, SC
that the assignee could not even answer the
| letter Of a sufferer except at his own ex.
| pense, which he now declines TO do, as will
be seen by the. following extract from the
| The Standard (Boston), In It's issue OF October
| 0, publishes a long communication from Mr.. VIM.
| A. Mellow, assignee OF the collapsed Anglo Amer
lean wildcat Insurance company, OF Washington,
ID. O., the upshot OF which is as follows;
THE end OF the whole matter, then, Is substan-
tally this; II there was no perjury and fraud In
the original organization OF the AngO-Ameriean
Insurance Company, then certainly as long ago
| as the 22d OF July, 1885, there was a wholesale
| fraad In the embezzement and deportation OF all
| Its assets Unless this punder can be traced and
followed up, or the partcipatOrs In the fraud
found, seized and personally made liable 10 the
creditors OF the company, they have practically
no other remedy. No other assets are likely TO
be realized out OF which they may reasonably ex-
| pect TO obtain a dividend of even 1 per cent OF
| their claims. Should anything occur to change
| the present appearance substantially to the ad-
vantage OF the creditors, 1t Will afford the assig
/ nee the greatest pleasure to give them all the
earliest possible Information. He would gladly
be relieved from the heavy and thankless burden
| he was ignorantly induced to assume. But II this
be impossible, after this full statement he hopes
all VIII excuse him from the labor of cOrrespOn-
dence, and acquIt him of blame for discOurtesy In
not replying TO further Inquiries at his own per
| sonal cost"
Still, the same thing is going on right here
| among us now, and plenty there are In this
| city who give no heed to the warning placed
| before them, until it is forced on them by
bitter experience. The lesson it would seem
to teach, is to place your insurance with on
| ly reliable agents, and when one Is found Of
| fering policies of bare-faced fraudulent COM
panies, the only safe thing to do is to keep
| away from that agent altogether, and TO de-
| cline all policies from him, provided the in
sured expects to obtain any indemnity when
| q loss does occur. III you chose to carry the
| risk yourself, do so, but do not put your
! premiums into fraudulent companies, and
still carry the risk. There are mOurners In
| this city and State In abundance, who with
sorrow acknowledge that they were caught
in the trap. w. A, JR.
Pension Commissioner Black has given
the opinion that no political committee has a
/ right TO ask contributions Of q government