The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-03-08
ROMANCE AND LIFE INSURANCE
The Secret of Burns temperance
After His Best Girl Had Held His
Funeral.
From the Chicago Herald.

! ABOUT eight years ago u MAI ANluB III
Pecatonica, ILL.,, who may be called Burn
for short, insured his life in the Providelt
I Savings Life Assurance Company of New
| York for $1,000 he made the policy pay
liable to a young lady for whom he had de-
| veioped singular degree Of fondness, but
had never married. Shortly afterward he
toJk out an additional $4,000 policy in
another company, and proceeded thereafter
| about his regular business. He was IN
good health, and one day in December he
| went to the river for a season of skating,
declining any company. He went skinl-
| ming over the smooth surface OF the river
till he reached point three miles from
town, where he passed q group of men load
i1g wood. shouted a greeting to them and
passed out of sight. They recognized him
| and remarked on his grace as skater, but
| they never saw him again.
| Burns never came back to town. His
| Pecatonica friends never saw him again,
and his loss was mourned bitterly. In Il
day or two agroup of boys came up from
the country along the river, four miles from
town, and said that they saw man whose
! description answered that of Burns come
| skating toward them the morning of his
disappearance while they were attending to
| some muskrat traps; that he was performing
some marvellous gyrations, and That he sud
| denly disappeared il an opening IN TIE ice
Burns friends found the marks of his skates
from the very point where he had put them
on down to within 200 yards of where the
youthful trappers had freed a muskrat.
Here they found hole about ten feet across,
formed by spring which prevented the
| water from freezing. The skate marks led
to the very edge of the hole. and there were
lost.
1t looked like accidental death, and Miss
| Matilda, the charming beneficiary under the
policies of life lusu ance, asked that the
money be paid her. But until the bodv was
produced and Identification fixed beyond
doubt the soulless corporation declined to
| contribute Along in April the ice was
well out of the river, and the bed was
dragged for the body of Burns. The body
of man was found some distance down
the river. He had on Burns clothes,
| Burns skates were on his feet, and in one of
the pockets was found Burns open-face
watch. The Identification seemed COM
plete. Matilda wept over the remains, and
then dried her eyes, caused decent burial to
be solemuized, and--asked again for her
money.
But chief among those who examined and
identified the body was DR.. Pills, who had
passed upon Burns application for insur-
ance. He seemed exceedingly interested in
the case, making many trips to PecatOnica
ard comforting Matilda by almost daily
visits He cheered her so effectually that
on July they were married, and the girl
laid aside her weeds the day she was wed.
For some reason the company still objected
TO paying the Insurance money, and suit
was brought to compel them. They found
Burns had made a will by which the doctor
inherited all his little worldly wealth,
and this, with some other facts, still
induced them to question the validity
of the claim. The case did not
come to trial until the following winter.
and then one day Matilda's lawyer put that
young lady on the stlnd ana showed her
case to the jury. Her physician husband
followed. Then came the persons who had
seen Burns strap on his skates and start
down the river; then the wood haulers who
saw HIM pass; then the boys who saw him
disappear in the sink hole; then the coroner
and jury that sat on the body found in
April; then a cloud of witnesses who had
viewed that body and pronounced 1t all that
remained of Burns; lastly, the policies of
insurance, and the plaintiff closed. 1t
looked like clear case, and jurors and
spectators exchanged Chances as the defend
ants attorney asked for an adjournment
until the following day. Was he going to
offer compromise?
Next morning the court room was filled,
and every one was on tiptoe to see how
much of the $4,000 Matilda secured. Bill
Evans, a barber, was placed in the witness
chair by the defense
"Were you acquainted with John Burnsp
he was asked.
81 was, he replied.
SIS he living~
"He is"
"How do YOU knowg'
because | am looking right at him now p
All eyes followed the BARRIERS keen
glance. Judge, jury, lawyers, witnesses,
everybody rose up.aud gazed in Mortified in
terest at an apparition near the door. There
stood John Burns sound and well. The
3d. ar
stand. his Identification was instantaneous,
complete, unquestioned. Even Matilda
broke down and wept, though something
more than JOY at seeing him may have
moved her. The doctor grew white and red
, and white again, then tainted outright.
S Burns told his story. He and the girl and
the doctor formed the scheme to get
= $4,000 from the insurance companies.
9 He was young and careless, and
: willing to take some risks The doctor
. was to take $4,000, the girl $4,000, and
= he was to have the balance. Then he was
r to marry Matilda, and with her leave the
t country. He pas. ed the wood haulers on
: the ice, and almost Immediately after took
Q off his skates, went ashore aud struck off
i through the woods, which were bare OF
s snow, and got train at station ten miles
Q from home, and went to Chicago Then he
went up to Wisconsin and found work in 8
Saw-mill. He correSponded with the doctor
TAKING an assumed name. When the CON-
pany demanded the body the doctor wrote
o asking for his skates, watch, and the clothes
he wore on that fatal morning He sent
: them, but saved the letter, which was now
+ produced In court, and in which the state
=. ment was made: 81 have a good 'stifs
:, about your size which can USE
. One day young man representing an
= accident Insurance. company visited the
g sawmill, and Burns, among others, took out
asmall policy, calling himself John Burns
Brown. When the contest for the life in
surance came on this accident company
I. gave the defendants a hint which induced
o them to go into the Wisconsin woods and
find the man. At first he denied his iden-
tity, then be admitted 1t, but said he never
O meant to convey the impression he was
S dead or to defraud anyone; that he walked
4 away boldly and in sight of all men. But
when told that DR.. Pills had married
Matilda, and that they evidently meant
to gather i'll all the life ipsur-
q ance. John came clear down. He CON
!, fessed the scheme. He showed the doctors
: letters, in one of which were the words: 81
y put the body in last night. The ice is fast
> breaking up, and was none too soon.
a They will drag the river Monday Burns
: said in conclusion that ne would not have
= cared If his girl hadn't lnarriad bu+ bor