The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-05-09
DAMAGED FOR REVENUE.
4 New Scheme for Obtaining
Money Without Working.
People Who Claim Payment for Injuries
That Are Never Received-women
Are Adepts in the Disrep-
utabie Business.


'sThere is a certain class of people
who make good living by claiming
damages for injuries which they have
never received. said Sergeant John Me
Sweeney. of the New York police, TO a
Journal reporter.
These fakirs are constantly trying
new schemes" he continued, ''by which
to make it appear that they have been
disabled through being assaulted or by
falling down somebody's stairs or being
knocked down by somebody's horse,
taking care that in every instance the
person claiming TO be at fault Is amply
able to pay.
Women are very clever at this new
widow, who staggered into the station
house one day. that l got the first init
nation that the game was being gener-
ally worked.
The woman was in the greatest dis
tress apparently, and was scarcely able
10 stand. When / had given her chair
she said in faint voice that she had
just been run down by wagon. and
that she was certain she had received
internal injuries of severe nature.
she had taken pains, she said, to
take the name of the firm, which was
painted on the wagon, and as it was
one of the biggest dry goods houses in
the city. she proposed to make them
pay roundly for their drivers careless
ness.
Il at once offered to send for hospi-
tai ambulance" the sergeant went on,
but at this she bridled up and declared
that she would allow no one but her
family physician to make an examina-
ton. Then for the first time l began
to suspect that the woman was not as
badly hurt as She pretended 10 be, and
l think she must have OWNED my
thoughts, for she suddenly jumped up,
and. thanking me shortly for my
trouble, started hastily for the door, l
was too quick for her, however, and
barred her passage into the street. l
told her that she could not leave until
she had signed a paper that 1 would
prepare releasing the firm from all re-
sponsibility for her alleged injuries.
"Of course, l did this only as
further test of the woman's veracity.
and il worked beautifully, for she not
only signed the release. but reluctantly
confessed that her whole story was
myth"
4 remarkable case which occurred
but a few days ago was that of man
who feigned death in the face OF sur
geon's threat to cut him open in order
to find out what be had died Of
Il had just come on duty the other
evening" said the sergeant, "when
man ran in all out of breath and gasped
ont that man had just been knocked
down and killed in the saloon at the
corner below. Suspecting nothing, I
posted the dozen or so officers who hap
pened TO be within call on a dead run
for the spot, telling them to bring back
the dead man and everybody they might
find in the place.
In few minutes they returned with
thirty men and women prisoners, and
in the rear of the procession was the
dead man, laid out on a window shut
ter
After locking up the crowd in the
cellroom. the murdered man was placed
on a table and hurry call sent to Cow
erneur hospital for an ambulance.
1.-The story got from the prisoners
in chorus was that the saloonkeeper,
who, by the way, is a wealthy man. had
struck the man on the head with q
bunr starter, and that the latter had
promptly fallen down dead. On look
ing at the man / could see no evidence
Of life whatever, but when I felt his
pulse l found that it was beating away
as regularly as clock.
Certain now that the fellow was
l determined to give him
good scare, 50 when the am buianee sur
ceon came we called all the mans
friends into the room and told them we
were going TO cut him open.
The surgeon made great fuss get
ting ont MS saws and lancets, out the
fakir was game and didn't betray him
self by the flicker of an evelid. The
crowd was al agspe, Of course, and as
the surgeon and / tore of the mans
va Isl Codb ana SAlrL the women COW
cred their eyes and groaned
Here goes said the surgeon, az
last, and, grasping the fellow on the
table firmly by the throat, ne ran the
back OF his knife quickly down the
mans bare breast. At the first touch
Of the cold steel the eyes Of the corpse
few wide open, and with yell that
could be heard a block he tore himself
from the surgeons grasp and in two
jumps was out Of the door and on =
dead run for the East river.
seeing that the game was up. one Of
the fellows friends in the crowd con-
fessed at last that the saloonkeeper
bad merely pushed him ont Of the door
and that he had fallen down and pre-
tended 20 be dead in the hope that he
might be admitted 70 hospital, where
he would come to life and as soon as
possible sue for heavy damages"
4 jealous Odice Seeker.
4 story Is related by London Truth q