The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1893-07-19

was insured MS mouner beng nameu a.
beneficiary His father had died but few
months before under suspicious circum
stances, being insured for the benefit OF the
widow. The insurance company has pald
the claim In the case Of John Sham, but
IRIS. Sham will be tried on the charge OF
murder.
In the winter of lSS9-9O regular panic
was created in London by publications on
tne horrors resulting from child life insur
ance The original plan of insuring infants
was a most benevolent one, and only the
most suspicious person could have looked
for such evils as actually resulted. BY the
Dayment of a mere trife-usually to
cents per week-the parents were insured
sum VARYING from $40 to $50 in case of the
chiId's death, the design being that they
should thus insure money enough to pay
the burial fees and expenses of sickness
Yet it was proved beyond the possibility OF
doubt that hundreds OF dtuAEen or brutal
parents deliberately calculated on the
speedy death Of their infants and fastened
that death by means which it sickens one
to think Of much more to describe.
Of course these revelations set the Amer
lean authorities to investigating ard twas
found that three companies were dong
heavy business in child life insurance
1t was also found, however, that these
companies work on an extremely cautious
and conservative system and never insure
where their agents suspect an intention TO
commit fraud or crime Yet in spite OF the
companies precautions a few cases OF VII
lainv have been unearthed by the Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
This society, best known by the name or It's
chief organizer, Elbridge I. Gerry, has IN
the II years of it's existence rescued over
80. 900 children from cruel parents or guard
ians and investigated the cases OF about
1870 900, and in all these found but five cases
in which life insurance cut any figure. In
New York city about 100000 children were
insured in 1892
Many readers remember the case of Mrs.
Victor, who died few years ago in the
Ohio state prison. She had been condemned
to death, and when Governor Hayes Cater
president) committed her sentence to inn
prisonment for life she stoutly denied his
right to do so without her consent. Her
plea, or rather that OF her lawyers, was that
she had a right to be hanged according to
the original sentence, and as the date fixed
was long passed she had a right to be re-
leased OF course the supreme court decld-
ed that the power OF pardon was, as the
constitution declares Sin the discretion OF
the executive" Well it was conclusively
proved-if human testimony can prove any
thing-that this woman had deliberately
fed her brother poison from day to day, had
witnessed his hourly increasing misery, had
tenderly soothingly raised his head and
with truly feminine or feline treachery had
pressed to his lips the cup of liquid death.
The same is charged against Mrs. Shann
and against hundreds of other women, and
two important points must be borne IN
mind One is that the cases reported in the
papers and tried in court are certainly not
as one in three of those in which the life
insurance companies have good cause to
suspect foul play. The other is that OF all
forms of murder that by poison-and most
of all that by slow poison, as in these cases
implies the most fieudish guilt. By the
very nature of the case poison must gener-
ally be administered by trusted One-most
often by a near relative, by wife, sister, or,
horrible to imagine. by mother or daugh-
ter! 1t is prominently wOman's crime.
She stands by the bedside in the conyen-