The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1893-07-06

business standing for one of his age had
been in the habit of lodging in an old log
cabin in the lowlands west of the Wabash
during his excursions in the country. One
night the cabin was burned Calcined
bones were found. Evidence was presented
that these might be the bones of the afore-
said young man, and so people said; Poor
Jonesl What a pityi"
People said" so, but the life insurance
companies did not, for they sasv on their
books the evidence that "poor Jones" was
insured for a very large amount--altogether
too large an amount for n man with so few
dependent on him. They also had evidence
that "poor Jones" had recently been asso-
ciating with some very suspicious charac-
ters. The results need not be detailed-the
reading public is quite familiar with them
The confession of pal" soon brought out
the fact that Jones" was living quietly in
Chicago and that the whole affair was an
ingeniously contrived scheme 20 swindle
the life insurance companies.
OF course the uninstructed mass looked
on this as an entirely unprecedented affair,
and old men shook their heads and once
! more got off that old saying which has been
repeated ever since Adam used It to
aggravate Seth, "The world is getting SO
| corrupt in these late days" Equally, OF
course, the old men were and are wrong.
The tricks on life insurance companies are
| as old as the business itself, and a little re.
| Election will show how they were suggested
by still older tricks in divorce cases--espe.
cially that trick which lawyers call "perso.
| nation" The once famous Kansas-Indiana
case of Millerton versus Millerton will serve
as an illustration, and the general reader
Nls, 30 ILL.,
Beyond the Mississippi"
Millerton left Indiana for Kansas in 1855
| nominally to laid in freedoms cause"
really to get rid of his wife. Some may
say tits all the same" but let that pass.
When affairs in Kansas got settled, his wife
| rejoined him. Thereupon he planned a
little scheme. Driving down to the river
| one day with his wife and family, he con,
vinced them that the water was too high
for safe fording; therefore he would swim
across carrying his summer clothes in q
bunch on his head), get what was needed
| in Lawrence and swim back. His wife sat
| and watched him reach the middle of the
| Kaw. Then hesuddenly threw up his hands
| and sank to rise no more''-that is, he rose
no more to her view.
AS a matter of fact, he dived and rose be
| tween two logs on the Lawrence side
breathed awhile, dived and rose again in O
drift some rods down stream and thus by
| well calculated stages disappeared" The
/ funeral was well attended, and the be
| reaved widow was almost reconciled to heI
l lot-women were scarce in Kansas in those
days and therefore in demand-when an old
neighbor arrived from Indiana with the
news that Millerton was there in fine health
and disporting himself as gay widower
1 Mrs. Millerton FASTENED to her old home nj
| once and captured him in the very presence
of lady to whom he was engaged. Imag
ination must supply the details, for "hell
hath no fury like a woman scorned."
| If this and the like of this were all, We
could afford to laugh, but there is an aw,
fully dark side to the picture. In view OF
the abundant evidence it is impossible tC
doubt that scores-yea, hundreds-of most
atrocious murders have been committed tC
secure life Insurance money. And the
heart sickening feature of it is that by the
very nature of the case nearly all these
| murders have been done by poison, and
that poison administered by the nearest
| relatives-by the husband to the wife, the
l wife much oftener to the husband, and
most horrible of all, by the mother TO the
| soni
1t is but q few months since John Sham
of Princeton, N. j., died under circum
stances which compelled his physician tc
say and the coroners jury to believe that
he had been poisoned, and when an inquest
was ordered the authorities were Mortified
to find that the corpse had been disembow