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


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
Jones What pity"
People said" So but the life insurance
companies did not, for they saw on their
books the evidence that poor Jones' was
insured for a very large amOunt-altOgether
too large an amount for 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
p Chicago and that the whole affair was an
ingeniOusly contrived scheme to 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 az the business itself, and Il little re
Election will show how they We're suggested
by still older tricks in divorce cases-espe
cially that trick which lawyers call ''perso
nation" The once famous Kansas Indiana
case Of Milerton versus Millerton will serve
as an illustration, and the general reader
may find the outlines of it in Richardson's
Beyond the Mississippi"
Millerton left Indiana for Kansas in 1856,
nominally to laid in freedoms cause,
really to get rid of his wife. Some may
say Its 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
WINGED them tina the water was too high
for safe fordng; therefore he would swim
across carrying his summer clothes in a
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 matter of fact, he dived and rose be
tween two logs on the Lawrence side,
breathed awhile, dived and rose again in a
drift some rods down stream and thus by
we'll calculated stages disappeared. The
funeral was well attended, and the be-
reaved widow was almost recOnciled to her
lot--women were scarce in Kansas in those
days and therefore in demand-when an old
neghbor arrived from Indiana with the
news that MillertOn was there in fine health
and disporting himself as IA gay widoWer.
Mrs. MiIlerton hastened to her old home at
once and captured him in the very presence
of lady to whom he was engaged. lmag-
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 to
doubt that scores-yea, hundredsof most
atrocious murders have been committed to
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
relatiyes-by the husband TO the wife, the
wife much oftener to the husband, and,
most horrible of all by the mother TO the
son!
1t is but a few months since John Sham
of Princeton, \ j., died under circum
stances which compelled his physician &c
say and the corouer's inry to believe that
he had been poisoned, and when an inquest
vas ordered the authorities We're horrIfed
to find that the corpse had been disembow