The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-18
CROOKED WAYS OF SHARPERS.
TRICKS TO CHEAT ACCIDENT IN
SUHANCE COMPANIES.


Accident Insurance POncy-SOme
Novel and Amusing Claims for
Damages Filed by the Injured Pol
icy-HOIdcrs-A Strange COinci-
dence Observed by an Underwater.
From the Chicago Inter-Ocean.
To those acquainted with the inside ma
ehinery of a personal accident insurance
company, the Incidents, tragic in many of
their phases, amusing in others, cannot
but elicit much interest
one can imagine how a human body
r,cked with physical pain or a mind tor
tured with mental anguish or melancholia
might seek death to end such misery.
There might be an object when a man is
reduced to insuperable financial straits
and carries considerable life insurance to
commit suicide, in order that those de-
pendent upon him may be paced in COM
Portable circumstances.
1t seems, however, almost beyond com
prehension, that a man will main him
self resulting in the most terrible agony
in which he suffers sufficient pain almost
10 unbalance his reason, simply to obtain
Insurance under his accident policies, bat
me record of accident companies show
many instances of this kind, wherein az
,e.npts have been made to defraud by
mayhem.
An example of this kind recently came
IN light in a small Wisconsin town. y
clerk in a bank carried $1,000 accident in
surance. After his days labors were com
pleted he would visit a saW-mill near the
village from time to time, watching the
operations of the huge circular saw. one
evening, when the men employed at the
mill had their attention diverted from the
saw the young man deliberately grasped
one of the arms above the wrist, went TO
the machine, evidently with the intention
of allowing it to cut into the wrist a
short distance, so that he might make
claim against the accident companies. He
had mis1udged the rapid revolutions OF
the saw, and in the twinkling of an eye
his hand was discovered. He uttered a
shrek. and when found his uninjured
hand was found clasping the wrist like
a wise, showing his action had been one
OF his own voliuon.
Anothre case was one where man shot
off his foot to secure insurance 1t mad
to be amputated, and he suffered intense
w. When the company's adjuSterS WORK
ed on the case the man and his wife told
widely different stories about the alleg-
ed accident. They had forgotten to weave
story that each could tell with sem
blance of truth.
fought a claim of man who was injur-
ed by an electric car in South Chicago.
He carried $4,000 accident insurance. One
evening as he was riding on the line,
along a lonely stretch of road, and when
there were but few passengers, the COM
pany claims he deliberately threw himself
under the car from the front platform.
He was frightful mangled, and disfigured
for life. He finally confessed that the
supposed accident had all been planned.
One favorite method of defraudlng
companies is to lie along railroad track
and have a train run over an arm or leg
The accidental 90 discharge of a gun
or a revolver is an old standby, and is
frequently practised.
A case down in Indiana attracted no
tice recently. claim was sent in for an
injury to hand, the man claiming an ak
had fallen down in a carpenter shop and
cut him. 1t was proved that he inten-
tionally hacked his own hand with a
Ratchet.
A peculiar system was brought to light
some weeks ago by one of the local acci.
dent associations that was being prac-
ticed among a certain class Of Russian
immigrants.
1t seems that in their home country
when men wish to escape being compell-
ed to enlist in the army, custom is to
have quack physicians inject beneath the
skin, around the joints, a poisonous liquid
which causes a very painful and highly
GOlOIGd swelling. mus IHGy give DnySl-
cal disability as an excuse for not en-
listing.
Some physicians of this stripe make a
fairly good living at this sort of practice.
One of these quacks two years ago came
to Chicago. He formed quite an extern
sive. acquaintance among his countrymen,
and was engaged as solicitor by an acct
dental association. He was exceptionally
successful in getting policy-holders. After
he had raked in a goodly sum as commits
sions, he turned the tables, began inject
ing the poisonous liquid into a poltcy-hold-
ers anatomy ard would get one-fifth of
the weekly beneasS allowed. The numer-
GUS claims, all of Oze same mysterious ma
ture, aroused suspicious, and the cause
was ferreted out by a detective.
One of the cleverest schemes ever perpe-
trated on an accident company was that
of man in Northern wisconsin. He car
RED several thousand dollars of ACCIDENT
insurance. His cottage was situated on
the edge of the town. One night IT burned.
and the family declared that the head of
the household had persisted in the fire. A
search was made and a human form,
charred and burned beyond all recogni-
ton, was found in the basement. flu
neral was held, the family went into deep
mourning and the insurance was paid. A
monument was even erected to the mem
DRY of the unfortunate victim. Suisse
quent events finally led to the discovery
of this self-same man, who was supposed
10 be dead, in Australia. ABOUT year
ago he moved to Northern Michigan, and
had the astounding audacity to make ap-
pication to several accident companies for
insurance.
The tragic and deceptive phase, how
ever does not monopoliZe the entire time
Of accident companys claim depart
ment.
There is an amusing side TO many of the
notices of injuries sent in, especially as 10
their causes. Persons are hurt in the most
novel ways. Not long ago a claim was
filed by a man who had been sleeping in
an old-fashioned bedstead. During the
night a wooden sphere on top of one OF
the uprights fell and injured his skull
Judge Walter Dilatush, of Lebanon, o.,
was on a boat i'm the Boston harbor during
the naval pageant of The Knights of Pyh-
Jas convention, a few years ago. A salute
was fired and the conclusion burst his ear
drum
a few claims have been sent in recently
for Injuries by a shoe rubbing a foot, or
nail in shoe gouging the flesh, after
IA fnf. l. 49, .4.- In srlaf