Evening star., 1902-08-22
A COSTLY BLUNDER.
Veteran Got His Insurance and Pen
sion Papers Mixed.

From the New Orleans Times Democrat.
"One of the strangest mistakes / ever
heard off, said man who keeps an eye
open for the curious and the odd in life,
was the one made by the man who got
his insurance application and his pension
papers mixed, and result of the mis-
take he lost out at both ends of the line.
1 might remark here that it would be
good thing for the government and the
country generally If few hundred thou
sand men in the United States would make
the same mistake. If the pension authori-
ties could get hold of the insurance policies
rather the applications which are made
for insurance by many of the men who are
drawing pensions, they would find that they
are carrying a rather vigorous set OF fel-
lows the roll.
THE case I have in mind amply Illus
trates the point The man lived in the
mountainous regions Of one Of the central
western states. and being a consistent re-
publican, and having fought for the Union
in the sixties. he concluded that he would
get in on the pension deal. He got in all
right and had been drawing a pension for
years when he made the mistake to which
1 have referred. He made an application
for an increase in his allowance. Ny recol-
lection is that he had been getting about
SS month, or s24 every quarter. He
wanted to raise the allowance to SO a
month. He fixed up the papers He set
forth N extenso the condition of his health,
recited all the ailments which had swooped
down upon him as a result of exposure
during the war, and when he had finished
his application for increase i'll the pen
sion allowance his life did not look like 1t
was worth anyth ng. He was s.mply
physical wreck. had constitutional trou-
bles. and all that sort Of thing. nd was
simply dragging his feet through the world.
II was all caused by the game fight he put
up for his country, OF course. About the
same time he was dickering with an insur-
ance company and had filled out an appli-
cation blank for a policy of $1,000 The
facts set forth in his application for insur-
ance made him one of the healthiest men
In the world. There was not blemish any
where in his makeup. He was hefty, Wig
orous and a rosy-cheeked picture of health
generally. He had no kind of ailment was
perfectly sound and really there hadn't
been any weak. sickly folks in his family
as far back as he could trace them. So far
so good. When the poor fellow got ready
to send his papers on he made the horrible
and disastrous mistake of sending his PEN
sion papers to the insurance company and
his application for insurance went to the
pension office. You can guess the result
The insurance company was inclined to
make sport of the blunder. and they told
the applicant plainly that they had not yet
started into the business of insuring men
who were practically on their way to the
graveyard. They simply turned him down
with few curt and cutting remarks The
pension authorities at Washington, while
a little more dignified in what they had to
say about the mans application for an
increase in pension, yet took occasion to
congratulate him the splendid state of
his health. and remarked In passing that
the government would be glad to see all the
old soldiers recover so completely from the
wars hardships. They not only refused the
increase which he made effort to get,
but an investigation was made and the
mans name was stricken from the pension
roll. The blunder cost him the pension he
had been getting for years. and the insur-
ance people decided that they would rather
not take the risk. The fellow lost both
ways. The moral OF the tale is that 1t
never pays to push a good thing too far"