Omaha daily bee., 1902-07-20
ANYTHING TO GET THE MONEY
Efforts to Swindle Insurance Companies
Out Of Indemnity.
TRICKS TRIED BY POLICY HOLDERS
Vain EndeRvOrs to Realize ON the
Promise of the Company to
Pay Cash in Certain
Contingencies.

Long ago a wise man said that very
few can tell the truth about their own
ailments, and that those who can, won't.
Representatives of that modern institu-
ton, the accident insurance company, are
inclined to accept the declaration as one
of absolute truth.
They have learned that 1t takes a very
honorable man, indeed, to consider him
self no sicker or no worse hurt than he
really is when such imagining means dol
lars to him, and they have made the fur
Their unpleasant discovery that the ills OF
the flesh, or the bruises thereof, are not
infrequently abetted by a nerve that is
better developed than the conscience.
II this conclusion seems too harsh, let
the doubling reader quiz some OF these
Representatives concerning instances in
point, and he will learn that the COM
panies are constantly besieged by con-
scienceless individuals who need money,
sometimes for good and sometimes for bad
purposes, and that 1t is only the old rule
that murder will out" together with
Sherlock Holmes scrutiny OF details, that
keep insurers from being imposed upon
daily and hourly. Surprised. too. will this
doubter be when he is shown the extent
to which some persons will go in order to
secure money by fraudulent method.
Ruse that Failed.
For instance: At Lincoln, not so many
months ago, a man deliberately thrust his
left foot beneath q moving freight train
and had his toes crushed. When the doc
tors announced that they could save the
foot, except its toes, he E~trenuously OBJ
jected and begged them to amputate the
member above the ankle. This aroused
some suspicion. and when It was found
that his policy entitled him to nothing
II the entire foot was not lost, the com
pany began inquiry, with the result that the
fireman was discovered to have seen the
man deliberately approach the train and
stick his foot under the wheels.
The hreman's testimony was all that
saved the insurance company that time, but
ordinarily II is the conspirator's own omis-
sion thai betrays him. A man with many
clothes that were not paid for and consid-
cradle property that was under mortgages
went riding one evening on Military avenue
His horse took fright at a white sign or
o fence and leaped to one side. The saddle
turned and the gentleman was thrown OF
onto his shoulder. injuring It so badly thai
he had scarcely strength to walk to a dairy
mans barn and send for his doctor. That's
what he told. but when he presented his
bill the company informed him that both the
owner Of the barn and the doctor had testi'
fed that the saddle had been straight OF
the animals back when they nrst saw II
and he found It so dinicult TO explain. OF
short notice. how a saddle could turn sum
GENTLY TO dlsmount a rider and still be up
right on the horses back that he abruptly
withdrew the claim.
Another man with more horses than ready
money reported that one of his animals haC
tramped on him while he was moyinl
through the herd in a pasture rented from
a farmer. He showed q bad looking foo
and the claim might have been allowed
without questioning had not the doctor dis