The bee., 1902-09-18
A COSTLY BLUNDER.
Veteran of the Civil War Got His In
suraDce ana Pension Papers
Mixed to His SORROW.

"One of the strangest mistakes L
ever heard of" said a man who
keeps an eve open for the curious
and the odd in life, to the New Or
leans Democrat, "was the one
made by the man wlo got his insur-
ance application end his pension pa
pers mixed. and as result of the'
mistake he lost out at both ends OF
the line / might remark here that
it would be a good thing for the
government and the country general
ly If few hundred thousand men in
the United States would make the
same mistake. If the pension au-
thorities could get hold of the in
surance policies, or rather the APP
D,ications which are made for insur-
ance by many of the men who are
drawing pensions, they would find
that they are carrying rather
vigorous set of fellows on the roll.
''The case have in mind amply
illustrates the point. The man lived
in the mountainous regions of one
Of the central western states, 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
pension for years when he made the
mistake to which 1 have referred.
He made an application for an in
crease in his allowance. My recollec-
tion is that he had been getting
about eight dollars a month. or $25
every quarter. He wanted to raise
the allowance to S12 month. He
fixed up the papers. He set forth
in extenso the condition of his
health, recited all the ailments which
had swooped down upon him as re-
suit of exposure during the war, and
when he had finished his application
for an increase in the pension allow
ance his life did not look like it was
worth anything. He was simply a
physical wreck. had constitutional
troubles, and all that sort of thing.
and was simply dragging his feet
tNrcug', -he world. 1t was all caused
by the game fight he put up for his
country, of course. About the same
time he was dickering with an in
surance company and had filed out
an application blank for a policy OF
$4,000. The facts set forth in his APP
plication for insurance made him one
of the healthiest men in the world.
There was not a blemish anywhere
in his makeup. He was hefty, vigor-
Gus 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 pension papers to the
insurance company and his applica-
tion for insurance went to the pen
sion office. You can guess the re-
suit. 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 a few curt and cut
ting remarks. The pension author
tiles at Washington, while a little
more dignified in what they had to
say about the mans application for
an increase in pension, yet took oc-
casion to congratulate him on the
splendid state of his health, and re-
marked in passing that the govern
ment 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 an effort to get. but an investi-
CATION was made and the mans
name was stricken from the pension
roll. The blunder cost him the PEN
sion he had been getting for years.
and the insurance people decided
that they would rather not take the
risk. The fellow lost both ways.
The moral of the tale is that it
never pays to push a good thing too
far"