Omaha daily bee., 1902-07-20

covered and commented upon the presence
Of a large wood splinter buried in the top
Of the foot. The company's agent felt mod
erately certain that no horse would be
wearing wood splinters In its hoofs and in
vestigated. The man had hammered his
foot with a fence post, welded as in lamp
ing earth.
Trick with Irvine in II.
Honest Hezekiah and Upright Uriah are
%neighbors out in Fremont county. About
two months before Honest Hezekiah's acct
dent policy (the gift Of a man who didn't
know him, and therefore liked him), ex-
pired, Honest Hezekiah was shot in the leg
by a trap gun set on Upright Uriah's prem
ises. The insurance company's agent, who is
resident in Omaha now, took the stout cord
that had attached to the trigger and asked
for some like 1t at Upright Uriah's house.
The unsuspecting hired man said there had
never been any such win on the place.
But the agent found a ball Of 1t in Honest
Hezekiah's own barn, and 1t didn't take
much talking to get a confession from
Honest Hezekiah and Upright Uriah that
they had planned the thing together, Uriah
to have a small part of the policy payment
for setting the gun on his premises where
Hezekiah could fall as its victim when con-
~venient.
1t was perhaps a relative Of these bung-
lers who drove a nail a short way into his
hand from the back and then from the palm,
asserting that 1t accidentally had been
driven clear through. The doctor probed
and discovered that the bones were unpunc-
tured. The company gave the claimant a
derisive laugh and a warning to be more
painstaking hereafter.
Rather Transparent Effort
But a more amusing experience than this
was one in which a German dairyman liv-
ing near Davenport. Ia, figured. 1t is re-
ported and vouched for by the agent who
handled the case there, but who is now in
Omaha. He said:
I'm Davenport everybody and everybody's
cousin drinks beer, so that Fritz found his
cows article OF manufacture not much in
demand. He determined to get money by
an easier route and took out accident in
surance. A month afterward I was sent
out to his place in response to notification
that he had fallen from a boat into the
river and disappeared. When / got there
his hat was being show in evidence as the
only relic. But on 1t was pinned a note
saying: 4 di acidentle. Fritz H Then
remembered that he had been particular
10 Inquire dUOuN tue Cldubc Lmdl bllpuAdlcu
tina death must be accidental or the policy
could not be collected on, and / thought
I saw what Fritz was up to. Nor was /
wrong In my surmise. for within an hour
l traced him to his own haymow. where
he was hiding until his wife could collect"
But attempts to feign destruction are,
agents say, very rare because In these
days Of coroners and electric lights It Is
so hard to dispose of a body, either quick
or dead. And attempts at actual suicide
under guise Of accidental death are still
rarer. Whenever they are made they are
by the poison or the drowning route and
both are so terrifying to contemplate that
he is only a crazed man who can bring
himself to them-and a crazed man isn't
considering insurance.
Fire Works a Miracle.
sprains are the ~favorits complaints Of
persons who hold accident insurance
policies. but no jobs. The false and the
true are sometimes separated by making
emergency tests. For instance, an idle
man had injured himself sadly by attempt
ing to lift too much and he was in bed
unable to stir. The insurance eompany's
agent called and managed to drop a lighted
cigar into a-basket Of waste paper in the
front room as he passed through. Presently
an excited maid rushed into the room where
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