Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-04-30
DAILY SHORT STORY
An Insurance Mans Story.
IOrigiral.l

| insurance company after handing me
! check in favor of a client of mine, the
beneficiary of a policy. I'VE have some
singular eases. One I particularly re-
member was that of q Mr.. and Mrs.
| Waterman. Mrs. Waterman held poll
cy on the life OF her husband for $1,000
in the company for which l was then
adjuster. Waterman died very sud
denly, and the physician who was cali
ed in--he arrived after the patient had
died-gave I certificate of death from
heart disease. He told me that the
man had been under his care for some
time for vdlvular disease of the heart.
and there could be 10 doubt as to the
| cause Of death. lie had expressed 4
wish to be buried in his native village
in the country. far from Il railroad.
ana the body had been taken there be-
fore the claim was presented TO our
company. l didn't like TO pay in such
case. bat Charley Dyke, our agent
who issued the policy, said it would
hurt his business if l didn't. SO
handed over $1,000 and took the Gus
tomary receipt.
ment OF this case l was in the Office of
physician who was an examiner for
another company. He was examining
an applicant for insurance, and when
he had finished and the man went out
the doctor said to me:
- shall decline that risk. The man
has valvular disease of the heart
Better give me his name l said.
He may apply to our company
'Enderberry,' he said.
Il made a note of the name and re-
ported il at the office. But the man
never applied 10 us-that is, so far as
| ever knew.
1T was n year later. as near rs l
can remember. that Dyke came to me
and said he was troubled about the
Waterman case. \ few days before
lie had met Il man on the street in
distant city who resembed Waterman
so strikingly that he Ghe agent had
gone up to him and addressed him as
such. The man looked puzzled, then
declared that his name was not Wa
terman. On being asked who he was
he said lie was John Enderberry.
"Of course | was interested. Never
thelesS l couldn't exactly make out
case between Waterman and Ender-
berry. In the first place. Dyke was not
certain of the identity between the man
he had met ana Waterman; in the sec
ond place. l couldn't see how Il man
who was suffering from valvular dis
ease of the heart could have secured &
policy in our company. There was
nothing for me to gain by investigating
the matter, so l let it drop. assuring
Dyke that he must have been mis-
taken.
Soon after this left the company I
had been with for so long and took Il
position with another. one day l was
directed to 20 and adjust loss of S.
800 on man of the name of Brick
man. who was supposed to have died
of heart disease. | was told that the
widow had been so shocked at seeing
her husband drop dead before her that
she was confined to her room ard kept
under the influence of SedatiVcS.
suppose it was an uncertainty | con
stantly felt regarding the Waterman
claim that induced me to take Il look
ut the deceased. When l did so | was
astoniShed. The glimpse l had got in
the doctors Office of the man called
Enderberry was sufficient to cause me
TO remember him. 1t seemed to me
that the ashen face before me was the
face of this man.
At any rate l determined to probe
the matter. told the doctor that
fancied the man was not dead. but lie
declared that he was. / insisted on an
autopsy. to which the widow consent
ed. This staggered me, and conclud-
o..
/ wired Dyke TO come down. When he
came he declared the dead man was
Waterman, alias Enderberry. alias
Brickman. l told the doctor to go on
with the autopsy, which he did.
Il stood by during the operation and
expected ut the first inciSion TO see the |
man start up or at least blood to flow. |
Neither occurred. The doctor told me
that he had discovered Il very singular
malfOrmation OF the heart, such as he !
had never seen before. but had read of |
in medical books. He described it to /
me. using medical nomenclature. but |
could neither understand it nor remem- |
Der the terms.
There remained one more precau-
ton. That was for Dyke to see the |
woman. lie had known Mrs. Water !
man and could identify her in case she |
was getting life insurance through dir |
ferent husbands. He went upstairs 20 |
her room unGnnounced. opened the /
door. ana there sat the Widow Water |
man.
The explanation? 1t was this: Wa !
terman-Trumball was his real name |
had been getting life insurance policies |
under different names for compara- !
lively small amounts for long while |
The heart formation from which be |
suffered would occasionally throw him /
into n condition which could not be |
easily distinguished from death and in !
which he remained long enough 70 be |
pronounced dead. After one of these !
attacks Il occurred to him to take ont !
life insurance in amounts 50 small /