The daily Alaskan., 1905-02-15
An {nEurance
 Man $ ,/fOry
[originaL.l

"Yes. said the special agent of the life insurance company after handing me check in favor of client Of mine, tho beneficiary of q policy, we have som' singular eases. One l particularly re member was that of Mr. and Mrs Waterman. Mrs. Waterman held a poll cy on tho life of her husband for S2OOC in the company for which l was then adjuster Waterman died very sud denly, and the physician who was call ed in.-he arrived after thRpatient had died-gave a certificate of death from heart disease. He told me that the man had been under his care for some time for valvular disease of the heart, and there could be no doubt as to the cause of death. He had expressed wish to be buried in his native village in the country, far from a railroad and the body had been taken there be- fore the claim was presented to our company. didn't like to pay in such a case, but Charley Dyke, our agent who issued the policy, said 1t would hurt his business if l didn't so handed over $2,OO0 and took the GUS tomary receipt
 "Some six months after the settle ment of this case was in the office Of a 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:
 "T shall decline that risk. The ID. T has Yalvular disease of the heart
 "Better give me his name,' l said. He may apply to our company
 'Enderberry,' he said.
 'T made a note of the name and re ported 1t at the office. But the man never applied to us-that Is, so far as I ever knew.
 'It was a year later, as near as l can remember, that Dyke came to me and said he was troubled, about the Waterman case. A few days before he had met a man on the street in q distant city who resembled Waterman so strikingly that he (the 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 be said he was John Enderberry.
 "Of course was interested. Never theless couldn't exactly make out a case between Waterman and Ender- berry. In the first place, Dyke was not certain of the Identity between the man he had met and Waterman; in the sec ond place, 1 couldn't see how a man who was suffering from yalyular dis ease of the heart could have secured a policy in our company. There was nothing for me to gain by Investigating the matter, so l let 1t drop, assuring Dyke that he must have been mis- taken.
 "SOon after this left the company l had been with for so long and took a position with another. One day | was directed to go and adjust a loss of S2,- 500 on man of the name of Brick man, who was supposed to have died of heart disease. l was told that the widow had been so shocked ut seeing her husband drop dead before her that she was confined to her room and kept under the influence of scdatives. l suppose 1t was an uncertainty l con. stantIy felt regarding the Waterman claim that induced me Co take look at the deceased. When l did so ] was astonished. The glimpse | had got in the doctors office of the man called Enderberry was sufficient to cause me to remember him. It 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 he declared that he was. l insisted on an, autopsy, to which the widow consent ed. This staggered me. and l cOuclud- ed to foregO the examination. Instead 1 wired Dyke to come down. When he came he declared the dead man was Waterman, alias EnderbeTy, alias Friedman. l told the doctor to go on with the autopsy, which he did.
 q stood by during the operation and expected at the first inclslon to see the man start up or at least blood to flow Neither occurred. The doctor told me that he had discovered 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. He had known Mrs. Water man and could identify her in case she was getting life insurance through diff ferent husbands. He went upstairs to har roOm unannOunCp6 ODpnpd thp