The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-04-27
MANY WAYS OF
 BECOMING INJURED
Queer Mishaps Often Produce Claims for Accident Insurance-Avia-
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A Cleveland accident insurance man
 says he is in the funniest business on
 earth. But there Is so much tragedy In
 1t that he can't laugh As the sands
 Of the sea, without number are the
 ways people find to get hurt. Then the insurance company steps in with balm.
 says the Cleveland Plain Dealer One Ohio man was bouncing hls baby; he lifted her vigorously into the air and
 she came down on his chest and broke
 his collar bone. A Rochester tailor was
 holding his baby. when it playfulIy
 poked him in the eye. scratching the cornea. Another man was sitting com fortab1y at a window when a team went by one Of the horses stepped on a pebble and shot it as boys shoot mar bles into the window. The little stone broke the glass and struck the man in the temple These are all cases in which insurance money has been paid for disablement resulting from the injury
 The head Of a Cleveland agency says his office pays more claims to people hurt in bathtubs than in railroad trains. Porcelain and wet feet make slippery combination In the course of slip q bather frequently brushes bottles off a ledge, these break and he is burned
 with acid
 The biggest accident insurance claim ever paid went last year to the family of John B. Thayer. second vice pres ident of the Pennsylvania railroad who was lost on the Titanic. His family received $120,0o0 from the insurance company and the total premiums Mir. Thayer had paid on the policy was S750. The policy was for $50,00 and there were accumulations on it of sl0000 He A i'm t9 which in this policy meant that tho family receive double indemnity
 Many companies thus pay double the amount if the insured loses his life in . public conveyance. There are a number of reasons for this one of them being that people figure they are in greatest danger when they travel in trains, on boats, In elevators. in street cars and SO on--and the double indemnity clause becomes an attractive feature of the policy.
 The fact is. however. that a big per centage of accidents happen to people in their homes. Falling on stairways. getting fingers caught in doors, break ing glass, explosions. all swell the list of home disasters. Cranking automo- piles makes work for the claim ad- juster
 Here are some more of the peculiar things that happened recently and in which insurance money has been paid flour dealer in Helena, Ark. threw a stone at a bird and injured his left hip The president of Chicago paper mill met friend he hadn't seen in long time. and the friend hugged him so hard that cartilage was torn from the paper mans rib. A travelling man, sleeping in hotel was restless in the night and kicked the covers off; he kicked into a running electric fan. sales manager was sitting at table in hotel in Salt Lake CitS large menu card he held slipped and the corner of the card struck his eyeba1l. Not far from Cleve- land occurred one of the queerest of all: the injured man was walking past the corner of a building when a bird flew out; movement of man and bird We're timed by coincidence so precisely that the birds beak struck the mans eye and scratched the corher. In one of Edgar Allen Poe's stories the hero is idly Tipping grape seeds; one flies into a wee hole in a clock on the man. tel piece and stops the clock. Just as strange are coincidences the snsuP- ance men meet.
 Carusos voice is Insured for a tre. mendous sum. So are Kubelik's fingers for $250.0o0. if report be true. Even aviators have been insured in the re- cent past, but the premiums are big
 certain Clevelander had to go good deal before he realized on his policy. Once a car ran away down Seneca street hill with him in 1t. but he was not hurt. Later he went into drug store. stepped on a bottle. fell and was caught under an open drawer so that they had to pry him out, but he was not hurt. Later a log fell on him. but he crawled from under. unbruised. Finally fate got him. He was crossing the street when a car ran off the track and hit him. The car had to run off the track to do 1t. He collected his accident insurance and lives to rejoice.
 Fighting Bob Evans once said that he preferred the bridge of the Iowa in bat tle to crossing Rroadwnv