The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-12-16
History Of Policy No. l4648

alone in the office where sit think
ing Of you and the babies. won.
der how old and how large they
will be when you get this letter.
Very old, | hope. This is my last
love letter. % you remember the
first? How strange II seemed to be
writing il. ano how happy ! was!
And do you remember the ansWer
you wrote7 I shall never forget Il.
You will find il with my vaiuables.
With my first letter l sent flowers;
with this nciose a life insurance
policy.
| have chosen this policy because
the company is safe and we'll man
aged, and because ! can get more
and better protection in il for the
money invested than in any other.
Now Il is yours--yours and the
chldren's--and you need not want
for any necessary comforts IL you
manage we'll. This knowledge makes
II worth ten times what the policy
cost. X comes 10 you as an expires
sion OF my love.
Again Mrs. Lamp buried her face
in her hands, but the sobs that came
this time were not the bitter ones
that had shaken her frame a few
minutes before.
Another step sounded on the walk.
another knock at the door. but this
time the caller quietly stepped into
the room.
"i will help you with all this" said
her brother.;n law gently. And Mrs.
Lamp looked up at him with
grateful smile as she stretched out
her hand to give him the letter she
had been reading. He had always
been so helpful. this brother OF her
husbands, the few times when he
had been at their home.
He did not say much this time,
though. as he carefully examined
the policy. amount and papers in the
package. Then he told her What he
found. and was pewerless to help
now, that the policy was mo good
because OF the fact that the pre-
mum had not been kept up, and
the policy had been allowed to
lapse" The date on the dead
mans letter explained it aI.--May,
t9l1--betore the long list OF i'll
nessea and business troubles that
had made the annual deposit beyond
his strength.
Trusting implicitly in the advice
OF her brother in law. confirmed by
the friend. who were nearest her
and seemed to know so much about
such matters, Mrs. Lamp naturally
destroyed the policy.
Through what seems to have been
an accident, tho envelope was not
burned with the policy.
Some time in December. 1913, a
Ito insurance agent called upon
Mrs. Lamp with tho intention Of
selling her insurance upon her own
life, in order to protect her three
little orphan children in case Of her
own death. During the converse
ton which followed, Mrs. Lamp,
mentioned something about the pol.
icy which her late husband had once
carried in the Central Life. This
agent advised Mrs. Lamp to take up
tho matter with the company. He
told her that there might still be
some value in the policy. even
though she had burned 1.-The policy"
Some correspondence followed.
and at first the policy could not be
found on our records. This inabil-
ity to locate the policy in our office
was due to the fact that Mr.. Lamp
had taken the policy out in the name
OF Alfred Madison, and not in the
name OF Alfred Madison Lamp.
MANY people Of foreign birth
change their surname, and this is
what Mr.. Lamp seems to have
done.)
The number Of the policy was
stamped on the envelope which Mrs.
Lamp held. As soon as she gave the
company the number Of the policy il
was readily located. The proof of
death" blanks were sent immediate
~ to W. !. Fraser, State Manager Of
the Central Life. Missoula, Mon
tana. On January 10. 1914. the blanks
were forwarded by Mr.. Fraser from
Montana to the Home Offices in Des
Moines. On January tlth, the draft
was sent from the Home Office to
Mr.. Fraser, who delivered il to Mrs.
Lamp.