Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 February 1883 — “NEVER UNDER 500." [ARTICLE]

“NEVER UNDER 500."

A Tale of Life Snsnranee. “We never dispute under 500 pounds, of course,” said Mr. Luke Franks. “ But if you pay on fire policies which you know are frauds, you are encouraging crime I” replied his friend L Blake. li “ Not in the city; competition in the city is so deadly.” “But what about the neighbors who get stirred up and nearly frightened out of their lives?” “ Well, really we have nothing to do with the neighbors—in the city.” “ It does look bad, though 1” “ Pooh 1” replied Mr. Luke Frank, “ you know nothing abofit business—you are a retired Paymaster in the navy, with a longish family of boys rations. Your idea of life is a strict ledger and three dozen for everytliing beyond discipline. Give me another cut of beef. But business is business, you know, and insurance is —the—dev-il. I give you my word, as sec. of a right rippon company, that wo dare not question increased policies.” “ How do yon mean ?” “Suppose Stubbs,-greengrocer, insures for a hundred and fifty and suddenly runs it up to three hundred—what wonld you do?” “ See where the other hundred and fifty was!” “Precisely, and ruin the company. We should ask Stubbs two or three proforma questions, shut our eyes, take his money and ” “ And pay him his money when he burnt his house down ?” “My dear fellow, there are 800 chances to one that he will not attempt to bum his house down—l,Boo to one that it will not be burnt down when he fires it.” “I don’t follow you!” “More ledger work, my dear boy. Try and follow me. By delicate calculations we find that out of 300 scoundrels who increase tlieir policies without making any addition to their household, goods, or business stock, only one rises to the point of striking the lucifer, as we call firing a house. We also find that only one in six of the small houses overinsured and set fire to are burnt out. Briefly, we make £897 profit upon intentional and foiled rascality as against one failure, say for £3oo—anu that we generally cut down by the display of good humor.” “Why, I thought you said you never disputed anything under £SOO. ” “Dispute, my good Blake—no, we never think of it. But we do argue; and when I put itoto you that nineteen out of twenty incendiaries are arrant cowards you can understand that we get off with something under a £SO note, which would be what, perhaps, the goods burned were worth.” “Bpt if all the insurance companies combined to be honest?” “The fire brigade could go home. But it is not to be thought of. Business is business.” “I suppose there are some real fires ?” said dismayed John Blake. “Yes; rats which toy with lucifers are our chief enemies, and sour servants of all kinds, with a grudge, d.t’s., or warning-” “Well,” said Mrs. Blake, who had been listening intently, “if you have done with the beef we will have up the cheese. ” Those who read these pages need be no further informed as- to the three persons here mentioned —two old school-fellows, one talking “shop,” over a supper at the house of one of them, the wife making a third. Neither Blake nor his spouse had an idea of evil as the candid secretary displayed the secrets of his office. Blit temptation, in the shape of a letter, was then pitching over the Atlantic. It was a very short missive. “By the next post expect a letter, a blank sheet of paper; you will know what to do with it.” This was addressed to “Dear Providence,” who had been a Miss Mittigen, presumably Portuguese and perhaps of Jewish origin,-a devoted mother to her boys and a perfect tigress in their interests. With this woman maternal love had developed into a danger; a keen and eager woman, like a hungry weasel, was Mrs. Blake. She belonged to an adroit family, small, active, restless. Her five brothers; finding England too small for their development, all went to America, where, at the time this short letter was pitching across the Atlantic, their number had been reduced to two. The other three had passed over to the majority—after short interviews with Judge Lynch. At the end of abont three seconds, or may be a fraction more, Mrs. Blake had the thread of the enigma, and said: “The blank sheet of paper will be & letter written with sympathetic ink, and when we hold it to the fire ( my dear brother’s letter will come out in lemoncolored writing! We used to write letters in that way!” Blake looked rather ruefully concerning “my dear brother,” who, despite his great performance, was, like his lessening host of brothers, always wanting a “ten-pounder” from “dear Prowy.” “This time,” said Providence Blake, *T feel it i sfortune.” “I’m sure I hope you are right, my dear,” said the Paymaster pensioner, “for there’s John would make a fine engineer, James is a born doctor, while Charles is really great in the building way, and I’ve no money saved. How eonld I have? It has.gone so many Ways.” “No reproaches, Jack—my brothers will pay back fourfold, nay, a hundred; and my boys are to be men. I’ll never submit to mediocrity. You forget that if my family have come down upcu you, your brother James must have drawn hundreds!” “But he has gone for good, and he is in Australia!” “I doubt if for good,” she replied,

looking dreamily through the window— j then, starring, she said: “And not ra Australia, Jack, for here he comes, a j complete wreck, drifting up the garden.” The good fellow was in a moment steering out to meet a most miserablelooking object—unmistakably John Blake’s brother. “Don’t upbraid me, Jack, I’ve only come home to die.” Here the reader should be impressed by the fact that Bftke’s three boys were at boarding school; moreover, that Mrs. Blake was without a servant. Only she, her hnsband, and his'twin brother were that evening in the house. Let us get to the point when the brother was put to bed, very ill and very comfortable. “11l have nothing said to the neighbors,” observed Mrs. Blake to her husband, “about this shameful return. We must get him away before the boys come home, and, pension him off.” “As you think fit, my dear—but are we not wonderfully alike ?” . “Disgracefully so! it is as though you were dying, Jack!” “No fear of that.”

The blank sheet of paper came the very next day, the lemon-colored writing appeared, and the eagle-eyed little woman read: Dear Prowy —You remember our cipher writing? A letter will come next poet after this which will reveal aIL , To be brief—the third letter arrived. Prowy, as she was always called, had furbished up the cipher, and she read - - Dear P.—flick and me have struck oil, or know where to strike it—a thousand barrels a day. Borne Germans farm the land and know nothing of the oil worka Get Jack to find ns £3,000, and I guarantee £IOO,OOO for It in a month. You'know what striking oil means? She did, and she freely put it to her husband. “My dear, I can no more raise £3,000 than I can fly.” “I have it,” she screamed. «“What

“Yes,” she yelled, and dashed from the room. Five minutes—not five minutes elapsed, when she came back radiantly diabolical. “If you ure not an absolute ass, John Blake, in six months we shall l)e millionaires. John will be preparing for a great useful engineer, James will bo striving to help the world as a doctor, and Charles will lie on the way to give noble buildings to a thoughtless world; and I promise that not a shilling shall ultimately be lost by any living soul or public company. Do you say yes, or will you break my heart ?” “Yes, if it’s honest,” for John knew his wife and her family.

“You must insure your life in six offices for SSOO in each—don’t go to Luke Franks! I’ve saved enough money to pay for the first year’s premiums. Don’t stare! Then you must go away—over to my brothers, and there you must wait events! While here, James, your twill brother will die in your place, as you. I have made him understand that it is the only way in which he can pay Sou back something of all he owes you. [e burst into tears, and agreed. ” “The devil doubt yon—l don’t. You are a pretty pair! But I’ll have nothing to do with it!” “What! and ruin my dear children? I tell you every penny shall be returned to the insurance companies as conscience money. It Avill only be borrowing of them without their saying yes. Would you dare ruin my sons?” “Well, well —if nobody in the long run is robbed.”

“I have made out the list of offices—the ‘Hand and Heart,’ the ‘Rose and Thistle,’ the ‘Harp,’ the ‘Crown,’ the ‘Phaeton,’ and the ‘Royal .Standard,’ and the addresses. Here’s half-a-sov-ereign for p.c. Go directly.” That same night a mysterious cab removed the iniquitous elderly twin. Next day the new servant found as occupants Mr. and Mrs. John Blake, and no signs of any one else. Within a week John Blake had passed the six doctors (affiliated to six insurance companies) with flying colors, while, through the inter-secret service of the insurance companies, their directors wpre "enabled to possess the information that six of them had been favored by John. No suspicion was raised, for his character was perfect, his pension was beyond question, while many men distribute their insurance investments under similar circumstances, witjj the cautious idea that, if one company breaks, all can’t go. Two days afterward Mrs. Blake announced to the talkative neighbor that she and Mr. Blake were going for a month to the seaside, before the boys came from school.

A week afterward the neighbor received a letter, saying that Mr. Blake had caught a deathly cold, rescuing a boy who. was drowning, and that he was laid up. As a matter of fact, the boy had pitched into John for interfering with him while out bathing. Upon the night after the rescue, the landlady thought her lodgers were moving about a good deal, but took no notice. That night James was changed for John—who removed to Liverpool, whence he took a comfortable passage to America, and to the hut. occupied by brothers Zeph and Nick, who received him with all the honors. A week after her alarming letter, Mrs. John Blake was seen coming home in great tribulation— with her dear husband swathed in blankets, which were boiling over the frames of the cab windows. The whole neighborhood marked the family doctor drive up. - Said the family doctor ten minutes after, in consultation with Mrs. Blake: “Has my poor friend had a blow on the head?” “I fear so; but what—what makes you think this ?” “He asked after my little boy, and I have Only a little girl; I fear he is slightly light-headed. He is vastly changed—indeed, I hardly know him, though, of course, it is lie. I could swear to him by the birth-mark on his chest.”

Here Mrs. B. felt her _ senses going at this risk which the twin had nearly brought upon the scheme. How account for the faint? She had but a moment. “Is there danger, doctor?” “I fear so,” said he, very slowly. Down she fell, and Dr. Jolke at his great examination before the Syndicate of Insurance Companies’ Directors swore it was no pretense. Ten days afterward Mr. John Blake, R. N? (so the Times said), died at his residence in Canonbury Park of rapid consumption. It was rapid. A month previously be -had been passed by six doctors, attached to as many insurance companies, as perfectly healthy, and likely to live many years. On the day after the funeral, ,Mrs. Blake, .withoutany reference to the family solicitor, Wrote to each of the six companies for her £SOO, making the

statement on a mere -itirtr paper, floating in a perfect ocean of black-edge. At the end of a week, by the same post, cannTsix letters from the Secretaries of as many insurance companies, disputing the claim, bnt offering to compromise it. Each Secretary had based his letter upon the decision of a syndicate.' • She wrote six notes as follows: Sib: I amin formed that you are bound to pay the insurance money, due to me by dear husband’s death, at the expiration of three months; if by that time the amount is not paid, on the folio a lug morning" I shall make a personal appeal to the Lord Mayor. Yours in grief, Providence Blase (Widow} Those six companies’ directors went nearly wild with indignation. They spent hundreds in detection, and detected nothing; the doctors, the neighbors, the servant, all were tested, and all testified for the widow., The body was legally exhumed, and that gave better evidence still. Seven old companions of John Blake swore to the remains—for, as you know, there had been a twin birthmark even. Then they tackled the will made early in the evening preceding that night when the landlady of the seaside lodging heard a great, deal of racket. No question about the will—leaving Prov. everything. Three clerks <from the Admiralty, who had known Blake’s handwriting ’ through twenty yews, swore to the signature. So the companies paid the money, and the lady insisted on six humble apologies, which she also obtained.

Six weeks after that collective £3,000 was paid some wonderful news came from the oil-field district of the United States. The firm ©f Messrs. Mittigen Bros, had purchased the Rightaway estate (2,000 acres)* held by a German colony, and had tapped an oil realm which had yielded as much as 2,000 barrels in one day. The land had been let on quarter-acre runs, at the rate of SI,OOO per acre per annum and a royalty of one-fourth of the sales. Should the field hold out, the Brothers Mittigen would be big millionaires. Already upon the land a town had sprung up in a fortnight. Two vigilance committees had been formed to protect the property, and a newspaper started. A month passed, and each of those life Insurance companies received on the same day, and in the same handwriting, drafts each for £SOO. It was Mrs. Blake who forwarded drafts and letters, the latter intimating that she had inherited a large fortune in America and could not condescend to keep money which had been paid her so grudgingly. She had kept her word—not a soul had actually been robbed of a penny, and her sons might work nntrammeled by want of means —and as hard, as they liked.

This they have done, and are most respectable members of society. But poor, comparatively innocent, John Blake! He has had to remain for years dead to liis own sons —bnt bis wife has promised him that when he is a little more changed he shall come to England as his own brother and pass among “my dear boys” as their “uncle.” The Riglitawny oil fields are one of the great properties of America, but, unfortunately, tlie Brothers Mittigen are no longer interested in the concern, having met with a couple of “leaden favors” at “eucher” in the very “saloon” they had themselves opened at Rightaway in order to make things pleasant. Millionaire Mrs. Blake receives scores of offers by the week, but she refuses all. She is a noble widow,’ devoted to her three very clever and distinguished sons.