In 1835 two men from Bourbon County, Kentucky,—their appearance indicated that they had for a long time quaffed the fiery beverage of that region,—arrived at Bell’s Tavern, and declared that they could go all through the cave without a guide, and come out safely. They even laid wagers to that effect, and though they were warned against such folly, they started upon their expedition. They certainly went in, but they have never come out; and as thirty-seven years have elapsed, it is highly probable they have deferred their return indefinitely. It is supposed that they got lost in some of the windings off the main route, and starved to death.
In the summer of 1840, a middle-aged lady from Boston suddenly swooned from fatigue, while making the underground journey, and sinking to the earth in silence, the remainder of the party went on without missing her. On their way back, the guide observed her sitting on a stone, chattering to herself like a monkey. The poor woman had become insane. Recovering her consciousness, and finding herself in the darkness,—for in her fall she had extinguished her lamp,—she had believed herself lost, as it is supposed, and the terror had shattered her intellect. The excursionists had not been absent two hours; and yet that brief time was sufficient to destroy her reason utterly. She never recovered, and died two years after in the Worcester (Massachusetts) Insane Asylum, a raving maniac.
To be lost in the Mammoth Cave would be enough to overturn the strongest brain, since, with all its beauties and wonders, it has capacities for terrible tragedy and ineffable horror.
XXXII.
INSURANCE AND ITS MYSTERIES.
HISTORY OF FIRE AND MARINE INSURANCE.—LIFE INSURANCE.—OBJECTIONS OF A CALIFORNIAN.—HOW HE ANSWERED AN AGENT.—FRAUDS UPON COMPANIES.—A DEEP-LAID SCHEME.—JOHNSON AND HIS THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS.—OPENING A GRAVE.—A FICTITIOUS CORPSE.—PURSUIT BY DETECTIVES AND CAPTURE OF THE SWINDLER.—LITIGATIONS ABOUT INSURANCE.—CHINESE TRICKS ON AGENTS.—SUBSTITUTES FOR EXECUTION.
The system of fire and marine insurance has been in use for centuries. The Chinese claim to have invented it, as they have claimed nearly everything else; but the probabilities are, that it was of western origin. It is alluded to in the English laws about the middle of the thirteenth century. Its earliest form was in that of marine insurance; afterwards the system of fire insurance was invented. Still later came insurance against death, which has grown in recent years to very great proportions.
Many people are unable to understand how insurances can be effected against an event which is sure to happen. There is a story of a man in California who was approached by an insurance agent with a request to take out a policy on his life. The agent painted in glowing colors the advantages of insurance, and the man listened to him very patiently. When the agent had finished his story, the victim said with great deliberation, “Stranger, I have lived in this yere country twenty-five years. I have bucked agin nearly every game that they have ever brought out, but I’ll be hanged if I want to play at anything where I have got to die before I can win.”