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A "SHORT" STORY.

j His naine Benjamin ,PVGunn, andi he was the agent for an insurance coMpany. He caihe round to my office fourtimes r :in r rone ; ; morning .to , he: could not persuade me to take rout a life insurance policy in hiscomp&By.- ®e usedto w;aylay me on the street, at churchy in' my own house, and bore me about that policy. If I went to the opera, Gunn would buy the seat next to ine; and sit th e whole evening talking about sudden death and the. adyantag'es .Qf thfe ten-y?arr r plan. If I got into a street car, Gunn woilld :come rushing in • at? the :!next-corner, and sit by my side and drag out a lot of mortality tables, and begin to explain how I could beat his company out of a fortune. If I sat. down to dinner, in a restaurant, up" .would come. Gunn, and seizing the chair next to me, he would tell a -cheering anecdote of a man who insured in his company, for 50,000 dollars only last week, and was uuried yesterday,, : If I attended the funeral of a departed, friend, and wept as they threw the dirt upon his coffin, !' would see the indomitable Benjamin P. Gunn, bursting to say, " Poor Smith. Knew him well. for ten thousand in btir company.. : Widow left in comfortable circumstances.' Let me take your name. Shall I?" 7 1 " - ' •

He followed me., everywhere; until at last I got so sick of Gunn's persecutions that'l leftthetown suddenly ©ne-eVening, and hid; myself, in a secluded country' village, hoping to get rid of him. At the end of two weeks I Teturned, reaching home at one in the ; morning. J had,hardly got into bed before there was a ring at the door bell. I looked out and there was Gunn, with another person ! He asked if Max Aldeler., was at Home. I said I was the man.: Mr. Gunn .then observed that he expected my return; and thought he would call round about that insurance policy. He said he had the . doctor with him, and if I would come down he would, take, my name and , hayq me examined jmmc diately. I was too indignant to reply. , I shut the window' with a slam and went' to bed again. After breakfast in the morning I ppened the frontdoor, and there was.Gunn sitting on the steps with his. doctor, waiting for me! : He had been.there all night. As I came out they seized me and tried to undress me there on the pavement in order to examine me. I retreated, and locked myself up: in the garret,;with orders to .admit nobody to. the house until I came down; stairs.- But Gunn would not be baffled. He actually .rented the . house •next .dopr, and stationed • himself in the garret;. adjoiningimine. When he got fixed he: spent; his time pounding on-the partition and crying, " Hallo !- Aldeler ! Aldeler, I say! . How about that policy ? to take hereout now And then •hs, would itell |me .some ; anecdotes about, men who .w:ere killed immediately. after paying the first premium. But I paid .no attention to him, and made no noise. Then he silent for a time. , .

Suddenly, , one morning, the trap-door of my garret was wrenched off ; and; Upon looking up I saw Gtinn, with the' doctor and a crowbar, and a lot of death-rates coming. down, the ladder at me. ; I; fled from the. house, to the Presbyterian church ; cldseby,< and paid-the sexton twenty: dollars to let me climb up to the point of the steeple for a week. Once safely on the

three hundred feet, from,the earth, X made myself'comfortable withthe thought: that I .had' Gunn at; a disadvantage,, and X determined to beat him finally-if .'I had to stay there for 'a. month.' " v AJjoiit an hour afterwards, while I was looking at the superb' .view t0.., the I west;: I;, heard a rust;iingi on the other- side* of the steeple. I around, and thei;e was Benjamin . Jj. Gunn r . creeping up the ; sifle. that spire - iri- a 1 balloon ' in - which -wis- the dpptor and. the... tabular ~ Estimates of the losses - r,o£ • : his i »Goiopany•< from the Tontine systems As - sooai reached the ,ball t he threw l( ius (grappling irons into; the-shingles of the. steeple* and asked me at ; what age my f&th&r died f and ; if any of .my aunts ever Had. consumption • or'liver, complaint* Without waiting to reply, I slid 1 down the steeple to. the first train to thaMississippi In two weeks X' was in Mexico,' I determined, •to go - to. the ; interior, and seek some , wild spot-in -some elevated region, "'where no Gunnwoulcl ever dare to come. I got on ,a> mule paid a iguide to; lead ipe Jttf) the summit of the Propocatapel: ; W e sirrivedL at the foot of the mountain, at inoon. We toiled upwards for. about four hours;, . Just before reaching the top I heard the sound pf.{voices, and on rounding a point of rock, who should-I see but-Benjamin P. Gunn seated ontlie very edge of the crater, explaining the endowment plan to his guide, and stupyfying him with the mortality table, while the doctor had the other guide a'few yards off, examining "him to see if he was healthy! M!r. Gunn arose and said he was glad tp see me, because now he could talk over that business about the policy without fear of interruption.. In a paroxysm of rage I pushed him backwards ! into the , crater; ? and- he fell a thousand, feet below with a heavy ; thud, As he struck the botom I heard a voice screaming put something about ".non-forfeiture;" but there was convulsion of th& mountain, a cloud of smoke; -and I heard no more. . hc I know it was wrong. I know I had no right to kill: Gunn" in that manner.; but he forced me to do it in self-defence, and I hope his awful fate will be a warning to. other. insurance agents jpho . remain amongst us;—'lnsurance Monitor';of New York. •--- r > ~i ■:

" EUSSKLS," NOT " Wellingtons."— Once on a time Lord Russell (whom then we used to call Lord John) called a cah in the, evening, to carry him from the House of Commons to Chesham Blace.r.To. the cabman he gave a coin ; but when, with jpiopei? balanced his accounts at nigkt;;he found 19sishort. He urightly : concluded i that :»i he had given his driver a sovereign for a shilling. - On the following day ; he., asked the waterman in Palace Yard ; whether he remembered the cabmanv .The cabman was found; Lord Jehu; reminded him *of what had occure 1. -The cabman knew all about it. and acknowledged his rascality. Lord John : Buggested the -immediate return of the money. "Can - 1- be "done,- your -Lordship,'' says the cabman grinning. Can't! why not-?*' rejoins ihe immortal Whig. "Why, my Lord, I a great nobleman like you of course - meant to give me the money as compensation for the honour of driving you? ' So, as my boots wa> blessed old, I went and bought a' pair—and here they are," pointing to his somewhat shapely legs. "They're werry nice bootsy my Lord; atid some calls 'em Wellingtons j I calls ? em Eussells."—Press and St James's Ghrdniclei - • •• -• -,- .. .•

The ' Thames Advertiser' states:— We learn that Captain Williaih M'Dontiell and a small party are 'now -prospecting for gold on the west- shore of Taupo Lake. About a year ago a very rich specimen of gold-bearing quartz was sent down from that district to his ; Uonor the Superintendent. l ' In the Greenstone" district, Westland, female servants get £1 10s. per week, or £7B a-vear.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MIC18720308.2.21

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 157, 8 March 1872, Page 6

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,272

A "SHORT" STORY. Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 157, 8 March 1872, Page 6

A "SHORT" STORY. Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 157, 8 March 1872, Page 6

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