The Horrible End Of A Life Insurance Agent

Hig name was Banjamin P. Gunn, and ho was the agent for an insurance company. Ho cauio to uiy office fourtoen times in ono morning to seo if he could not persuade ino to tako out a life iusuranco policy iu bis eonipauy. He usod to waylay me on the stx-eut, at eburch, in my own liouse, and bore mo abont tbat policy. If I wont totho Opera, Gunn would buy tlic noxt soat to me and sit the.ro the wbole ovcning, tiilking about sudden deatb and tht; advantiige of tho ten-ycar plan. If I got into a Street OOT, Gunn would come rusbing in at the noxt córner, and sit by my sido and drug out a lot of mortality tables, and begin to expLaia how I oould beat liis conipany out of a fortune. If I aat down to dinnOr in a restaurant up would como Gunn, and, seizing the chair that was noxt tome, he WOuJd tolla cheoring aneodote about a man who inrared in liis conipaiiy for (30,000 last weck, and was buned yeeterday. Ií'I attended the funeral oía dopartod í'rieud, and wopt as thej ttrrew tho earth upon his coffin, I would toar i whispi-r, and, turning. there would be tlie indumitablu Benjamin P. Gunu, lmrsüug tosuy:"Poor Sniith! I kiicw liiin well. Insurod for ton thousand i íi our company. Widow left in comi'ortablü oiivumstanccs. Letme tuku your nainc. Sluül I '; " He followod me evorywhore ; ímtil at lnst I gnt so sick of Gunn's persocutions tliat I left town suddonly one ovening, and hid my.st.lf in a Becluded country villago, lioping to get rid of him. At the end of two weeks I returned, reaohiiug home at one ín the morning, I bad hardly got into bed before thoro was a ring at the door boíl. I lookod out, and there was (i mm witk auotbor person ' Ho asked if Max Adeler was at lióme. I said I was tho man. Mr. Gunn thon observed that he expected my retnrn, and thooght he would cali around about that insurance policy. He said he liad tho doctor with him, and if I would OOme down lio would tako my ñamo and havo mo examinod immediately. I was too indignant to reily. I stiut tho windew with i slam and went to bed again. After breakfast in tlie morniugl oponed the frontdoor, andtlurt; was Gunn sitting on tho steps with his doctor, waiting for me. He had been thoro all night. As I cauio out, they seizod me and tried to uudress me there on the pavoment, in order to examine mo. I retreated and locked myself up in tlie gsrret, with orders to let iiobody into the houe uutil I carne down stuirs. But Gunn wouldn't be baffled. He actually rented the houso next door and stationed hiiuself in the garret adjoining mini', vv hen ho got fixed he spont his time pouading on tho partition and crying : " Hallo ! Adeler - Adeler, I say ! How about that policy ? Want to take hor out now 'i And then he would teil me sonio more storics about men who were out off immediately after paying the first premium. Buil paid noattontion tohim, and made no noise. Then he was silent. Suddenly, one morning, tho trap door of my garrot was wrenchud otf ; and, upou looking np, I saw Ciunu with tho doctor and a crowbur, and alotofdeath ratos coming down the ladder at me. 1 tied from the house to the Fresbyteri:ui Church closo by, and paid the sextoij twenty dollars to let me climb up to the point of the stoeple and sit astride of the ball. I promised hini twenty inore if he would exolude everybody from that steeplo for one week. Onco safely on the ball, three hundred feet from the eartli, I made mysolf comfortable with the thought that I had hiin at a disadvautage, and I determined to beat him linally if I had to stay there a month. About an hour afteiward, while I was looking at tlie superb view of the west, I beard a rustling around on the other side of tlie steeplc. I looked around, and there was Benjamin P. Gunn creeping up the side of that spire in a bal loon, in which was the doctor and tho tabular estimates of the losses ofhiscompany trom the Tontine systeia ! As soon as Gunn reached the ballhe threw his grappling iron upon the shingles of the steeple, and asked mo at what age uiy father had died, and it' auy of my auuts had tho consumption or liver coinplaint. Without waiting to rcjily, I alia down the steeple to the ground and took the first train tbr the Mi.sissi[pi Valley. In two weeks I was in Mexico. I dotoruiiiiud to go into the interior and seek some wild spot in some elevated región, where no Gunn would over dare to come. I got a mulé and paid a guide to lead me to the Bummit of Popocatuptl. We arrived at tho ibot of the mountain at uoon. We toiled upwards for about four hours. Just beforo roaching tlie top, I hoard the sound of voices, and, npon turning around, who should I see but Benjamin P. ünnn, seated upon tho very edge of the cráter, explaining the endowment plan to his guide, aud studyinoj with him a mortality table, while the doctor had tho other guido a few yards off èxamining him to seo if he was healthy ! Mr. üunn arose and said ho was glad. to sec me, because he could talk over that business nowabout the policy without fear of interruption. In a paroxysm of rage I pushed him ba:k into the and ho feil a thousand fout below with a heavy thud. As ho strnck the bottom I heard a voico sci'oaming out something about nonforfcituro ; but there was a suddon convulsión of the mountain, a cloud of smoko, and I heard no moro. I know it was wrong. I know I had no right tokill Gunn in that manner; huthe forced mo to do it in self-dofense, and I hope his awful fate will bo a waniing to oihor iusurancc agouts reniaiuing with us.