I beleive you want to look at a speech often titled "Accident Insurance, etc." Harper's reprints it in the _Great Short Works Of Mark Twain_ volume, which has many textual anomalies but it readily available for this purpose. Gregg ----- Original Message ----- From: Sandra Uetz <[log in to unmask]> Date: Saturday, March 22, 2008 7:29 am Subject: Re: question > Jim, > I wonder if you mean the short story, "Political Economy"? It > has a similar plot, a lightning-rod salesman is trying to sell the > author "insurance" against his house being struck, and it is one > of my all time favorites. Of course, others on the Forum may know > exactly what story you mean, but this is the one I thought most > closely resembled what you described. I could be wrong, though, > as I'm sure anyone who knows Twain's works better than I do will > be quick to provide a correction. > Regards, > Sandra Littleton Uetz > > jim <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > I discovered Twain probably 25 years ago and quickly devoured > everythingI could get my hands on. I've enjoyed lurking here but > find I don't > have time to always read the post. For this reason I intend to sign > off. Before I go I have a question. When reading many of Twain's short > works I thought I read a short story in which a life insurance > salesmanwas attempting to make a sale to the author. The author's > take on the > idea of betting you will die was hilarious. Did Mark Twain write > anything like this? I've asked others in the past without a > satisfactory answer. It seemed so "Twain" like - at least in my > memory.I hesitate to post such a question as a simple layman but > where am I to > turn if not here? Tell me I'm mistaken and I can let this go and die > peacefully. It's bothered me for years, I need to know. > Jim >