The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1885-02-03
MISTAKEN IDENTITY.
People Who Have Their Doub-
les in all Walks of Life.
Men Who Have Suffered for the
Sins of Others-A Few Re-
markable Instances.

exist between different individuals,
not only of the same family, but in
no way related. Certain types Of face
are indeed so common that a very
usual method of describing people is
to compare them with those known to
the person to whom we are speaking.
Many of us, moreover, have at times
been conscious of a similarity to peo-
pie unknown to us when we have been
saluted generally with obtrusive jov-
iality, by entire strangers, who forth
with apologize somewhat sheepishly,
and 90 of muttering something about
q remarkable likeness" 1t is not
pleasant to feel that you have a
double going about in the world, es-
pecially, as for aught you know, be
may not be conducting himself with
the propriety that marks your own
actions, and it is obvious that in cases
of crime a man may be in considerable
danger owing to bis likeness to a
wrong doer. An instance of this oc-
Cured only few days ago. An ex-
officer in the army was charged on
warrant with being drunk and disord-
erly, and failed to surrender. On the
morning when he should have given
himself up, several police candidates
attended at the court for the purpose
of instruction, and one of them was
Immediately picked out by a constable
as the offender. No less than three
witnesses identified him, and there is
little doubt that had he not been able
to prove an alibi he would have been
fined instead of the real offender, who
was afterwards captured. As mat
ter of fact, the number of such cases
which have occurred is surprising,
some of them fraught with the gray
est consequences to the unhappy VIC
Tins, who have suffered Imprisonment
and even death because they happen
ed to resemble the real authors of the
crimes with which they were accused.
The case We have just quoted is a
typical one, and asst has drawn at
Sention to the subject, some notes on
q few of the most remarkable instances
of mistaken identity may be of inter-
est.
SUBSTITUTED LIKENEssEs.
Those who have not studied the
matter will, says an old author treat
ing of this question, be altogether un-
prepared for the mass of fact which
professional writers have accumulated
on the likeness subsisting between
different individuals. Such likenesses
were the subject of comment in an
cient day, for one of the chapters of
'Pliny's Natural History" deals with
"Cases of Resemblance" and he gives
a list of persons who could hardly be
distinguished from each other, the
imposter Arteman, for example, and
Antiochus, King of Syria, and plebe-
ian Vibsus and Pompey, while the
latter was said by Plutarch to be more
like Alexander the great than his
statues SLY hit, probably, at the
sculptors of the period. In more
modern days remarkable resemblances
become increasingly interesting, and
the consequences of some of them very
serious. In the last century a we'll
known man of fashion. ME-. Frank
Douglas, was committed for robbery
on the highway, on the positive oath
of the man plundered, and would Ger.
tainly have been hanged had not the
notorious thief, Page, been arrested
and brought to Newgate, when the
victim saw him, and the. wonderful
explained the mistake
which was very naturally the talk of
the town. Other people, however,
we're not 80 fortunate as Mr.. Doug
las, and there are many instances of
persons being executed for crimes
they never committed, on the positive
caths of the persons robbed or
PUNISHED FOR OTHERS OFFENCES.
In 1897 a brewers clerk, named
Coleman, was executed on Kenning-
ton Common for the murder of Sarah
Green, being sworn to by her before
her death as one of her assailants. Two
wears afterwards, however, the real
criminals we're found, and two of them
suffered death. Not long after that
an innocent man was hanged at the
Surry Assizes for robbery, on the
oath of the individual attacked, and
in 1897, two unfortunate persons,
Martin Clinch, a bookseller, and
James Mackley, printers, were
executed for the murder of Mr..
Fryer, being identified by a Miss Ann
Fryer, the deceased gentleman's
cousin, who was with him at the time
when he was robbed and murdered.
Some wears afterwards the real male