River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1888-12-06

Demetrlus sent for his widowed
mother, who had been sent into BAN
/ ishment. and with tears in their eyes,
/ they recOgized each other the moment
they met Thus far all went swim
| mingly with the monk. and he might
have continued to reign aud
founded dynasty had he
been as prudent as he had
hitherto been fortunate. He married
a Polish Princess. and showed so great
a Partially to the countrymen of his
] wife, and so great desire to establish
I the Catholic religion, that shortly a
, conspiracy was organized against him.
( The dOwager Czarina. if she may be
/ so termed. was compelled to recant her
, belle. in him "a her son. and during
the rebellion which arose he was as
Sassinatei. After his death Ave others
pretended TO be the true blue De-
J metrius. but not one Of them met with
. success.
But il is in courts OF law that the
question Of mistaken identity plays the
largest part. and there the instances
have been numerous and curious. Life
has Oft-times hung upon a question of
identity. and decisions as to heritage
and utilization have depended upon its
establishment. In all criminal cases
the greatest caution should be en-
ployed in prOnOuucing upon cases of
! doubtful identity. for the fact has been
established that several innocent per-
sons have suffered death through
their identity having been mis-
taken. II has been a mOOted
question as 10 what degree of
light Is necessary TO enable a witness
to swear to identity. The French In
stitute decided. after numerous ex-
periments, that the degree of l.
Elimination furnished by the flashing
of pistol was not sufficient for the
purpose: yet in 1893 a Bow street Off
Ger identified a rObber by this means,
and lady obtained a sufficient view Of
a rObber during a flash Of lightning to
be enabled to recognize him again.
In New York, in 1904, singular
case occurred. \ man was tried for
bigamy under the name of John HOag.
He declared that he was not the man
and that his name was Parker. A
number Of witnesses swOre to his
identity rs Hoag, and, among others,
the woman IIOag had married and
deserted Moreover, HOag was said to
speak quick and with a lisp, to have a
scar ON his forehead and a mark on his
neck. all Of which were observable in
and on the prisoner. There were two
witnesses who distinctly swore that
H0ag had a very visible scar on the
sole Of his foot, produced by treading
on "a knife, but this mark did not APP
pear on the prisoner. The result was
an alibi
That was strange case which was
brought to trial in Toulouse, in France,
in 1860. Martin Guerre had been alb
sent from his home for eight years,
when an adventurer named Arnauld
Dutille impersOnated him and took pos
session of his property. He had chill
dren by Queries wife, but neither she,
nor her sister, nor brother-in-law, sus-
pected the deceit for three years. when
some suspicious circumstances arising,
the case was taken before the tribunals,
aud not less than three hundred wit
nesses We're examined. some of whom
positively declared that the accused
was Guerrc. while others rs positively
asserted he was Dutille. Still third
set of witnesses declared they could
not distinguish one from the other.
The judges were in a wOeful dilemma,
when, as if purpOsely TO extricate them
from their difficulty, the real Guerre
put in an appearance. Even then the
effrOnters Vi Dutille did not desert
him, AMI he strongly maintained that
he it was who was Guerre. Upon
direct personal comparison, however,
the wife aud sisters AZ once acknowl-
edged the Legitimate Guerre.
One Redman v 7s accused of robbing
a Mr. Brown. and one of the witnesses,
on crOss-examinatiOn,s said he knew a
man then in custody who so strongly
resembled the prisoner that he should
not know the one from the other. The
men were placed side by side in court.
and every one was astOunded by the
resemblance. The twin brothers Per-
rcau were tried for perjury. Which was
which It was difficult to decide. A
writer. who had drawn up eight bonds
at the instance Of the one or the othe-
did not know upon which OF .hem to fix
the charge
Speaking Of the similarity existing
between these twin brothers calls to
mind the fact that Mr.. F. Gallon. a
learned Englishman, who is an author
ity on the matter, says: ''One would
expect that twins would commonly be
found 10 possess certain average
likeness To one another; that few
would greatly fall short of it. But this
i not always the case. Extreme SINH
larity and extremely dissimilarity be-
tween twins of the same sex are nearly
as common as moderate resemblance.
When the twins are boy and girl
they are never closely alike" MIR.
Cation gives some anecdotes regard
ing the mistaken identity of twins
made by near relatives. When the
twins are children they have common
IL to be distinguished by ribbons tied
around their wrist or neck. and yet
one is sometimes fed. physiced and
whipped by mistake for the other. A
pair of twins were changed in their
bath. and the doubt grew UP with them
whether \ was not really b. and vice
versa. An artist was engaged on the
portrait Of twins, the children being
about four years OF age; he was COM
peeled 10 lay aside his work for about
thres weeks. and on resuming it could
not tell 70 which child the respective
likeness he had in hand belonged.
Many tutors have been unable TO dis
tinguish their twin pupils. 1t is re-
lated Of twin sisters that they used
rcgll' arIy to impose on their music
teacher when one OF them wanted a
whole holiday.
They had their lessons at separate
hours. and the one girl sacrificed her.
self 10 receive two lessons on the same
dav. while the other one enjoyed her
self. OF other female twins it was
written: Exactly alike in all, their
schoolmasters never could tell them
apart. At dancing parties they