St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1888-02-04
CONCERNING TWINS,
Their Likeness Extends to Character 90
Well AS Looks.

Their Likeness Extends to Character as
Well Looks.
Mi Gallon has shown that many
twins do actually behave under SINH
lar circumstances in almost Identical
manners, that their characters often
come as close to one another as it is
possible for the characters of two hui
man beings to come, and that even
where the conditions of later life have
been extremely different the original
likeness of type often persists to the
very end, in spite of superficial vari-
ations in style or habit of living.
Some of his stories. carefully verified.
are very funny. will supplement
them by two Of my own. In one
case a couple of twins (men)
had quarrel over a perfectly unim-
portant matter. They came to very
high words, and parted from one
anoth er in bad blood. On returning
to their rooms-they lived apart-each
of them suffered from fit of remorsc,
and sat down to write letter of con-
/
the morning post After writing it,
one brother reads his letter over, and,
recalling the cause of the quarrel.
added at once long postscript iusti-
flying himself and reopening the whole
question at issue The other brother
posted his note at once, but, thinking
the matter over quietly afterwards
regretted his action again, and supple
men,ed 1t by second palinodia, al
most unsaying what he had said in the
first one. l saw all three letters my.
self the next morning, and was simply
amazed at their absolute sameness OF
feeling and expression
| The other story relates to fact
which happened, not to twins, but to
| two successive brothers extremely like
one another in build and feature, and
evidently modelled in mind and charac.
ter on the self-same mould. 1t is only
small incident, but as | can vouch for
the correctness of the minute details,
it has a certain psychological interest
OF its own. They met a lady dressed
in blue whom they had never seen be-
fore at a military dance. Each of them
asked at once to be introduced to her
at first sight; each asked the same Of
ficer for an introduction Though they
had several friends in common pres
enD; each described her in the same
way, not as "the lady in blue'' Che
most obvious point of appearance
about herr, but as 1.-THE lady with the
beautiful ears;'' each fell desperately |
in love with her off hand, and each
asked her for a particular flower out
of little bouquet containing four or
five more conspicuous blossoms. Final
ly each came up at the end of the |
evening to confide in the same mar
ried lady of their acquaintance their
desire to see more of the beautiful |
stranger
Still, even twins do distinctly differ
in some things from one another.
However much they may look alike to
strangers, they are always discrim-
Unable by those who know them well,
and even in early childhood by moth
ers and nurses. Huapin may always
be readily distinguished from Muppin
by some slight difference of feature or
expression. Hus is always a trife fatter
or thinner than Buz, his brother; the
two dromios and the two Antipholuses
may deceive the outer public by their
close resem blance, but not even
Shakespeare himself can make us be-
Iieve that Mrs. Antipholus was really
mistaken as to the personal identity of
her own husband. I don't want to be
hard on lady. but fancy myself she
was glad of the excuse for little in
nocent and easily explicable Irritation
with an agreeable stranger. -CorrshiI
Magazine.