Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1897-03-11


Stories Of mistaken identity are
always of absorbing interest. The
law books are full of cases wherein
men have sworn that strangers were
their wives, or women have sworn
that strangers we're their husbands.
AL sorts Of martyrdom have been
suffered by the people who have had
the misfortune to look like bad peo.
pie, or to be mistaken for them
twins have, from time immemorial
played pranks with their friends
and enjoyed their discontinue.
Shakspeare's two Dromios have
often had their countcrparts in ac-
tual life, and the reality has been
more wonderful than the fiction of
the great master, says the Philadel-
phia Times. We are, of course, ia.
miliar with the fact that there
are twin brothers and twin sisters so
marvelously alike that it is impossi.
bile for strsngers to distinguish them,
hut when these close resemblances
exist I'm two individuals not allied by
blood, and who have never met each
other, the circumstance becomes
much more remarkable, and can
only be considered as freak of ma
ture.
Questions of identity frequently
arise in legal proceeding, both civil
and criminal, where they are of
great Importance. A case occurred
in the West several years ago, where
large estate was obtained by a
profiigate son, who bore upon his
person very peculiar marks. After
the young man had been for some
time in the enjoyment of his inher-
itsnce, however, another claimant
turned up, having the very same
marks Of identity, and the people
were very much divided in opinion
as to which was the son and which
was the impostor.
Old residents of New York will
remember the murder case Of John
T.. Colt. Colt was convicted OF the
murder of Adams. He belonged to
rich family, and great efforts were
made to obtain pardon or cummu-
tatiOn Of his sentence. Mr.. Seward
was Governor, and was immovable.
Just before the arrival of the hour of
the execution, Colt was reported to
have been found dead by his own
hand in his cell. Many people al.
ways believed that the corpse which
was shown was not that of Colt, but
that he had been spirited away to a
place Of safety and the body of an
other man substituted.
In 1850, on the trial Of John W.
Webster, in Boston, for the murder
of DR.. Parkman, Mr.. Robert G
Shaw, an eminent Boston merchant
and brother-in-law of DIR. Park
man, testified that he identified the
mutilated remains found in DR.. Web
ster's laboratory as those OF his miss
ing relative, by peculiar mark on
one of his limbs. But, on the other
hand, several crediiable witnesses
appeared for the defense, and sWorG
positively 10 have seen DR.. Parkmar
alive at time considerably later
than he could have been alive If DR.
Webster was guilty. Thesubsequeni
confession of DR.. Webster, however
proved that all these witnesses were
in error, and they must have mis-
taken some other person for Dr
Parkman, although their testimony
had been very positive.
There was once waiter in Del
monicO's VINO bore such strong re
semblance to Chauncey Depew thai
one night, when Chauncey failed tt
attend at the New England dinner
where he was known, a wag brough
i'm the waiter, and the member:
cheered him several minutes before
the Joke was discovered.
In September, 1900, a man calling
himself Thomas HOag made his ap
pearance in Rockland county, thirty
miles north Of New York city. lie
was a common laborer, and was EN-
ployed as a farm hand by severa
persons of the county. Shortl y al
ter his arrival he became acquainted
with Miss Catherine SecOr, and afteI
paying his addresses to her for
time, they were married on Christ
mas day of the same year, by Judge
Coe, one Of the Judges of the Cour
of Common Pleas Of Rocklant
county. They lived together AZ mar
and wife, and he pursued his daily
calling in that vicinity until the enc
of March, 1901, when he disappeared
and never returned to that neighbor
hood.
Three years after a man known a
Joseph Barker was arrested and tried
for bigamy, in the Court of Dye
and Terminer in New York city
The indictment charged that, having
on the eighth day of May, 1889, law
fully married one Susan Faesch, VIII
was still living, he had unlawfully
on the twenty-fifth of December
1900, under the alias of Thoma
| IL. oontracted a second marriag