Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1889-10-19 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE.  A case of mistaken identity, involving elements of dramatic interest sufficient to make the fortune of a sensational novel,has just occurred in Switzerland. A young couple, named Favre,belonging to the working class, had lived happily together for some years at Neuchatel, when the husband, a working mason, began to give -way to habits of drinking. Efforts were made to reclaim him, and he became an abstainer for a time. Some months ago, however, he 4oke out again and left his hcine. His wife had herd nothing of him for three months, when one night she was awakened by a voice calling her repeatedly from the street outside, and which she felt sure was that of her husband. She rose, dressed, and went into the street, but found no one. A few days afterwards she read an account in the newspapers of a man who had committed suicide on the railway at a small village near Bale. From the description of him she suspected it might be her missing husband, and became full of theidea that the voice she had heard was a communication from him at the moment of death. She was corroborated in her belief by learning that he had made application for work at a neighbouring quarry, but being in drink at the time had been roughly refused by the foreman. The body had now for some time been interred, but in order to put an end to her suspense the poor woman, having got together a little money, started off with the determiLation to have the body disinterred. She reached the village, and after some delay secured permission to open the grave. With two or three men as assistants she set to work. When the coffin was opened the effluvium was so terrible that her companions ran, and left her alone with her dead. For 20 minutes, unaided, she pursued her ghostly task. The body had been decapitated by the train, and the head, horribly mutilated, was wrapped by itself in a cloth. She uncovered it, and recognised it by the teeth. One of the stockings also she knew again from having mended it with a particular kind of worsted. Her worst fears thus confirmed, she returned home in the depths of sorrow. The aged mother of the man was informed of the identification, and mourning was being prepared for the whole family, when the crowning act of the drama was furnished by a letter which has been just received from Pal:re himself, announcing that he is at Winterthur alive and well ! The wife had, after all, identified the wrong man! Who it is that actually lies in that lonely grave no one knows.  The first fog of the season in London occurred on Friday, and was especially marked in the central and northern districts. About noon a thick shroud of yellow fog succeeded a continuous drizzling rain in the districts of Holborn, King's Cross, Oxford-street, and Regent-street, and the thoroughfares were renderedsodark that the shops all along had to be lighted. Outside Salonica another cemetery has been found, of ancient Thessalian times, with many sarcophagi still unopened. On the cover of one is a piece of iron for fastening the bust of the deceased, who, from the inscription, Gains Julius Eutyches, seems to have built the tomb during his lifetime. In many of the sepulchral inscriptions is inserted the clause thatwhoever opens the sarcopliagus,and places therein another corpse, shall pay a heavy fine. An e!epnant belonging to a circus which is now at Accrington escaped on Monday morning and wandared into it co-operative store. A police-officer was summoned and found the animal busy among the biscuits and jam. He had evidently enjoyed a good breakfast And had become frolicsome,: scattering the onions and other light commodities right and left.  '. • ,