Some Cases of Mistaken Identity, Which
Involved Their Victims and Others
in Complications.
The cases of mistaken identity which occur in real life are only another
proof of the old adage that “truth is stranger than fiction.” Even
Shakespeare, in his “Comedy of Errors,” stretching the probabilities to
the utmost limit with the twin brothers and their twin servants, did not
equal the facts in a marriage celebrated not long since in Paris.
Two bridegrooms, so exactly alike as to be indistinguishable from each
other except by differences in attire, and two brides of whom exactly
the same was true, were attended by two “best men” who were modern
dromios.
Alphonse and Gabriel Chanteau, the bridegrooms, were distinguished
from each other in their twin babyhood by means of a pink ribbon tied
around the arm of Alphonse. Now that they have reached man’s estate
Alphonse wears a red waistcoat and Gabriel a white one.
Genevieve and Susanne Renaud, twin sisters who have become Mesdames
Chanteau, are living realizations of _Girofle-Girofla_ in the French
comic opera of that name. Their differentiation in the eyes of their
friends is accomplished by the aid of Genevieve’s red corsage and the
white one worn by Susanne.
As to the grooms’ “best men,” Gustave and Maurice Freunzer, also
twins, who are cousins of the Messrs. Chanteau, they are as much alike
as the proverbial two peas.
Knowing their marvelous resemblance, these twins will undoubtedly keep
themselves happily “sorted out”; but the case of a woman in Vienna who
was imposed upon to the extent of actually marrying the wrong man has
the element of tragedy rather than comedy.
This woman, who was of the lower middle class, married a man whom she
took to be Herr Weiss, her fiancé, returning from a year’s absence in
America to make her his wife. In less than a month he robbed her of
her savings and then suddenly disappeared.
A month later she received a letter from America regretting that the
writer had been too ill to return at the time agreed, but stating that
he was about to sail, and that immediately on his arrival would fulfil
his promise by leading her to the altar. The letter was signed
“Herrmann Weiss.”
The poor woman’s worst fears were realized when, on her
correspondent’s arrival, she recognized that she had been victimized
by an impostor. It subsequently transpired that the genuine Herrmann
Weiss had, while in America, foregathered with his double, who had
ascertained sufficient of the former’s history and prospects to enable
him to carry out with success his scheme of deception and robbery.
When Claude Bonnat, a baker of Marseilles, was in hiding from the
police, who held a warrant for his arrest on a serious charge, he
managed to communicate with an acquaintance, one Leriot, who in every
respect was his exact double, and conjured him, on the strength of
their old friendship, to promise that, should any misfortune befall
him, he would by impersonating him keep from the young woman to whom
he was engaged the knowledge of her lover’s shame. Leriot gave his
promise, which sat but lightly on his conscience, as one to be kept or
broken as whim might direct.
However, when Bonnat a day or two later fell into the hands of
justice, Leriot sought out the young woman, of whom he had no previous
knowledge, with the result that his susceptible heart was so touched
that he entered into the fulfilment of his promise with surprising
zeal. So well, indeed, did he enact the rôle of Bonnat that he in a
short while espoused the latter’s fiancée. The couple led a life of
complex happiness, which was in no wise dimmed when, some years later,
on the convict’s release, the wife first discovered the fraud of which
she had been the victim.