A MARVELLOUS NARRATIVE.

Evening Star, Issue 3484, 23 April 1874, Page 3

A MARVELLOUS NARRATIVE.

There is a trial involving a most marvellous question of identity now progressing in a court at Malone, Franklin county, Mew York. If the case were not in court and en $? a ging the attention of judges, lawyers, and many witnesses, some of the developments would be incredible, and set down as a groundless fabrication. We give an outline of the reported facts. Two years ago Willis Peyton, a farmer of Franklin county, New York, left home with the usual baggage of a traveller, and a patent right model of a spring bed, and several letters of introduction to parties South, His business was to sell rights. He was foJty years of age, and had a wife [and several children

some of whom were grown He wrote to his family from Terre Haute Jthat he was feeling ill, but he would push on to Evansville, where ho had a friend, David Weaver, with whom he intended to spend a few days before going further South. Here the old Willis Peyton was lost to the world and to himself, and a new man seemed to grow in his place, still clinging to Willis Peyton’s memory, and some marks which were on Vv illia Peyton’s body. He has given his story under oath, and it is briefly this ;—After leaving Terre Haute he lost all consciousness, but somehow got into a hospital at Evansville, where he first found himself recovering from small-pox. He was then bald, and when he resumed his clothing

every article appeared to have been made for a much smaller man. The pantaloons which he recognized as his, were at least six inohea too short. He could get no trace of his money, watch, model spring-bed, or other effects. When he was released from the hospital he went to his friend David Weaver, who spurned him as an impostor. He was, in fact, a horrible sight, and looked like the Wandering Jew, or some other walking pestilence. _ Weaver’s remarks about his friend Willis Peyton’s personality caused him to examine himself, and he found he had grown eight inches taller in as many weeks. He would have denied his own identity if it had not been for his mind and other evidences that had been familiar to him

from childhood. Of course he could not continue his contemplated journey, for he had lost its objects and bearings. He went to an engine house and looked into a mirror, and did not even recognize his face. He first thought of suicide, and his next thought was of home. The latter prevailed. He was utterly lost and started to find himself. On the way he was taken ill again, and once more all the world was a blank He finally arrived at his own door after an absence of two years. Willis Peyton’s family believed him dead. The Willis Peyton who had left that threshold two years before had light hair, nearly red, and a very scanty beard, and was thin in flesh. The Willis Peyton who now knocked at tho door was much taller, rounder, and had brown curly hair, and a heavy beard. He looked like a gross lie of the former, with no truth in him ; but the sequel is startling. He knocked and was invited into the house of the “Widow Pejton,” and took a seat.

Looking at Mrs Peyton he said, “ I suppose you don’c know me, Addie ?” ishe answered, “No, sir, I do not; who are you?” 'lhe man burst into tears, and sald ? not believe me, \ know,

when I tell you; but it’s got to come some time, and might as well now as not. I’m Willis '"eyton.” Mrs Peyton shrank from him, ordered him out of doors, and two her sons and a hired man took him to the nearest Justice, who sent him to gaol as a lunatic. He was first tried by a commission of lunacy, and was adjudged perfectly sane. He is now being tried before the Surrogate on the question of his pretensions as the husband of Mrs Peyton and the owner of the p eyton properly. He has told his story, the main points of which we have given ; has related in court circumstances that occurred before the same Judge years before ; told the lawyers many things that a stranger, such as he seems to be, could not know ;

related Willis Peyton’s family history, giving some minute details which are strictly correct and generally known in the neighborhood, and even reminded Mrs Peyton of words spoken during her courtship, which she supposed no one knew but her husband and herself. It seems highly probable he will be able to establish his identity, incredible as it may appear.

The principal evidence in his favor is that furnished by several marks and scars on his person, and this is unimpeachable. Willis Peyton, when a lad, received a severe cut in the instep, which left a bad scar. The metamorphosed Willis Peyton has the scar. He had a tattoo mark of an American shield on his right arm. The shield is there. On

Ms left arm an anchor. Anchor there, but elongated. Peyton had also a very curious scar oa one of his fingers, which was disfigured by crushing in a cog-wheel. A critical examination of this finger by the doctor who dressed the fresh wound compels the physician to say that it is the finger of Willis Peyton. While this examination was making, the claimant said, “Doctor, do you recollect how sick I was made by the sight of that finger,

while you and mother were dressing it one day ? And do you recollect how I came to you one day to know what would take the inflammation out of my arm where 1 was tatooed by Jim Bayne, the sabor?” Ihe old doctor remembered too well how sore Willis Peyton’s arm was, and the circumstance of his fainting once from the dressing of the sore finger. Another evidence that the claimant is the simon-pure Wikis Peyton is that he singles out men who do nut know him, calling them by name, and reminding them of incidents of a former acquaintance that leave no doubt in their minds

as to his identity. And the “ Widow Peyton sits in the court-room, by turns looking at the claimant to her bed and board and crying as witness after witness avows his belief that the strange man is Willis Peyton. She has told her friends that if he really is Peyton he may have the farm stock, and everything but herself. Sometimes during the trial he implores her to look again and see if she cannot recognize one feature and acknowledge him as her husband ; but she refuses, and his earnest, appealing face suddenly becomes clouded by despair. He says if the suit terminates in his favor he will only ask a living off the farm, and will never intrude upon his wife and children unless they voluntarily recognize him.— ‘ St. Louis Republican.’