PECULIAR CASE OP MISTAKEN IDENTITY.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1128, 21 December 1883, Page 2

PECULIAR CASE OP MISTAKEN IDENTITY.

Among the applicants at the Thames Police-court the other day was a woman who complained that she had been swindled. She stated that a few weeks ago a young man applied for lodgings at her I house. When he stated that he belonged to the Royal Nary she readily took him in and showed him every attention, because,-she said, she had a son in the navy too. The young man said he knew this son, and had served with him, and that was why he had come to that house, beingsure that“ the mother of such a man. must be a good woman and just the sort of person for him to stay with while in London.” The woman confessed that she was favourably impressed with the young man, who in a week said he could keep up the deception no longer—that he was the long absent son. The woman was incredulous at’first, because, as she explained, her son was taller and of different complexion. The young man, however, explained this by saying that a foreign climate had changed his complexion and the colour of his eyes; and that “ hard campaigning had pulled lam down.” The woman’s husband had no doubt on the point, and said she was a fool not to know her own boy, adding that he was “sore 1 all along that he was their son.” She was convinced, and made more fuss over him than ever. One day ho wanted some money “ to go on with” until his own was sent. He got £56 and very soon after disappeared and has not been heard of since, the woman’s son having in the meantime communicated with home and announced his speedy return. The magistrate could do nothing for the woman except advise her to be & little less credulous in future.—Home paper.;