A MARVELLOUS NARRATIVE.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1702, 17 June 1874, Page 2

A MARVELLOUS NARRATIVE.

There is a trial involving a most iharvellous question of identity now progressing in a court at Malorie; FranTlTn county, New York; If the case were not in Court and engaging the attention of judges, lawyers, and many witnesses, some 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 forty years of age, and had a wife and several children, some of whom were grown. He wrote to his family: from Terre Haute that he was feeling ill, but he would push on to Evansyille, where lie hada friend, David Weaver, with whom he intended to spend a few days before going further South. Here the old Wil[is Peyton, was lost to the world and t<> iimself, and a new man seemed to grow in his place, still clinging to Willis Peyton's memory, and some marks which were on Willis Peyton's body. He has given his statement under, oath, and it i« mefly tint -.—After "leaving Terre Haute he lost all consciousness ness, 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 regonised as his, were at least six inches too short. He could get no trace of his money, watch, model springbed, 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 chilhood. Of course he could not continue his _ contemplated journey, for he had lost its objects ana bearings. He went to an engine-house and looked into a mirror, and did aot even recognise 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 the door was much taller, rounder, and had grown curley hair, and a heavy beard. He looked like a gross lie of tho former, with no truth in him; but the sequel is startling. He knocked and was invited into the house of" Widow Peyton," and took a seat. Looking at Mrs Peyton lie said, " I suppose you don't know me, Addie ? " She answered, "No, sir, I do not ?". The man burst into tears, and said," You'll not believe me, I know, when I tell you.; but its got to ome some time, and might as well now as not. I'm Willis Peyton." Mrs Peyton shrank from him, ordered him out of doors, and two of 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 adjudgpd perfectly sane. He is now being tried before the. Surrogate on the question of his pretensions as husband of Mrs Peytoa and the owner of the

Peyton property He has told his story, the main points of which we hare given ; has related in Court circumstances iha< occured b fore the same Judge years before; told the lawyers many things that a stranger, such as ho seems to be, could not know; related Willis ley ton's family history, giving some minute details which are strictly correct, and generally known in the neighborhood, and even reminded Mrs Peyton of words spolccn during her courtship, which she supposed no one knew but her husband and herself. It seems highly probable he w ill I c able to establish his identity, incredible as it may appear. The principal evidence in his favor is that iurnishedby several marks and scars on his person, and this is unimpeachf.ble. 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 Ajrkofan American shield on his right arm. The shield is there. On his left arm an anchor. Anchor there, but elongated. Peyton had also a very curious scar on one of his finger 3 , 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 te 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 of that that finger,whileyouand mother weredressing it one day? And do you recollect how I came to you one day to know what would taVe tho inflammation out of my arm where I was tattooed by Jim Bayne, the sailor ? " The old doctor remembered too well how sore Willis Peyton*s arm was, and the circumstance of his fainting ones from the dressing of his sore finger. Another evidence that the claimant is the Simon-pure Willis Peyton is that he singles out men who do not him, calling them by name, and reminding them of incidents of a former acquaintance that leave no doubt in their minds as io 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. Phe has told her friends that if he really is Peyton, he may have the farm, stock and everything but herself 1 Sometimes during the trial he implores her to look again and see if she cannot recognise 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 recognise him.—St. Louis Eepub* lican.