CURIOUS CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9711, 5 January 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

CURIOUS CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY.

RETURN OF A SUPPOSED SUICIDE. A curious incident occurred in Paris the other Sunday, in connection with the discovery of the body of a suicide, who had thrown himself into the Seine. The body had been dragged on shore close to the Pont d'Alma, and the Police Commissary had arrived, when a man in the little crowd of spectators approached and, after attentively examining the dead man's features, declared he recognised the deceased as the husband of the concierge of a house in Rue de Chaillot. He declared that there could be no possible doubt about it, as, living close by, he knew him perfectly well. The suicide was a good fellow, who had, however, the failing of indulging too much in drink, and he thought ib quite possible ho might, in a state of intoxication, have thrown himself into the river. In presence of these declarations the Police Commissary had the supposed widow and her daughter warned with all due precaution of the death of her husband, and then had the body conveyed to the Rue de Chaillot. . The concierge and her daughter received ib with all the signs of deep grief befitting the sad occasion. The body was laid out on the bed, previously provided with a pair of the very best linen sheets ; wax candles were lighted, the holy water with the palm leaf had been fetched from the neighbouring church, and tho woman and her daughter were praying at the bedside when the »on came in. He was less sure of the corpse being that of his father, and to sot his doubts at rest ran post haste to the workshop where his father was employed. Rushing into the shop, and seeing his father at work, he threw himself, sobbing for joy, into his parent's arms. When the worthy fellow at last learned that a corpie, believed to be his, had been placed in his bed he flew into a rage, and running home as fast as possible, tore the sheets off the bed, and would have thrown the dead body out of the window into the street if the Police Commissary had nob at once had it conveyed to the morgue.