SOME FACTS ABOUT TWINS

Taranaki Daily News, 20 October 1930, Page 11

SOME FACTS ABOUT TWINS

CURIOUS PSYCHIC SYMPATHIES

MANY SURPRISING IMILARITIES.

The announcement that Dr. James Thompson, Coatbridge, England, was engaged to Miss Elsie Harrop, of Hooton Hall, Rotherham, Yorkshire, whose twin sister is already married to Mr. James Thompson, of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, provides a remarkable, if not unique, example of twin sisters who think, act, and dress alike, having 'husbands with the same Christian names and surnames. But, apart from the romantic aspect of this matrimonial coincidence, the strange climax of such an extraordinary sequence of identical thoughts and actions as has been revealed makes a notable addition to the catalogue of amazing facts that are known concerning twins. Just recently an American professor made a study of the habits of twin children, with interesting results. His most striking discovery was that where, a pair of children are of the same sex and look alike they have a tendency to support each other. They are at their best in the presence of company when they are together. When separated they do not score so well, which would almost suggest that so great is their similarity and sympathy that one is not complete without the other. Where the twins are not of the same sex, or are not strongly alike in appearance, the effect, of sympathy between them is less' marked. “Some of the twins studied,” adds the professqr, ‘‘make a positive effort to be different from each other. This

true even of identical twins, who not only vary their dress, but, in the case of girls, the style of cosmetics and other variable features in an effort to, avoid the conventional conception of twins looking alike. And often they do remarkably well.” Cases were discovered where an intense rivalry amounting almost to hatred, had developed between twin,sisters who had found their personalities exercise a similar influence on one of the .opposite sex. A very different conception of the similarity of twin sisters is.given by Miss Elsie Harrop, who when interviewed on the subject, is reported to have said: —“Ever since we can remember, my sister Hilda and myself have thought the same thoughts and done the same things. When we were young-

er we both awoke trembling at the same nightmares. At school, where they allowed. us to sleep in the same bed, we found that our dreams were the same. When we got older and had boy friends we had great fun pretending thajt one was the other. Once a boy who kissed one of us tried to kiss the other later, and was surprised when his face was smacked. Another time we changed coats, and the boy went off with the other twin and never knew the difference. “Although we did not know at the time, our engagement rings are almost identical. We have always dressed alike, and even now, when-my sister is living at Chesterfield we find that we wear similar clothes. A little .while ago I bought a new coat, and when my sister next visited us we found that she had bought almost the same at about the same time. “A few days ago we learned that we (had started to make a rug at the same time, had both got tired of doing it at the same time, and had both taken up cross stitching ah the same time. “We both like shooting, riding, dancing, motoring, and tennis, and both dislike golf. Last summer, although we were many miles apart, we both decided to go to the same resort, stay at the same hotel, and do the same things. “My father could never tell us apart, and my brother used to call us both Elsie so ’that he would be sure to be right sometimes.” Some remarkable stories regarding the' identity of twins have been re-

corded. Just the other day it was reported in connection with the death of the twin grandsons of Sir Max Muspratt, a director of Imperial Chemical Industries, that when they were born a blue ribbon was tied round the wrist of the first born so that there should be no mistake as to the heir to the baronetcy. In this connection it may be noted that although there are many twins in the families of our nobility, they are rare in Royal families. Not many years ago a New York lady found it necessary to seek a dissolution of her marriage because her husband was a twin. Her life was made miserable by the fact that she frequently found herself addressing the brother who lived with them, in an endearing strain in mistake for her lord and master. The twinship also embarrassed her in various other ways, and there being such strong bond of sympathy between the twin brothers that they could not or would not live apart, the wife determined to leave her husband and return to her parents’ home. When the judge saw the twins in court, he was so much struck by the amazing resemblance between them that he at once granted the necessary order for the troubled wife to separate from her spouse.

A much happier state of affairs prevailed in a remarkable family in Witchita, Kansas. Two brothers (twins), so much alike that their most intimate friends constantly mistook one for the other, fell in love with twin sisters, and in order to avoid confusion they arranged to do their courting on different evenings. The two weddings took place at the same church at the same time, the brides being dressed alike, as were also the bridegrooms. The minister got a little mixed, but each of the contracting parties was satisfied that he or she got the right partner. In each household twins babies in due course arrived, and when one set visited the other there was no telling them apart. The visiting mother took home two babies, and if they did not happen to ■be the right ones, she comforted herself with the reflection that they were “all in the family, anyhow.”