His Other Wife: A Novel — page 349: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

MISTAKEN IDENTITY. 341 substantiated the evidence given in favor of the prisoner. There seemed no shadow of doubt remaining as to a mis- taken identity. It was impossible that Mathew Croft, the preacher and the husband of Rachel Croft, could be one with Mathew Croft, the merchant and lawyer, who was clearly proved to have been a man of fair repute, residing in distant States during the periods specified as those which concerned the crime for which the prisoner was on trial. It remained now to ascertain by some test which of the two Mathew Crofts the prisoner at the bar really was. Mr. Craig rose and requested permission to put a ques- tion to the two witnesses for the defense. Josiah Williams resumed the stand. ‘‘Mr. Williams, are you aware of any personal pe- culiarity or physical trait by which you could designate the person to whom your testimony refers?” _ ‘*None beyond his general appearance, which seems to me sufficiently marked for any man of ordinary percep- tions to swear to with confidence. J am here on oath to declare that the man in the dock is the identical Mathew Croft to whom my testimony refers.” | Mr. Wilson was again interrogated. He said, with an air of sarcastic impatience : ‘Having been intimately and kindly associated with a man of Mr. Croft’s uncommon personal abilities and char- acteristics fora number of years, it seems a little absurd to suppose that I can have the least doubt about his identity, or that I should require an ‘ear-mark’ to designate him.” Gomicbooks:co mM