Not Barbour's Boy

Chicago, Bec. :0. - To be lifted froin the rery depths oí hopeless and helpless depair and anguish to the highest concelvable pinnacle of ineffable joy was the transition which feil to tho lot of William H. Barbour. The place was the somber, mournful room of an undertaker's establisliment. Mr. Barbour was sitting at the head of a corpse which he had identified as tliat of his 17-year-okl son, murdered at Pana, Hls., a few days ago. The father was weeping- lost in grief which his friends were trying to assuage, fruitlessly ; the stricken mother was on her way to the morgue, and the scène in its every detail was as pathetic as could be, whon the door oponed and the young man that was thought to be dead strode into the room. The two - he that lay dead before the palo face of the father and he that came, f uil of lifc - were In appearance twin brothers. Had lïi'.-n missing Sinoe Thankegiving. Mr. Barbour looked up into the face of the boy who was spi'inging lightly toward Sim. The look was followed by a leap ind the fathor feil apon tho neck of the poung man, unable to utter a word. ïhe jhange from tlie one powerful emotion to the other was more thnu oould be borne, aud so parent and child embraced sach other in silence. Thus ended, and happily, whut has been one of the most curlous cases of mistaken identity on record. George Barbour - that is the name of the young nmn - left his home at 367 Wabash avenue on the evening before Thanksgiving day and was not heard of until Saturday,when, as they believed.his parènts found out that he had been murdered near Pana. Mr. Barbour, the father, is a Pullman conductor, and runs between Chicago and Los Angeles, Cal. Fortunately it chanced that he was at home when the discovery of the murdered boy's body was made at Pana Saturday. Thither he went at once and liad no trouble whatever in klentifying the body as that of his 17-year-old son. A l.issun in Idcnl Iflcation. And as lt iippears, there was every reason for this identification. The dead boy was of the samo size and complexion as George Barbour. There were some inarks on the body that were similar to those on Mr. Barbour' s son - especially tattoo marks of the letters "A. L. B." on the forearm, the initials of a sister, which George hai) worked into his skin some time before his disappoarance. And then the features themselves left no doubt in the sorrowing parent's mind that it was his son who lay dead before Mm. It was to this effeel that Mr. Barbour telegraphed his wifc ai the family residence, 367 Wabash avenue. On the other hand young men who had worked with George and knew him well did not believe it was George. "Best Oltizeni" Should Take Xotlce. Altogether the case is one to throw doub upon almost auy kind of evidence and one especially to be eonsidered by thost "bes citizens" who like to show their citizen shlp by outraglng the laws they them selves are plartly responsible for - the eve ready lynchers. A man named Cummings was arrested at East St. Louis and th dispatches stated would have been lynched if he had be taken to Pana - which he wasn't. Even as late as Tuesday Cum mings was pronounced by dispatches from Pana as "beyond doubt tho same man seen with young Barbour in Pana early Saturday morning. and is also the supposed murderer." All of which is some what interesting in view of later new from that, thriving town.