The Dearman Mystery

'I liave hearJ of a great many cases of mistaken identit y," saiil au Ulster county lawyer to the New York Sun man. "but never of one quite as remarkable as that of John Dcarman of Oíd Huriey, irt my county. Ten years ago John Dearman marriod Katherine Crispell, a well-to-do farmer's daughter. Soon afterward he took to drink, and in time abused his wife shamefully. Five yoars ago she determined to have him arrosted for ill-treating her, but he disappeared before she carried out her intention. "Mrs. Dearman heard nothing of her husband after he went away, but a year or so later she read in a newspaper an account of the disco very of a body of a man in the Hudson river, near Newburg. The description of the drowned man was so much like that of her missing husband that she went to Xewburg to see if the body was his. She sïtowed to the eoroner, the physicians who had held the post mor tem. and to others who had seen the body a photograph of her husband, and everyone at once pronounced it that of the dead man, ■■ Mts. Dearman had the body disinterred in order that she might herself see the face and make sure that it was her husband. She recognized the body at once, and the further fact that the dead man had two front teeth missing, just as her husband had, made the identification the more positive. She removed the body to her home and had it reinterred. "A year or so ago Mrs. Dearman married John Branthover and removed with him to Albany, where they now live, prosperous and happy. One day last week, to the amazement of everybody who had known him, John Dearman, long supposed dead and buried, returned to Old Huriey. Th ere could be no mistake as to his identity. Too many circumstances proved that he was the true John Dearman. The story of his supposed drowning was told to him and the grave where it was believed he had boen lying these four years was shown to him. He also learned that his wife had remarried and had moved away and he said: " 'It's all right. I deserve it.' "Then he walleed away and hasn't been seen since. But who was the man who v.as drowned, identidad, and buried as John Dearman?"