COINCIDENCES.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—There have been some remarkable letters on this subject in the Spectator lately, and if you think fit I should like to mention a coincidence which in some respects seems beyond anything your correspondents have noted. Some years ago I was vicar of a large town parish. On a Saturday morning a tall, rather good-looking man was introduced into my study. He said he was a schoolmaster who had received an appointment in a town forty miles away, and that if he could not begin work there on Monday morning he would lose the place. He needed 30s. to get himself and family there, and was without funds. He showed me his certificates, &c. I will call him J. L. Robinson. He told me he had formerly been a master in a well-known school in my city, the Head-Master of which may be called Brown. I was busy, and bothered by his presence, so I purchased his absence with 5s. Two days afterwards I saw him in the street, but was in a hurry, and could not stop to speak to him. I happened to see her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, and asked him about J. L. Robinson, of whom he gave a bad, character. I saw him again, and again had not time to stop.
1 saw him, as I believed, for the third time, and stopped.
him. " What do you mean," I said, "by getting 5s. out of me on false pretences ? " The man stared at me, and said he never saw me before. " What ?" I said, " is not your name Robinson ? "—" It is," he answered.—" J. Robinson ?" I said.—He assented.—" And you were once assistant to Mr. Brown here ? "—" I was," he said.—" And," I said, "you mean to say you were not in my study last Saturday, and got 5e. from me ?" The man flew into a rage, rushed into a shop,. and asked the man inside, " Who is this ? " pointing at me.— "Well, Sir," was the reply, " we all know that gentleman," but he did not give my name. Inconceivable as it seemed, I saw that it was a case of mistaken identity. I will not trouble you with farther details; but here were—(I) the same surname; (2) one of the initials of the Christian names the same; (3) the fact that both had been assistants in the same school; (4) sufficient likeness to make me think I had dis- covered my impostor in the person of a thoroughly respect- able man. What would be the mathematical probability in favour of such a thing as this 1)-1 am, Sir, &c.,
Barking Rectory, Suffolk, July 13th. JAMES WILSON.
Previous page
