Barbara-- True enough, Essex is the man whom Roxie boasts is the father of "Tom." But there's a notebook entry (sorry I don't have the source handy) showing that in an earlier conception of the story Twain planned to have PERcy Driscoll as the father of both his legitimate son and Chambers, the son of Roxy. This would make the indistinguishability between the two infants more realistically plausible. Why he veered away from this to have Essex as the father of Chambers is either beyond my recall or not known. --LH