Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1893-04-08
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

! A CHICAGO police officer has a new
| plan for the Identification Of criminals as
al aid to arrest, which h has submitted
to the local department for consideration.
At present, he explains, when a robbery
is committed and the victim notifies the
police, he is asked to give a description
of the robber He does it. and de-
scription something after this fashion is
sent out: "Look out for and arrest
man about twenty-five years old, five
feet eight or nine inches tall stout built;
weighs 10 pounds; dark hair. sallow
complexion, long features; wore light
overcoat and dark suit As there are
thousands of persons answering this de-
scription in Chicago, it helps the police
but little. Under the system proposed,
every local station would be furnished
with plates of proics and features of
the human face, only prominent types
being shown. One plate would be OF
the lines of the eyes and eyebrows
Another would give types of noses, and
in like manner mouths and ears, boards
and moustaches would be illustrated.
The plates and the cuts in each would
be numbered, and when anybody who
had been robbed or assaulted, or was
witness to crime, called to give de-
scrlption of the perpetrator, the officer
in charge would show him the diagrams,
so to speak, of human features, and if he
remembered the criminals face the CORE
spending cuts might be designated by
him. A telegraphic direction to the
police stations would then read some
thing like this: "Arrest for robbery
Plate 1, No. 81 plate ., MOL; plate 3,
No. 5, etc. ''Of course" says the in
ventor, ''there would be mistakes, but |
claim that there would be fewer than
under the present system of written de-
scriptions If man is competent to
give description at all, he is competent
to give it under my system. Just as
much as photograph excels written
description for purposes of Identification,
! just SO much does my system excel that
at present in vogue | believe the Ber-
tillon system to be the best system for
identifying criminals after they have
once been caught, but believe mine is
the best for catching them"
The British foreign Office has been
somewhat perturbed by an incident
which recently occurred in St. Peters
burg, and which, strange to say, has not
yet been reported in the English news
papers, although it has been discussed
in the diplomatic circles of every Euro
pean capital. 1t happened that at one
of the great court fetes given in honor of
the Emir of BOkhara, q central Assam
potentate who is more than suspected of
carrying on intrigncs against the English
in India and Afghanstan, the grand
master of ceremonies, by accident or de-
sign, placed Sir Robert Morier, the Brit
! ish ambassador, Immediately after the
emir, whereupon Sir Robert bounced in
dignantly out of the room, saying that
the representative of the empress of
India could not possibly give precedence
to third-rate Asiatic prince, who was
also a vassal of the car On being in
formed of this the car sent this message
to the ambassador: ellis excelency
forgets that the emr is our guest, and
that we are accustomed to treat our
vassals with a courtesy which the Eng
lish are not in the habit of extending to
theirs" Since then the emir has had his
revenge by concluding treaty of com
merce with Russia which will exclude
, India from the central Asian markets.
SOUTHERN family names are scattered
across the country, below Mason and
DiXon's line from st to west in what
biologists would perhaps call a drift.
AS the West began to be settled by
people from the colonial seacoast fringe,
emigration tended to 90 in straight
lines, so that the names of the Virginia
seacoast appear in Kentucky, those of
North Carolina in Tennessee, those of
South Carolina along with Oglethorpe's
cockneys in Georgia. Later the drift
swept westward into Arkansas, Missis-
sippi, and Texas. In the progress names
Flemish names have lost the ivan" or
de Huguenot names, whether
Flemish or pure French, have been awk-
wardly Anglicized. and even English
names have suffered violent change.
THERE were ,66j miles of street
railways in operation in this country at
the close of last year, comprising 5,039
miles of electric roads, 4, AGO miles OF
horse roads, GAG miles cable, and 62O
miles steam. The mileage of electric
roads increased 1878 miles during the
year, while there was decrease of $40
in the number of miles operated by horse
power, and also decrease of % miles in
steam car lines. Fifty-two miles of new
cable rad were built during the year
hese figures show how largely cleo.
tricity is superseding other power fol
street car traction on lines already built,
as well as the great actual growth of new
electric roads. The number OF street
cars in use in the United States is stat ID
to be 80. 400, when is almost 49, coo in
excess of the number of passenger car,
in use on the regular steam railroads.
THE people of Rhode island are NOV
ing in the matter of raising funds fo
the erection of monument to the In
dian chief Massasoit. At an entertain
ment in aid of the fund in Warren the
other evening Governor Brown delivered
nm address in which he said Of the grea
aachem: AT the critical moment in the