Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-04-24
How the War Department Detects De-
serters.

The war department has a very inter
esting way of capturing deserters from the
army. About six years ago Congress es
tablished military detective bureau under
the surgeon general for the detection and
capture of deserters and other military
criminals. AS it would have been an eX-
pensive and unsatisfactory method for the
government to pursue these deserters by
the usual detective methods, the surgeon
general was authorized to establish
scheme to capture them otherwise.
The idea was conceived that all these
men were likely to have permanent marks
on their body by which they could be
identified, and surgeons of recruiting sta
tions were furnished identification cards
bearing the outlines of an anatomical man.
The cards are about eight inches square,
and the outlined figure of the man is print
ed on both sides. One side shows front
view of the figure, with hands and arms
straight down at the sides, and the other
shows the rear figure. The back and front
views of the figure are divided into fifty
eight sections.
When man shows up to recruit, the
surgeon strips him and subjects him to a
scrutiny for scars, moles, tattooings, and
other permanent marks on his body. He
indicates the nature of any marks he may
find on one of these cards with ink, and in
three years from the time the scheme was
put in operation there was a card on file
for every enlisted man in the service. The
file has since been kept up to date, and
when man is honorably discharged his
card is destroyed. When a man deserts or
commits any other military offence, the
| commander of the post at which he is sta
toned forwards his name to the depart
ment, and his card is removed from the
alphabetical files.
The mans name is then lost sight of en-
tirely, and his card is classified in a crimi-
nal file by the section in which his most
prominent scar is located If his most
prominent scar is on his right foot, his
card is placed in the right foot file. If he
has several large scars in different sections,
duplicate cards are made out and card is
filed in the proper file for each scar.
When man deserts, all the attention
the bureau gives to him is to file his card,
after his name has been forwarded by the
commander of his post, with the undeslra-
BILE men, according to his most prominent
scar. No matter how much he is wanted,
he is seldom captured if he does not reGn-
list. When he reGnlists, he naturally pre-
SCENTS himself in a strange recruiting Office
under an alias. He is enlisted and exam
ined as all new recruits, and his Identified
ton card is forwarded to the department.
AS the cards of the current recruits reach
the office, sometimes at the rate of twenty
per day, they are examined by score of
clerks for their most prominent scar. This
scar is marked with a circle of red ink and
the card is compared with the cards on
file of criminals with scars in an identical
location. If the card does not show iden-
tical scars with any of the criminals cards,
it is filed alphabetically, but if it shows
one Identical scar with the card of a Grim
inal, all the other scars are compared with
the criminals card, and if a sufficient sim
ilarity between the two cards can be traced,
the new recruit will find himself under ar
rest by order of the surgeon-general in
less than twenty-four hours Washington
Post