The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-01-25
MILITARY DETECTIVES.
How Deserters are Caught.
A System of Identification Which Has
Never Failed.
(From the Washington Post. J


The war department. has a very inter-
esting way uf capturing deserters from
the army. About six years ago Congress
e. tablished military detective bureau
under the surgeon general for the deSec-
ton and capture of deserters and other
military criminals. Before that time de-
sertions were every frequent, and there
were many criminals in this country who
used the service as place Of temporary
refuge when they were pursued by detec-
tiycs for crimes. The army uniform and
the schedule life Of post afforded them
protection which they could not obtain
while doc gng around the country AS it
would have been an expensive and I'M
satisfactory meth cd for the government
to pursue these deserters by the usual de-
tectivssmethods, the surgeon-general was
authorized to esta blish scheme to cap
turs 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, AMI surgeons of recruiting
stations were furnished Identification
cards bearing the outlines of an anatomi-
cal man. The cards are about eight
inches square, and the outlined figure Of
the man is printed on both Sides One
side shows front view of the figure,
with the hands and arms straight down
at the sides, and the other shows the rear
figure. Blank spaces are provided for
the mans name, age, height, nationality
color of his eyes, and a few minor ques-
tions that might assist in identifying
him. The back and front views OF the
figure are divided into 81 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
and in three years from the time the
soheme..was put into operation there was
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 q
man deserts or commits any other mill
tary offense, the commander of the post
at which he ia stationed forwards his
name to the department.. and his card is
removed from tine alphabetical files.
The mans name is then lost sight OF.
entirely, and his card is classified in a
criminal file by the section in which his
most prominent scar is located. II 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,
ana card is filed in the proper file for
each soar. A man with prominent scars
on his right foot, his left cheek and his
left arm, would have card filed in eaoh
section. These files are known as "un-
desirable men,
When u man deserts, ali 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
undesirable men. according to his most
prominent scar. No matter how much
he is wanted, he is seldom captured if he
does not re-enlist. When he re-snlisss he
naturally presents himself in strange
enlisted and examined as are all new re-
cruits, and his identification card is for
warded to the department As the cards
of the current recruits reach tho Office
sometimes at the rate OF 90 per day, they
are examined by corps of clerks for
their most prominent scar. This soar is
marked with q circle of red ink, aud the
card 10 compared with the cards on file
OF the criminals with sears In an identi-
cal location. II the card does not show
identfeal soars with any of the criminals
cards. 1t Is filed alphabetically, but if it
shows one Identical scar with the card Of
q criminal, all the other scars are COM
pared with the criminals cards, and if
sufficient similarity between the two
cards can be traced the new recruit will
find himself under arrest by order Of the
surgeon-general in less than "a hours.
The clerks doing this work, under Dr.
Charles Smart, United States army, are
in fact, the military deteo tives. They
never leave their desks in the hottest pur-
suit of suspected military criminals, but
the system has never failed in any case.
bIt is estimated that per cent of all the
recruits enllsting since the organization
Of the bureau have proved to be previous
military criminals, and many of them
have been sent to Fort Leavenworth, the
military penitentiary. 1t is not by any
particular class of marks that they are
captured. but by combination OF marks
Some men have only six or seven distinct
permanent marks, and others have as
high as go. White men generally have
more than negroes, because slight soar
will not show prominently on negro.
Some criminals have tried to get back
because thsy had no other marks than
moles. but they were captured. The i'm
portance of thesmoles was not fully ap-
preciated by the recruiting surgeons
when the bureau started, and when one
of them was reminded by the depart
ment THAT he had not sufficiently de-
scribed mole, he re-e1amined the man,
and measured the mole to the 10Th of an
inch. Tattoo marks have been used