The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-19


up to date, and when man is honorabiy
discharged his card is destroyed. When
a man deserts or commits any other mill
tary offense, the commander of the post
at which he is stationed forwards his
name to the department, and his card Is
removed from the alphabetical files.
The mans name is then lost sight Of
entirely, and his card is classified in
criminal 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 a card is filed in the proper file for
each scar. A man with prominent scars
on his right foot, his left cheek, and his
left arm, would have a card filed in each
section. These files are known as "unde-
sirable men,
When a 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 UNI
desirable men, according to his most
he is wanted, he is seldom captured if he
does not re-enlist. When he re-enlists he
naturally presents himself in a strange
recruiting office under an alias. He is
enlisted and examined as are all new re-
cruits, and his Identification card is for
warded to the department. AS the card
of the current recruits reach the Office
sometimes at the rate of twenty per day.
they are examined by a corps of clerks
for their most prominent scar. This scar
is marked with a circle of red ink, and the
card is compared with a circle of red ink
and the card is compared with the cards
on file of the criminals with scars in an
identical location. If the card does not
show identical scars with any of the
criminals cards, it is filed alphabetically,
but if it shows one identical scar with the
card of a criminal, all the other scars are
compared with the criminals card and
If a 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 twenty-four
hours.
Charles Smart, U. S. A, are, in fact, the
military detectives. They never leave
their desks in the hottest pursuit of sus-
pected military criminals, but the system
has never failed in any case.
1t is estimated that three per cent Of
all the recruits enlsting since the organ
ization 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 a combination Of
marks. Some men have only six or seven
dlStlnct permanent marks and others
have as high as sixty. White men gener-
ally have more than negroes, because a
slight scar will not show prominently on
a negro. Some criminals have tried to
get back because they had no other marks
than moleS, but they were captured The
importance of the moles was not fully
appreciated by the recruiting surgeons
When the bureau started, and when one
OF them was reminded by the department
that he had not sufficiently described q
mole, he re-examined the man. and meas
Mred the mole to the sixteenth on an inch.
Iattoo marks have been used against
men very often. criminal recently cap
tured by t2ttoOed flag on his arm pro-
tested his innocence and denied his iden-
tlty during the trial on the ground that
the first time he was in the army he had
only star on his arm. After he was con-
yicted he confessed that he was the man.
and had built the flag around the star
using the star for the field of the flag
put ms lngenlously enlarged tattooing
dl9 not deceive the department.
PROBABLY the most novel case in the ar
chlveS OF the bureau is that of man who
served in Florida in a cavalry company
with a deserter. He was honorably dis
charged from the service, and in about
year ne enlisted at a strange recruiting
ONCE in the west and claimed to be thei
deserter. He was tried before a court mar
tlai, pleaded guilty, and was sent to the
military penitentiary for three years. When
he had been in prison a year he wrote to
the department and confessed that he was
not the deserter that he had pretended
to be. He said he was desperate, and be-
ing pressed by hunger he resolved to go
to prison, where he could get food He told
OF prominent scar on the deserter whom
he pretended to be, by which that man
could not be mistaken. and when card
was made out for him and compared with
the card or the deserter the diSSimilarity
IN their sears was SO great that it was
conclusiVely proved he was not the de-
serter, and he was released.
Before the establishment of the bureau
it was common for men to enlist when
they were hungry or sick, knowing they
would be fed and get hospital service and
desert almost Immediately. But the GER
tainty with which these deserters are cap
tured now put an end to that. Recently
a man enlisted three times and deserted
twice in three days before his card could
be forwarded to the Office and compared
but on the third enlistment he was cap
tured and sent to prison for four years.
The crimes for which a man gets fifteen
days in the police courts he will get three
or four years for by a court martial
1t is not likely that any innocent new
recruit has ever been imprisoned because
his scars were identical with those of some
criminal, but every recruit is suspected OF
being a criminal, and his card is put
through the closest scrutiny on reaching
the Office. Two different men have never
been found to bear identical marks, ana
in every case where cards have been Tor
warCEad to a post for the arrest of man
they have represented the man suspected.
These men, like civil criminals, for many
Of them have records in criminal history
assume various aliases, but the depart
ment ignores names entirely, and IN ths
army there is nothing in a name Wien d
man becomes undesirable.
The grave of Grimaldi the great En-
glish clown, is in St. James church yard,
fzrfr~ al