The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1899-05-27
WHO ENLIST IN THO
ARMY OR NAVY.

The BertillOn System Keeps Many
of Them Out Nowadays and Leada
to the Arrest of Others-Unexl
pected Meetings of Hunted Men
and Pursuers on Board Ship-The
Hand of the Civil Law Reaches
* Far, But Has Often: Missed the
Military Establishments. ~--,-..
The Bertillon charts Of all the soldiers
and sailors, regulars and volunteers, In
" the American army and navy have been
good deal thumbed during the past
year by detectives. The charts are filed
away in the army and navy departments
and are open to the inspection of properly
accredited hunters of criminals. The de-
tectiVess have found the charts useful only
in the cases of such criminals as have en-
tered one of the services after having
been described by the Bertillon system
by the civil authorities. Mott much has
been said about the criminals who have
taken refuge from the law in the army or
navy, only to be. identified and appre-
hended by means of the Bertillon charts,
but a number of captures have been made
with the aid Of the charts, nevertheless.
1t has been observed by recruiting officers,
since the adoption of the Bertillon system
in the army and navy, that quite num-
Der of otherwise acceptable applicants
for enlistment have baked when they ar
rived at that point of the physical exam
ination at which the recruiting sergeant
began to make a chart of them The
recruiting officers have naturally cOmclud-
ed in such cases that the men have pos
of the same sort neatly fled away at
Bertillon systern-that they had been
criminals in civil life, in Shorthand have
abruptly told such men to put on their
clothes and get out of the recruiting Of
flee at once. There are no terrors in the
army and navy Bertillon chart except
for the applicant for enlistment who
knows that there Is another chart Of him
sesscd ample reason for dislikng the
some police headquarters.
The advantages of the military services
as hiding places have often been appre-
ciated and grasped by criminals of note.
The hand of the civil law reaches far,
but it has generally missed the military
establishments, says Washington letter
to the New York Sun. With the begin
nng of the Spanish-American war
shrewd detectives arrived at the knowl-
edge that the craftiest of evildoers prefer
the disguise of a uniform to the seclu-
sion of the remotest and presumably the
safest huddle of shacks dignified by the
name of a town. In some Of the coun-
tries of Europe the army has for centu-
ries been the refuge of lawbreakers.
When the French were at the height of
their endeavor to do business with the
Arabs at the edge of the sabre, the
French army in Algeria was the soft
spot made for by most Of the famous
French criminals. This thing wore out,
however. The French police became
firmly rooted to the habit when they
failed Immediately to apprehend a MUIR
derer for profit, of struggling their Shout
ders and murmuring ''Chasseurs d. Afri-
que" and when a considerable branch Of
the Paris police department was trans
ferred to Algiers, the assertions from the
ranks of the Chasseurs reached astonish-
ing figures.
In this country the disposition of crimi-
nails with an eye to safety has been to
join the navy, rather than the army.
Eight years ago the cashier Of one Of
the big real estate firms of San Francisco
went out to luncheon one day. After he
had been away for three days the men,
bers of the firm took a peek into his
books. They discovered that he was shy
matter of $4,000 in his accounts, which,
they further discovered, he had losc at
the races. The police system of the state
OF California was Immediately put into
operation, and the cooperation Of all the
other American police systems, and those
of Mexico and several South and Central
American countries, was requested. It
/ was thought that the fugitive had taken
one of the Panama boats and landed
at one of the minor ports of Central
America or Mexico. A detective went
down to those regions and came back a
month later with a black look on his
face Then it was figured that the alb
scOnder might have gone to Honolulu,
and thence to Japen. A favored detec-
1--WE was sent on this pleasure iunke4.
put ne mad no prisoner when he returned
| 10 San Francisco, looking brown and fat
lhen 1t was decided that the man was
~ ponce parlance a. w. g., otherwise a
! wise guy, and that his absence was liable
| to be prolonged.
| one of the younger members of the firm
happened TOUR or five months later to
| meet naval officer whom he knew al the
| bohemian club. The naval officer was at
! tached to cruiser then lying at the Mare
| I!siaIu navy yard. The naval officer in
! Vlteu the real estate man to run up to the
YARD and take luncheon with him aboard
ship, and this the man of business did
on the following Sunday lin the after
noon, after showing the real estate man
! the navy yard, the officer took him aboard
| the receiving ship Independence, to show
him how naval recruits are knocked into
| shape. The men on the Independence
l
| fine trercherman's duty at the long rows
| Of mess tables on the main deck OF the
Old, ho'lsed-OVer tub. It was the supper
hour. The officer and the real estate me-
| passed for and aft along the mess tables
! and as they did so there was a furry OF
| excitement at the gangway. There hac
! been a splash in the water when the
marine corporal at the gangway had hk
| back turned, and a bluejacket was seer
| swimming across the stream in the direc
ton of Vallejo, the town opposite the
yard. -,
"Man overboard!" was shouted all over
the cid frigate, and in jiffy the crew OF
| the steam cutter was in the boat and she
| had showed off to the rescue. The swim.
mer apparently did not want to be res
cued. He had almost made the Vallejo
| pier when the cutter pulled alongside OF
him, and he struggled furiously when the
coxswain and couple of seamen hauled
| him into the boat. He saw that the prop
| os.tion was too hard, however, when the
coxswain gave him a jab or two with the
| boathook. AID he stat still in the stern
sheets for the remainder of the trip across
to the 1ndependences gangway. The Of
| ficer and the real estate man stood on the
| platform at the top Of the gangway
| watching the scene
| "Some quarantined chap desperate tc
make liberty, propa'bly," said the OF
| ficer.
Then the steam cutter pulled alongside
| tbs gangway.
"Oh, guess not" said the real estate
man when he. had a: lock 1.-The counter
ance of the prisoner in the stern sheets OF
| the cutter. THAT'S our missing cashier
who did the firm to the tune of $50, 600
We've spent another $4,000 trying to
find him He must have seen me come
! aboard here and got scared
The man was taken to San Francisco
tried, and got a long term at San Quentin.