Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1902-01-23
MARKS THAT BETRAY
IT is RATHER HARD FOR ONE TO
CONCEAL ONES IDENTITY.


Detectives Helped by Trivial Distin-
gushing signs - Your Eye, Your
Finger Nails, Your Clothes or Your
Build May Reveal You.
Everybody carries about with him
many trivial distinguishing marks by
means OF which n shrewd detective can
discover his identity. Take the matter
of clothes. Most men get all their cloth
ing from the same tailor, but whether
one does or not and however careful he
may be 10 cut off every tag and mark
the tailor who made the clothes can
identify them. Thread, stitching, but
tons. linings-all tell their own tale.
More especially do those extras which
the tailoys call specials" These are the
extra pockets. fountain pen or pencil
pockets, eyeglass pockets. watch pock-
cts lined with wash leather, cigar, tick
ct, flask and inner waistcoat pockets.
1t viii be remembered that 1t was by
means of 4 trousers button that the
identity OF Norcross. the man who tried
to blow up Russell Sage. was discov-
cred.
Then your finger nails are liable to
bC,.r yoJ. Any manicure will tell you
ll.at il takes between 100 and l3O days
for new iager nail TO grow upon the
hand of a n.an IN ordinary health, ac-
co.U ~ to his age. The nail growing
qU-.l.Vr on tie young and slower on the
Old. - a&y lrC.sC or other n.ark re-
ceired Oh Lie wG.te crescent at the base
Of thc Lail sill take nearly four months
to Il sapg1a.
Ii WIS ., Ecowledge OF this fact that
enabled u detective to arrest the forger
s. pson II Paris some tine ago. He
learned fium Simpsons landlord in
Bristol that window had fallen upon
the mans ,and and bruised lis thumb
soIic iilnc il she Grst week OF Ma: ch.
a few days laet0re he disa pacared
-Four mon hs later. when the dctec.
tive met SlGpson in Paris. the black
spot was jCSt disappearing from the Zip
Of the thumb nail. 1t was the only
means of identification, for Simpson, by
shaving his head and dressing like n
priest. haol absolutely changed his ap.
pearance.
Sometime ago criminal was brought
to justice by tie testimony of his own
watch, one which he had carried for
years. He was charged with murder,
and his defense was an alibi. which he
nearly proved. He said that he had not
been near tie scene of the murder for
three months, and no testimony could
be produced that he was not telling the
truth until one of the detectives who at
one time had been jewelers. appren-
tice happened to look at the mans
watch.
Inside the watch case, written In
signs that only n matchmaker could
read, was the evidence that the time
piece had been in the hands of re-
pairer of watches the day before the
murder. With the watch in his hands
the detective visited the town near
which the murder had been committed
and went around from one jewelers.
shop to another until he found watch
maker who recognized the timepiece as
one in which he had put new main
spring on the day preceding the mur-
der. Thus the alibi was broken down,
and the prisoner finally made full con-
fession.
Again, only one man in 215 Is not
lopsided and badly put together. Many
Il man who is n fine athlete and in
splendid physical health wouh be
amazed to find how unevenly he Is
made up il he should undergo the test
of measuring tape. Either one arm
or one leg is longer than the other, one
shoulder higher than the other, or, still
more frequently, the eyes are not the
same or placed In the head In exactly
the same way.
People have been identified by the
fact that the pupil of one eye was lar
ger than that of the other. The nose Is
very seldom exactly straight, but
swerves little to the right or left.
though the defect Is not noticeable to
the ordinary observer. Above all, man
wLo is starting out on n criminal career
should never go to Dentist. The filling
of the teeth is n sure record, and even
If the criminal has all his teeth pulled
his false teeth will be as sure means
of Identification.