Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-06
It May Soon Be in More
General Use.
ENSUING BENEFITS
WHY NEW YORK CITY HAS
TAKEN THE LEAD.
Men Can Be Better Trusted When
Their Identity Can Be Thorough
" Established.

Copyright, 1902, by John Elfreth Watkins, Jr.)
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
NEW YORK CITY December 4, 1902.
Every law-abiding citizen will soon find 1t
to his advantage to be measured and photo
graphed by the Bertillon system, now ap-
piled only to crooks Banks, insurance
companies. railroads and corporations en-
ploying large forces of men. besides NUM-
cipalities will demand this means of ideni-
fication. said criminologist of information
al reputation a day or two ago.
That there is logic at the root of this
prophecy was just demonstrated by the mu-
nicipaI civil service commissions action in
adopting the Bertillon system in order to
insure the Identity of any employee Of the
great metropolis.
There is much food for thought in this
prediction that men will soon be clamoring
for a treatment from which they have
shrunk most heartily. hitherto.
Day by day this vast world of ours is be-
coming more and more of maze OF con-
fusion. It's billion and half inhabit-
ants are becoming more and more thor
oughly shuffied-like huge deck of cards
year by year. Inventions which abrdge
distance. while enabling tho known crimi-
nal to be more thoroughly watched have at
the same time enabled the unsupported
lawbreaker and the behaving element of
society to lose their identities whenever
they so will.
When a municipality demonstrates that
1t can better trust men whose positive
Identification 1t holds ready, at it's fingers
ends, it is safe to say that other great cor
porations will see the wisdom of throwing
like safeguards about themselves.
Garry Your Identity With You.
Ability to carry ones identity in his in
side pocket wherever he might go would be
. godsend to the average law-abiding citi-
zen. To be able to present ones check at
any bank in any city away from home
would mean the saving of much trouble and
expense The assurance that death and
humiliation In any strange place would not
result in burial in an unmarked grave of
some potter's field would be at least COM
fortng In fact, the benefit of such a
scheme would appear to be mutual in all
honest intercourse between men.
Insurance companies would be guaran-
iced greater safeguards were all the pa
Irons possessed of Bertillon Identification
cards duplicates of which were filed in the
central office of the company. Agents of
companies would then have no difficulty in
identifying corpses of patrons. and the
chances of fraudulent substitution would
be nil. Railroads would find simple so1u-
.tfon of the scalper problem in the system.
while 1t would prevent the pass-lending evil
absolutely.
|
|tropolis was prompted to have all city en-
ployes Bertillonized by the discovery that
twenty members of the STRENGTHENING de-
partment had sold their employment cards
ito outsiders-many of them non-citiZens
These outsiders continued to work not only
In the white uniforms. but under the names
of their predecessors.
The Bertillonizing Process.
1t does not hurt at all to be Bertilonized
although all subject to the process hitherto
have fiinched more or less. In fact, the
average "rogues' gallery boasts OF photo
graphs showing men and even women
struggling mady with the restrainers dur
ling the operation. But throughout 1t is an
innocent and harmless procedure. The
Ilength and breadth of the head are deter
mined by a pair Of calipers made heavier
and with ends more blunt than are calipers
lin general. Perhaps the taking of these
two dimensions of the dome of thought ap-
proaches the disagreeable more than any
other part of the operation. Even among
honest men there appears to be an instinct
live aversion to the sensation OF cold steel
against the flesh, especially when 1t Is in
the hands Of another. The length of the
foot forearm and two of the fingers Is de-
termined by aid OF a caliper-rule. such as
shoemakers use in planning the dimensions
Of boots made to order" And when 1t
comes to measuring your sitting or stand
ing height square made of wood is
Drought down upon the crown Of your head.
XItS vertical SIDE Delng nat against the wall,
where the scale Is marked. Then to find
your arm reach the operative places you
standing with your back to the wall and
with arms extended horizontally. Anthro-
value in identification because of the power
Of the subject to stretch his arms when
they in this position.
The Mirror Photographed.
The individual Identification card. made
according to the Bertillon system, would
contain two Photographic views Of the face
lone front and the other profile. American
Bertillon operators make the two views Of
the face In separate exposures. requiring a
change Of the subjects position. In Scot
land Yard, London, this posing before the
camera is much simpified by mirror de-
vice. held at an angle alongside the sub
|1ect's head. Thus are simultaneously OBJ
tained at a single snap of the shutter the
two distinct Views. front and profile.
The German Bertillon cards contain also
the finger prints OF criminals, impressed
upon the margin OF the card, below the
photographs.
Bertillon cards are classified according to
head lengths and subclassified, first. ac
c0rding to head widths: second, lengths OF
middle finger. etc. Duplicate cards are
classified according to names and aliases
Uncle Sans Spotting Cards
The federal government has foreseen the
departments Already there is one in the
Post ONCE Department. maintained as
protection to the mails In the Treasury
Department is another, operated In connec-
tion with the secret service bureau. A
third. In the Department of Justice, keeps
track OF federal offenders. The identihca-
zion cards Of these three bureaus are all
made according to the Bertillon system
but the War Department maintains a
fourth federal Identification bureau, In
which an entirely different system prevails
This Is operated mainly as safeguard
against desertion from the army. Contrary
10 the Bertillon practices. each enlisted
man is stripped to his hide, while all moles
marks, blemishes or abnormalities are en-
tered upon outline diagrams OF the nude
human form In two views, front and back.
No photographs are taken.
The Bertilon system Identifies men pri-
mariy by the bony structure of their
bodies-which cannot be altered at will
whereas the War Departments system de-
ponds principally upon the marks found
IN the skin.
The pension office at Washington would
Ind many safeguards in the Bertilon sys-
Eem. Men are frequently found to be pass
ing as deceased pensioners and to be draw
Ing the government remittanees under the
Head mems names. The State Department
would likewise simplify the passport sys-
tam by including an Identification card in