Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-13

ished surface or the SAFE door. ihere ~ q
right-hand thumb there are three
| fingers together s'
'sTfe prints of the safe-melter?" asked
yes" he replied, but of themselves
they would have been perfectly useless. he
had never passed through our Sc We've
possessed no record of his finger-pr nrs. NO,
here are the true tell-tafe prints. (And ne
showed me the enlarged prints of thumb
and some fingers. These were found on
the edge of a window glass which had been
cut by the burglars in making their entry
TO the premises. As they made the glass
opaque they stood out in distinct white
spots in the original photograph OF tnat
WALL
would you not have discovered them
otherwise?'I asked.
yes. probably he answered, 'but 1t
would have been more difficult and slower;
but besides, these photographs taken on
the morning after the burglary not only as
sured me that the prints were not maue
later by other parties. but they also sers e
as evidence. e These are the prints
of Leon. The safe-melter was simply furi-
Gus when he learned that Icons nnger-
marks had tripped them up.
I would never have gone into partner
ship with that scamp had L known tle
no;iee Possessed a record of him, he said
Iuekfly there were four right-hand pfdhts
on the window-glass, so l dlu nor nav ~
piece them out from scattered ana snuoseo
prints found here and there. Also they pno-
topranbed perfectly. Often one gets lndls-
tinct photographs from fess-faVorihB SUI
faces-even when the prints have peeii 80 "a
fully busted with white or black pow.
Once. however got beautiful four-hhee.
record from the back of a white -lacqueTeu
chair. 1T had been quite invisible, but the
black powder brought 1t out.
The Identification System.
/ knew. in a general way. that the PARIS
anfbropometrc service - photographins.
measuring and finger printing every arrest
ed nerson for years past-has now an ioen-
tihcation mill referring back to Soo,oVo per-
sons all over France, of whom some vo'oo"
renresent the adult male law-DreakefS VI q
fairly serious character. L KNEW H.
when n crook or simple professional pesS
or chronic drunk is brought TO theil' .h.
% ~, q beaI,tiful system of eliminatons.
narrow their card-catalogue lnVesusatt.UU.n
down. m either to zero, which means tno
marty is unknown, or CD to single eaio
which means; Thou art the man,
Ivhat seemed wonderful to me, however.
uas the reversing of the process-to iilu
the man from finger-print lnsteau VI i'N
ing the finger-print from the inaIi. 4,
II is extraordinary. He snoWeo me
80. ~ chart composed of their five types on
fnser prints with their subtypes; anu as ne
nointed out their licensees anu Lin ih,,
pesses I could see, for example, why
given print should ia. ran ~. rai eateeory.
"Ns fire did not make these deiicate ioo ls
n,bo,.,s especially for classification pS
60 ,-oweis" said M. Bertllloil, soe ny
t' "a So tvnes are unmistakaple, anu as
tba .e' and 81 types are always the Ies1.so
~ each other and can never De M. % tahT =,
for ~ or % types. the clasSlIcatiol -
solid We take the thumb anu his' LIZ
fnpers of the right hand.
"Suppose the marks on the Wlhao" e's'''
had been of the left hand! l shiu; Gov
~ would have been forced 10 LOOK ioi
others" o s,,,ars had
been lacking? .o,o+ad 9nser
marks. We regularly find the right manu-
thumb and first three fingers together
CAS- on this window glass;!
ives and the unknown maker or them
bacame Monsieur Eeuo for us at once
The thumb print was of the o type ana
the other fingers respectively in order OF
tba 20 ~ and 'e' types. We had, tnere-
fore to look for Monsieur Eeuo.
"Rut how. among 300, coo cards!
eve began with the 10000 serious male
adult law-breakers, leaving out, FOR exam
ME the mendicity or drunk sections. .
stBut even 10000 seems like a naystach.
'HThe cards bear projecting snip OF pa
per on their upper edges. 1t contains the
fnger-print name of the party The en-
ployes have only to run eyes ana ringers
over those projecting slips"
But there must be thousands OF your
'Messieurs Eeuo.
mo. How many permutat1ons and ar
rangements in tours can you make out OF
the letters e. 81 % and 'u'?" asked M
Bertillon. Remember, you may use each
letter four times or less or not at all.
1 figured it out. There seemed to be 206