Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-25
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dawn the mugger, like the policeman and
the soldier, must remain a necessary evil.
The "mugGers" studio is not much
given up 70 scenic effects and chairs with
high backs richly carved The plainest
kind OF background sufficcs. and the
chair sometimes has no back at all. 1t
is the man that is wanted. and nothing
more and the quicker the mugsing the
better :or the mugger, the mugged and
the latter's mug. The very latest inven-
ton foc facilitating matters is the mirror
attachment which enables the artist to
take al one shot the two viewS-front and
required by the Bertillon system.
In some mugging studios they use the
old fashioned head-rest-the pronged con
trivance which catches YOU back of the
ears. This is Il great convenience where
tine sitter is a little unsteady in the
spine.
\ skiilful ''muGSer' is seldom out of a
job. Indeed. there has been great de
mand for these artists since the army.
some months ago took it into its head
to mug all our soldiers-gocd bad and
mathematician Geserters might be more
easily caught. And now all CT cur Chi
nese laborers must be ''musged" and
Bertilloned before visiting their native
land on leave to return.
The largest collection of mugs in the
country is to be found in the interna-
tional bureau of identification at Wash
ington where men wanted in all parts of
the world are traced. Here is kept not
q gallery. but. card catalogue-a vast
collection of thousands of squares of
pasteboard. each containing two photo
graphs and measurements of criminal.
Now doesn't the question occur to you
how can they find criminal in this in
dex when he never gives his right name.
That brings right up to the keynote
of the whole Bertillon proposition. It's cat
alogue of the weaker brotherhood and sis
terhood is not indeSed by names at all
but by head lengths. But suppose you
have lot of criminals with heads the
same length. exactly? Well. you will
find these subdivided by head widths. and
where the same length and width run to-
gether there are the length of the arm.
middle finger. foot. trunk. etc. to fall
back on. So in reaching for a mans rec
ord the superintendent of the interna-
tional bureau first places his card In its
proper place-so far measurements are
concerned. Then he compares the pho
tographs pasted on it with those on 9th
ers with measurements very nearly cor
responding
Crooks tricks to foil the "mugger'' are
illustrated by many interesting exhibits
in this mammoth catalogue. For exam
pie. there are two cards representing the
same man. which show him with "A bad
forehead in the earlier and yet good
growth of hair in the later photograph.
he having shaved his top head prior to
his first crime to insure him against a
lifelike mug If arrested. And in the
later portrait the addition of a mustache
makes identified ton more difficult Hun
dreds of other sets of cards. each repre-
senting one person. arrested several
times. show the care which criminals take
to alter their appearances as they go
from Mace MACE nv adjoining different
modes OF wearing the hair. beard and
mustache. These pictures show how flu
tile it would be to depend for Identical
ton on them alone and without the meas