The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-04-23

sub-Statlons, and all, OF course, con-
nected telephonically with the Praesi-
dunn. The three main branches are
the departments designated Grimm
al dealing with ordinary crime;
security" dealing with insanitary,
iiItreatment of children, fire Incl
dents, and so on; and public morals"
which explains itself and covers a
range of immortality of which ordi-
nary mortals have not the faintest
idea.
Both the Bertillion anthropometric
system of bodily measurements and
the dactyloscOpical system of finger
prints were shown in operation with
the help of a convict temporarily re-
lieved from his daily task of doing
time" The finger-print system, We
were told comes from China where for
ages past the practice of signing agree
ments by using the ball of the thumb
as a seal has been known, and, ac-
cording to Commissioner Hoppe, will
in the near future supersede both the
anthropOmetric and Photographic
methods.
Not by any means the least interest
ing and appalling part of the visit was
an inspection of the criminal museum.
Hideous death-masks-in wax with
their gaping wounds: box contain
ing Nihilist bombs with clockwork to
explode them; trunk with two thick
tubes of compressed gas for driving a
safe-breaking drill: common walking
stick apparently. but so fashioned that
a pressure on the handle caused a
number Of murderous looking triangu-
lar blades to spring out along it's
length and suggest the appearance of
a swordfish-these were only a few
of the objects presented.
In spite OF the news which was re-
ceived from the antarctic regions
some three weeks ago, that a regular
race for the South Pole between Cap
tain Scott and Mr.. Road Amundsen
will take place in few months, Lieu
tenant Filschner of the Bavarian army
leader of the German antarctic eXpedi-
ton still thinks he has a good chance
of winning. When l saw him today he
said that there was room and glory
enough for several expeditions in the
frozen South and that he would start
as scheduled on May End.
After years of agitation the Prus-
sian government has introduced a bill
authorizing cremation as a substitute
for earth burial. Catholic Germany is
up in arms against the measure. Gre
nation, it declares, is un-Christian, for
the rule Of the church has always been
that the dead are to rest in their
graves till the Day of Judgment. How
is it in realty? The discussion has
ELECTED the fact that in the bulk of
German cemeteries the dead are not
allowed more than from fifteen to
twenty-five years of undisturbed re-
pose. The practice known as "Tur-
mus" is observed, which means that
graves cannot be bought in perpetuit
save at enormous expense, but are
usually leased for twenty-five years.
At the end of the time the remains
are removed fro mtheir last" rest
ing place and hurried into ossaria
Ozone repositories) or huddled togeth-
er pell-mell in common pit In
some places the bones are reduced to
ashes, SO that many of those who in
life protested against cremation are
cremated themselves. The vacant
grave is let to a new tenant. In Ham
burg. where the "Turmus" period is
short, one may read on the headstone
of humorist: Behold my resting
place for the next fifteen years"