The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-10-08
Of
ALL CRIMINALS.
New York City Has Adopted Bertil-
lon Method Of "Portralt Parlant"
in Police Depart.
,as. ment.
DETECTIVE AUTHORITY
Paris is the Proper Place for the Very
Latest in crimlnoIosy as
Well as FASH
ions.

NEW YORK, Oct. ALARMED by
the waves of crime which ever
ana again sweep over New York to
the despair of the police and the ter
ror OF the Gothamites, the police de-
partment of the metropolis has Of
hclally adopted the study Of portrait
parlant'-t the latest invention of M.
Bertlllon, the greatest living thief
catcher, and if the system lives up
10 The reputation which 1t has attain
ed abroad 1t is the contention Of the
sieuths here that 1t will be practically |
impossible for criminal to operate in
thls city after having been once Of
nclally measured and described.
New York, being the largest city in
the country, Is naturally the resort of
countless criminals of all classes, from
the common or side street variety of
Dip to the crook of fashionable
clothes and many diamonds who fire.
quents the lobster palaces of Broad
way and patronizes the first nights.
Not all OF these gentlemen of leisure
operate in New York for they are
afraid of Commissioner Maldos eff
cient police force, but it is the habit
of large number of them to work In
other cities and then come here,
thinking that they cannot be recog-
nized by the local force.
In the past, and indeed at the pres
ent moment, this is true enough-for
the usual description sent from anoth-
er city of man who is wanted" is
SO general that 1t will fit half dozen
that one is liable to meet any day
along Broadway. 1t is this ambiguity
of description, this liability to error,
that the system of the portrait par
liant" is designed to overcome and it
was for the purpose of gaining a
thorough knowledge of this form of
Identification that Commissioner Wal
do sent Captain Faurot, of the New
York police department, to Paris.
The captain has just returned after a
six weeks stay in the French capital
where he took complete course in
the detectives school which is main
tanned there and he is enthusiastic in
his praise of the work of M. Bertillon
and NJ. Lepine. perfect of police.
| Immediately upon his return he
opened school, similar to the Paris
ian one, for the instruction of the
local police in the new system and he
hopes to have it in good working
| order before many weeks pass.
i Just as the feminine world goes
to Paris for its ideas with regard te
fashions" said Capt. Faurot, discuss
ing the latest style in thief catching
so does the masculine world go there
for fashions in detective work. Years
ago M Bertillon astounded the world
with his theories with regard to fin
: ger print Identification and, later
/. with other prominent portions of the
!, body which would effectually identify
:, any criminal who had been measured
= nv this system. Years of experience
: have proved that this method is wei
nigh infallible, and IL is in use in
: some form or other in nearly every
: civilized country of the world.
But then there rose the question
how to identify criminal on sight
for the Bertillon measurement can
i not be used except in cases where
t the suspect Is taken to headquarters
n and carefully measured, and it is moi
1 ALWAYS wise to do this with mere
t SUSPECTS. M. Bertillon and H. Lepine
0 in discussing this subject, decided thai
there should be some system which
would permit of the accurate descrip
ton of a mans distinguishing charac
i teristics at a glance SO that detec
! tive in another city could select his
man in crowd with little or nc
, chance of making mistake. Thus
! originated the wonderful system o.
l the portrait parlant,' or speaking
picture
1t is combination of descriptions
: of a persons distinguishing features
that renders this system almost in
fallible. For instance, detective il
sent to Grand Central station to ar
rest a crook from Cleveland. He is
told that the man has concave nose
thick eyebrows. CJSS SiOcS tooSeiS'
and heavy lobes on his ears. Auto
matically he passes by all who have
straight noses and convex noses. HI
scrutinizes all the men whose noses
have an inside curve and lets then
go by when they have ordinary o
small lobes on their ears. Men will
snub noses and big ear lobes get add
ed scrutiny. but a man with con
cave nose, heavy ear lobes, eyes Sc
close together under high brow
would be marked man for specia
scrutiny and possible arrest.
"This system aims to supplant tn
photograph with something which vii
fix attention on the criminal peculiar
tiles and the entire face is diagramec
not only for the full face view, bu
also for the profile.
"The ear. may say. is the mos