Bisbee daily review., 1912-01-19
PUDO'NHEAD WILSON SUSTAINED.

aAoO d p4dS OA euu lHedu NiASOh5 who gained the reputation of being a crank because be collected impress sions Of finger prints and because he had the theory that this is a certain method Of Identification because the skin ridges are not the same on the fingers of any two people?
 Remember how, both in the story and the play. those finger prints turned up in court at a dramatic mo ment to prove the identity of the man who really committed the crime fcr which an innocent person was on trial?
 The story was written eighteen years ago, and at that time not many people knew about this eccentric fin ger print notion. Mark Twain didn't invent it. Scientists-or crack brainc1 theorists, as some called them then had invented it long before. But Marx rwains story made the idea generally known, and now the theory is being pretty generally practiced. It is part of the Bertillon system in many police departments, and the oth- CT day it received the indorsement of a decision by a state supreme court The indorsement could hardly be more conclusive, since it con demnej to death for murder man whose identification depended upon the evidence of his finger prints.
 When the case came before the Hi nois supreme court that body was eu- tirely without precedent to guide it, So it made one in the following lan- guage: When photography was frs, introduced it was seriously ques- toned whether pictures thus created could properly be introduced as evi- dence. But 'his method of proof, as well as by means Of N-rays and the microscope, is now admitted without question. We are disposed to hold from the evidence of four witnesses . who testified and from the writings we have referred 10 on this subject that there is scientific basis for tLe system of finger print identification and that the courts are justified in admitting this class of evidence; that this method of identification is in such a general and common use that the courts cannot refuse to take judi cial cognizance of it. Such evidence may or may r.pt !e of independen, strength, but f. is admissible. with other proof. as tending to make out d case. If inference as to the identity of persons based on the voice, the ap- pearance or age are admissible, why does not this record justify the ad mission Of this finger print testimony under common law rules of evidence?'
 The defendant in this case was coa- victed entirely on finger print evi- dcnce-at least his identification rested upon that point-and the courts decision means that he will be hanged
 It is a curious thing that nature goes to all the trouble Of designing for every individual % different dr. rangement of the tiny ridges and ho!- lows you will find on the ball of each CT. your fingers, but it seems to te beyond question tha, nature does this very thing. So murderer who has with scrupulous care guarded against every possibility of detection that he can imagine or anticipate. may be caught, convicted and punished be- cause he left the bloody print Of his finger tips on door jamb in making his escape. Whatever natures purpose in furnishing this means Of identi:i- cation may have been, it is very com plete and convincing, and 1t turns out, no,,, that it has been discovered after man has had an individual design of finger marking for uutoid ihousancs