Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1913-06-22

The ink should be smeared on the
glass and spread evenly over the sur
face with the rubber roller. The fin
ger is placed in the ink and then on
the paper. When the finger is re-
moved the paper shows a perfect
reproductin of the lines and circles
Of the finger.
When criminal is captured, whe-
Their by the police in New York or in
City or Kalamazoo, his finger impress
sions are taken. The prints are for
warded to the National Bureau of
Criminal Identification in Washington
A brief study of the finger prints by
the experts Of the bureau enables him
to speedily ascertain if set Of the
criminals finger prints are already
in the bureau. If the criminal has
never been arrested before, his fling
er prints are filed.
with the finger prints, the prison.
er's measurements are taken by the
Bertillon metric system and his pho
tograph, full face and profile view, is
also made The Bertillon measure
ments and the photographs are also
sent to the National Bureau. They
are merely supplementary to the fin
ger prints but they aid sometimes in
convincing juries.
There are hundreds of thousands Of
finger prints already in the bureau
and the police of 100 cities almost
daily send in new prints. In few
years there will indeed be few crooks
of note whose finger prints will not
be on file.
To the citizen IMMERSED in the in
side workings of police machinery,
the chief use of the finger print sys-
tenn is not understood. This citizen
generally believes that the police de-
tect finger prints on some object
found near the scene of a crime and
then seek the owner of the finger
prints as the perpetrator of the crime.
OF course, the police chief explain
finger prints are sometimes used in
this way but it is seldom. If such
finger prints are found near the
scene of the crime they are preserved
by the police. Then if person is
arrested ON suspicion of the crime
his finger prints can be compared
with those already in possession of
the police. If the finger prints are
identical the man is generally told of
the fact and nine times out of ten
he will either confess or admit that
he was at the scene Of the crime.
The possibility of two men having
finger prints alike is so remote that
experts rarely give the matter a
thought. No less an authority than
Prof. Francis Gallon says that there
is only one chance in $4,000, 900 900
that the finger prints will be identi-
cal. To determine whether finger
prints change with age, the finger
prints of certain persons have been
taken at intervals for forty-five years.
The finger prints vary minutely in
size but the capillary ridges which
make the little white and black tell
tale lines were found to be always the
same. The police chiefs declare the
finger print system is infalliagle.
In the convention other uses of the
finger print besides those employed
by the police, were told. One chief
of police knew New York lawyer
who always has the testator and wit
nesses of a will affix their finger
prints to the will in addition to their
signature, eliminating chances of a
fraudulent will.
Foreign delegates told how negroes
in South African mines had been out
witted by the finger prints. There
were so many negroes employed in
the mines that the pay officers coulo
not remember their faces and one
negro frequently drew his own and
the pay of several of his fellow work
ers. Now negro is forced to receipt
for payment of salary with his finger
print. =,
The War and Navy Department
keep finger print records of all men
In the service. The finger prints come
in handy in establishing identity when
claiming pensions. The prints also
may be FUSED to identify dead bodies
left on battle fields.
Finger prints that may be read by
experts can be made without the use
of ink or paraphernalia. There lis
nearly always on the on the finger
fine layer Of Precipitation invisible tc
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