The Washington times., 1914-08-18
PART II.

PART II.
Usually when q woman announces
that she will be ready to start some
where in five minutes She means she
won't
But Our Mutual Girl, as we all know,
is an unusual type of young woman.
She has said that she would be ready
in five minutes and in five minutes she
is ready.
Once police headquarters was at 800
Mulberry street, a gloomy old pile
which fairly reeked with memories OF
famous criminals and famous detec-
tives. But the new headquarters stand
on Center street, on the edge of the
great east side. 1t is handsome stone
structure under a great gilded dome,
and from cellar to roof 1t is packed
with sights interesting alike to the
ilayman and the professional thief
taker
AS they look with marveling eyes on
those sights Margaret tells Madse of
the theft of her necklace and confides
to her friend the plan she has in mind.
She means to call upon Inspector
Faurot, the finger-print wizard. the
man who perfected the Bertillon bu-
reau, whereby certain means for the
Identification of all known criminals
have been established.
, While he Is explaining by actual dem
onstration the methods employed IN
photographing. measuring, and, most
| important Of all. printing, classifying
and registering the thumb and finger
impressions Of lawbreakers. he i'm
presses the fact that there never are
two thumb prints which exactly cor
respond.
"The Chinese, who invented gunpow-
der and paper, also are credited with
having first discovered and perfected
the thumb print system says Faurot.
Then he told them story to prove
that truth may sometimes equa! ncuon.
some years ago" he said, there
was burglary Of a home in Brooklyn-
| a burglary marked by unusual features
For example, the burglars let n canary
bird out of its cage in the dining room
and they carried large cut glass punch
| bowl from the sideboard to the from
porch and there left it. A thumb print
was revealed upon the edge Of the
abandoned punch bowl. I Photographed
and enlarged this thumb print, and then
set about finding the owner OF that
particular thumb in my cabinet hles
He wasn't in the collection.
Later in the same year two men
broke into another home in Brooklyn
They were discovered, and there was a
pistol fight between them and the grown
son of the household. A bullet from the
revolver of one of the burglars struck
the Young mans mother in the heart
and she fell dead. The murderers es-
capped one of them carrying In his back
a bullet from the sons revolver. La
cause of his wounded condition 1t was
easy to trace and capture him, along
with his companion.
THE wounded burglar was a for
eiener an Austrian. l went to the hos
pItal in Brooklyn where he was lying
under guard to photograph and finger
II came back to my office and classi-
led his thumb prints and set about
comparing them with all the thumb
nrInts in my possession falling under
! a similar classification. He was not in
the gallery So at first ! was forced
TO believe his story. that he was an
amateur at crime.
But through long study thumb prints
have acquired for me an individuality.
and there certainly was something very
familiar in the swirl and loops Of the
lines in this mans thumb.
"AIl of a sudden, as / sat here pom
derine. il came to me-his thumb was
the very selfsame thumb that had left
its mark upon the punch bowl. / made
comparisons of the two impressions and
in five minutes l was on my way back
to that Brooklyn hospital.
'Schlieman,' said, when You broke
into that house on the Park slope six