The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1920-07-23
FINGER PRINT ONLY SURE
MEANS OF IDENTJFICATIOI

y" ioihJ ooiS 1i'-lh WILLIS
town, Pa, the brave mother of baby
Blakely Coughlin, recently kidnapped,
is keeping up her spirits and saying
she believes her child will eventually
be found.
But meanwhile, whenever a clue is
discovered, whenever a baby whose de-
scription tallies with that of her lost
son is found, Mrs. Coughlin must take
a trip to some distant place, expensive
and disappointing at its end.
Each day that passes is changing
Blakely's little features. In a few
years if he We're to be found it is
doubtful if his own mother would rec
ognize him.
There is only one means of identi-
fication that time doesn't change-the
finger print.
If Blahely's tiny finger prints had
been taken, cards with fac SMILES of
the whorls and grooves-different on
every human being-could have been
forwarded to authorities all over the
country to compare with any baby
thought to be the child kidnapped from
Norristown.
The finger print has solved many
crimes, traced many murders.
Some interested Investigators of the
Elwell mystery claim that if the ret
ina of Elwell's eyes had been photo
graphed a picture of the murderer
might have been found there. This
theory was part of a statement with
intent to prove Paris more expert in
detecting crime than New York.
"The idea of taking pictures of dead
mems eyes is an ingenius theme of
detective stories," said Frederick
kuhne, for many years attached to
the bureau of criminal Identification
of the police department in this city,
who is a finger print expert.
"But the finger print is the most
positive means of identifying any per-
son.
"Think of the endless trips and
trouble in store for Mrs. Coughlin,
whose little son has been stolen. No
mother could hear of any clue without
looking it up. And each trip that is
fruitless means sickening disappoint-
ment for her.
"1f mothers had children finger
printed how much trouble could be
prevented"
II thought of a magazine story writ
ten a few years ago by a clever young
woman in which she told Of babies
carelessly lost and mislaid in hospit-
ais. Curious as it seems, brand new
mites of humanity with the same COL
oring of hair and eyes could be very
easily mixed up. This writer recon-
mended at that time, l recall, the fin
ger printing of babies Immediately
after birth to avoid heart-breaking
mistakes. Imagine the mental tur-
MOL of a young mother watching a
child grow up, never knowing if the
little n she sheltered were really her
own.
Children change rapidly when grow
ing from babyhood. Features and
characteristics become more definite.
But the tips of the fingers v
change except to grow larger, but, in
expanding, the design of the lines re-
main unalterable.
ATTN,
"The idea of taking prints of fingers
is associated in most minds with
crime," continued Mr.. Kuhne. "But
it should not be thought of in that re-
spect, in view of the help it can rend-
er in many other ~exigencies of life.
"For instance, take the case of a
man making a will. He may name a
relative for a beneficiary. But there
may be two men of the same name in
the family. After the signer of the
will is dead, who can say to which rel
ative he intended to will his fortune ?
A finger print of the object of his
benevolence would simplify proceed
ings greatly.
'O1ten, IN severe accidents, people
are so helplessly injured that their
bodies cannot be claimed by relatives.
In fires and other disasters if we had
finger prints of victims many a per-
son would not go to an unknown grave.
"In the theft of the famous paint
ing of Mona Lisa from the Louvre. a
finger print led to the discovery of
the thief.
Before that time the French did not
want to use finger prints. That would
mean the throwing out of the Bertil-
lon system. The French are a very
conservative people in such cases.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ,pttherinals,
"Yet for a long time prints had been
made secretly Of the fingers Of Grim