Evening star., 1933-10-01

ded 1t as that OF her husband py Ger.
tain scars ON his person. by . mole
under the ear, by the height, weight.
clothing by watch he was car
rated her testimony and 30 did seven
personal friends, including clergy
man. An elaborate church funeral was
held; the body was inferred In the
family vault and she collected the In =
surance.
Then, In May, she received word from
q Southern city that man claiming
to be her husband had been an inmate
Of local hospital for six weeks, an
aphasia victim. At once she went
South, identified him and brought him =
home. But he never fully recovered;
he died that Summer.
The fngerprint is the one signature :.
that can never be forged. Properly
manent record from birth until the
cells Of the body disintegrate. For,
while the ridges may deepen and the
space between them increase, the pat
tern remains the same. This pattern
extends through all three thicknesses
Of the skin. It has been found on a
human being three months before birth
and on a 1,000-year old mummy in the
Metropolitan Museum.
Means Nothing to Novice.
To the novice, the fingerprint Is no
more significant than Chinese puzzle,
but the expert can pick out five points
Of Identification.
Broadly speaking, the pattern Is one
Of three-the arch, the loop and the
whorl Each design is capable Of in
finite variety. Only once in all my ex-
perience have I had a fingerprint I
couldn't classify. 1t belonged to va
grant in Bellevue Hospital Incredible
as It seemed, he had no fingerprint. HIS
nails were brown, his skin as smooth
as ivory.
Mystified, I asked what he had been
doing. I was told he was q wood
chuck"-a man who breaks up pack
ing boxes and sells them for kindling
wood. Months Of handling this wood
had filled his pores with rosin, OBJ
literating the papillary ridges. When
his fingers were properly cleansed, the
ridges stood out plainly.
Now, after 10 years Of study and
experimentation, scientists at last have
perfected an acid by which prints can
be taken without the use of ink. The
fingers are simply put in contact with
paper, the paper is brushed lightly
with this acid and at once the print
rises, clean and hawless This method
has been adopted in postal savings &C
counts for personal identification, to
prevent Withdrawals by unauthorized
persons.
In my work as fingerprint expert,
have many times been sent to ocean )
liners to take the prints of some sus-
pected international crook from the
soap or wash basin in his stateroom.
This taking of latent prints is a fine
art exceedingly difficult. If hotel man.
ayers are suspicious of a guest, they
frequently employ an expert who, mas
querading as bath maid, housekeeper
or guest. takes the prints from a tea
cup, glass. brush, comb, telephone re-
ceiver, table top, wall-any hard sur.
face he has touched.
Almost Recognized.
Once, while trying to identity a
notorious criminal, was his bath
maid in New York hotel and, q few
weeks later, by arrangement with the
manager, his guest for tea in Q lux
urious hotel in Miami. As he handed
me the teacup which made it possible
for me to obtain the evidence I was
seeking. he said:
IT you hadn't been introduced t.
had seen you in New York"
During the Summer of 1904 many of
the crown jewels Of England were sent
to the st. Louis Fair for exhibition pur-
poses, under guard from Scotland
Yard. News of their transfer attracted
hordes of criminals from all over the
world. So many were arrested on sus-
picion that one of the Scotland Yard
guards suggested that they be finger
printed and their records abroad
traced. This proved so successful in,
identifying these crooks that Sir E. R..
Henry. then head of Scotland Yard
and hailed as the inventor" of finger
prints, paid his first visit to this coun-
bureau in the st. Louis Police Depart
ment.
Hotel Thief Identified.
In the Spring of 1906 New York was
victimized by clever hotel thief.
Spectacular robberies occurred in big
hotels all over the city When the
thief was finally caught there were
found on him clippings telling Of SINH
lar thefts in hotels all over Europe, each
one under a different name.
One Of his officers suggested to the
commissioner. "I'l bet If you send this
mans fingerprints to Scotland Yard
you'll get record on him"
In scarcely more time than 1t took
the mails to cross and recross the At
lantic, came word that he was an in
ternatlonally known thief, wanted in
London. Paris and Berlin.
'"If f1ngerprinting can do this" Gen.
Bingham said, then the New York
Police Department needs It,"
It was installed there TN 1906.
In 1907 it was installed in the Navy
to prevent re-enlistment Of the de-
serter; In 1911 in the civil service to
prevent patent frauds. Thence It spread
like wildfire to banks, large corpora
tions and finally to the entire personnel
Of the United States Government, the
Army, Marine Corps, Printing Depart
ment, Post Office, etc. Today finger
print records can be sent from city to
city by wire; thus much time Is saved
in Identification of many criminals.
Always the adoption Of fingerprinting
by some new Government department
has followed proof Of desperate need
for 1t.
Between 1920 and 1922 there occurred
an epidemic OF robberies Of insured
mail, akin to the epidemic Of kidnap-
ing today So prevalent did these rob-
berries become that banks and brokerage
houses began to use armored trucks
instead Of the mails to transport val
liable papers and negotiable securities.
In July, 1921, occurred the famous day
light mail truck robbery at Broadway
and Leonard street, with the loss Of
81, 900, ,000-the crime which resulted In
the capture Of Gerald Chapman, motor
ious robber.
Protection Of Innocent.
The actual value Of fingerprints As .
nothing to its potential worth In pro-
tecting the inocent II your child
were kidnapped tomorrow, for instance,
and not restored for five years, what
proof would you have that he was