Year: 1879

sooner does he settle down for a rest or
a new home than the photographs, un-
suspected by him, follow; and he can
hardly buy newspaper, meal, or a
drink, 60 in and out at his hotel, or call
at the express or Post-office, but some
one is stealthily comparing the face of
this stranger, now first seen in the town,
with the yisage upon the card. This
gives the detective police of our day an
aid of which the Bow Street officers and
the Old-time policemen of New York
never dreamed.


The circumstance that the man to be
identified is dead and buried does not
hinder. Probably the well known case
of the murder of GosS, in Pennsylvania,
would never have been unraveled if
there had not been photograph. There
was a somewhat similar case, less fanlil-
lar, of an Engishman, who left wife and
home in Canada to visit Alabama He
had not been there many weeks when he
became involved in some controversy,
was arrested by the Sheriff, and was
then taken from the jail by an angry
mob and killed. His widow brought
as by the law of Alabama she might-a
suit against the county for her loss of
support. But her husband had been in



gone by two names; hence, when the
county authorities challenged her lawyer
to make proof that the husband from
Canada and the man killed by the mob
were the same person, he was perplexed.
The man, meantime, had been buried,
and there WAS no person who had known
him in Canada and Alabama both
Luckily for the widow, her husband had
sent to her from Alabama his photo
graph, with his name upon it in his own
handwriting. Upon the trial she pro-
duced the card and testified to the like
ness and the autograph. The picture
was then shown to the Sheriff, and he
said it was the portrait of the man whom
he arrested and whom the mob took
from him. And persons concerned in
the burial declared it was the man who
was killed. Thus the case was won.


A photograph of a building or of To-
cality may be very useful. Suppose a
traveller along a country road by night
drives against heap of stones or pile
of rubbish wrongfully left in the way,
and is hurt. He desires to sue the town
for damages, but of course the highway
officers viii send and remove the null
sance at once, and after that it will be
difficult to make the jury understand
whereabouts and how large the obstruc-
ton was. Let him have it photographed.
A New Yorker, when his next-doOr
neighbor, in altering his own building,
tore down the wall between them, did
not wish to let the mischief lie unre-
paired until his lawsuit could be tried,
so he had careful photographs taken.
Then he repaired his place. When the
suit for damages came for trial, his law
e-l-,a 70 =
jury, and the Court said he might do so.
In Iowa a railway bridge broke down
under a train, and the conductor was
killed. His widow knew that the COM
pany would have the bridge mended
long before she could have trial, and
that, after it was mended, there would
be great difficulty in showing how de-
fective it was. She had photographs
taken of the wrecked bridge, and by aid
of these she gained her suit.


In questions of handwriting and the
genuineness of signatures, photography
has been several times invoked As to
this there is one peculiarity: photo
graphic copy can be taken enlarged,
which increases, so the friends of such
evidence claim, the means of detecting
differences or asserting identity between
two specimens. The effect is much the
same, so one Judge observed, as looking
at manuscript through a microscope,
which has long been considered proper
But Courts have differed as to the pro-
priety of using photography to deter
mine the genuineneSS OF papers where
forgery is in question. The Taylor will
case in New York, the Rowland will
case in Massachusetts, and the Rosa
land grant case in the Supreme Court,
are notable instances of the discussion
of this question. In less known trial,
where a bank teller denied that he had
certified check, and experts differed
as to whether the certificate was forged,
the Judge allowed photographer to
come into the Courtroom with a Ian
tern and throw magnified picture from
a Photographic negative of the check
upon the wall, for the jury to see. Where
the question is of preserving or using
copies of undisputed papers, photo
graphs are serviceable. In one instance
d party asked the Court to send doc
ument abroad for witnesses to see and
swear to; and the Judge said that this
might be done if applicant would first
have it photographed, so that if it were
lost the Court could use the copy. In
another instance a party needed to pro-
duce some State papers from the War
Department at Washington; but the
officers would not allow him to bring
them away; so he brought Photographic
copies, and the Judge said they would
answer every purpose. Perhaps the odd
est case was one where the question
was, which of two yeast powders of self
raising flours would make the best
bread? Instead of bringing to the Judge
specimen biscuits to try, the lawyers
had photographs, magnifed, taken of
sections of loaves; and they showed the
Judge these pictures.-Ne1O York Times