6
THE SUNDAY OREGOJiTAN, PORTLAND, MAY 23, 1915.
55e5
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Ss.
n
and asking only for comparisons with
the London records and a report. Br
the next steamer came duplicates of
the thumb Impressions, with photo
graphs of the prisoner and his prison
record. He was Jones, alias Johns and
a half dozen other names. He was a
hotel sneak thief and had served time
in half the prisons of Great Britain.
When the New York police bring a
suspect Into headquarters he may ea
. cape being: photographed for the Rogues'
Gallery, but he cannot avoid being fin
gerprinted. He goes under escort to the
fingerprint room, where he Is made to
i i f
r
carded. Often no trace is' visible to
the naked eye.
But the fingerprint expert makes a
closer examination. The dark surfaces
that might have been touched are
dusted with powdered prepared chalk,
the light surfaces with prepared lamp
black. The powder is then shaken off.
and If the print Is there tt will stand
out clear and distinct.
If there li only one hand print or
one finger the complete record is made
up by a process of mathematical de
duction. A hypothesis Is figured for
the missing digits; a couple of sums in
addition are tried, and then the expert
walks to a certain cabinet, draws out
a certain chart, consult the accom
panying data and tells the Central
Office to look for such and such a man.
It Is all very simple and very wonder
ful. If the corresponding impressions are
not to be found among the records then,
of oourse, the chain Is broken. For the
time the criminal may be as safe as
though he had left no trace behind
him. But there are repeated instances
in which a single print left by a crim
inal has been identified months later
when the man has been arrested on
an entirely different charge.
Though the police In every European
city and in every city in the United
States have learned to place implicit
faith In this method of identification,
the recognitioon of the system by banks
and boarding-houses 1.4 comparatively
recent. Many of the life insurance com
panies have still to learn what service
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TIMGER JMPEESSION OF PTE.TRO
LASATUTXA EWT-I
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ATTEMPTED EOBELEY 1. RIDGE
TrmNATicaeaDGE TEmiHATIOriJ
3,RIDfaE. BIFURCATION
BT ROBERT X KENNEDY.
THIRTY thousand sailors, in the
Amerloan merchant marine are to
have their finger prints taken in
connection with examinations to deter
mine their qualifications to be listed
as "able seamen" and "certified life
boatmen" under the provisions of the
new seamen's law.
Between now and July 1, when the
act will take effect, the sailors will
have to undergo the tests and the De
partment of Commerce has asked the
co-operation of the coast guard service.
The finger print system is to be used
to prevent fraud. Without such a safe
guard a man who had qualified as an
able seaman or as & certified life boat
man could sell his card to one who had
never been at sea.
A majority of persons understand
what a finger print is. but they do not
realize the wonderful reliability of fhls
nature's own mark of identification.
We all know that the surfaces of the
hands are traversed by fine lines, rep
resenting ridges and furrows In the
cuticle.
On the last joints of the thumbs, and
the fingers in particular, these lines are
grouped Into patterns conspicuous in
outline and rich li characteristic detail,
which, while seemingly complex, oan be
definitely defined. The ridges grow with
the growth of the body and are roost
marked in the hands that perform
manual labor. The general form of
the pattern and the details of the
ridges constituting them, are persistent
from birth to death. Neither fcan there
be any change after death until the
time that the skin perishes through
decomposition. They are so distinct
as to differentiate each Individual from
all others If there is among the
30,000 seamen who will be fingerprinted
one who thinks he ' can defeat this
system of identification he is mistaken,
lor he cannot.
Fingerprints are the only records of
the Individual that cannot be changed,
imitated or confused with those of
another. Photographs may lie, for men
change their appearance and even
their expressions as age works its
transformations. Bertillon measure
ments vary at times, for one operator
may measure a man closely and
another measure less exactly.
But the markings of the fingers are
unique and Indestructible. Never in the
world were there two sets that exactly
corresponded. From the cradle to the
grave these marks remain the same. So
distinctive are the markings of a pair
of thumbs that to an expert no other
pair of thumbs may resemble them
closely enough to cause even' temporary
confusion.
The great number of delicate lines
and their peculiar irregular arrange
ment make possible the variety of com
binations so Infinite as to afford a dif
ferent pattern for every finger ever
fashioned by nature. The configura
tion of the pattern, the presence of
(deltas, breaks. bifurcations, forks,
angles and eccentric curves are the
marks that distinguish each finger and
each thumb from every other finger and
thumb in the world.
For all these myriads of patterns
there are but four general divisions.
Into one of which every impression
may be classified. In the elanaj of the
cult a fingerprint is either a "whorl,
a 'loop,1 an "aroh" or a "composite,"
the last being a broken or irregular
combination of two of the other classes.
So distinctive are the markings of
these different classes that an expert
needs but 'a glance to distinguish be
tween them. Two brothers, members
of a vaudeville team, whose resem
blance to each other Is so pronounced
that even their manager cannot Iden
tify them, were taken some time ago
to the New York police headquarters.
One was taken into the finger-print
room while the other waited outside.
The captain in charge was asked to
scrutinize carefully the man - who
stood before him. As he shook hands
with the young man he took careful
note of the actor's right thumb. The
young man then left the room and his
exact counterpart stepped in.
"Is this the man you just saw?"
asked the manager, who had planned
the test.
The expert caught up the young
man's right hand and glanced at It.
"No," he said. "The first man had a
whorl. This man has a loop. They
are not at all like the thumbs, I
mean."
It has taken a score of years to
bring these facts concerning finger
prints into general acceptance. The
whole idea appears to have been so
startling that every one suspecied
there was a "catch" somewhere.
Perhaps the most difficult thing to
believe Is that the markings of the
fingers are ineradicable that they can
not be effaced even with a grindstone.
But, in point of fact, this has been
tried and just as often it has failed,
for the lines extend downward through
all the layers of the cuticle to the
fleBh itself.
If the surface of the fingers were
rubbed away until the nerves were
raw and the blood started, the record
would be all the clearer, because in
the process the person seeking to de
stroy the marks merely would have
cleaned out the simUl secretions from
between the minute ridges without de
stroying the marks themselves.
The only way to remove the lines
would be to bite out or cut out the
ball of every digit: and if any living
man had the stoicism to subject him
self deliberately to Buch frightful tor
ture the mutilation would mark him
as a criminal more unmistakably than
before and be would defeat his own
object.
Some of the lingering feelings that
taking fingerprints is work for a stage
detective may be because the first wide
attention that the idea received in the
United States was in fiction.
Eighteen years -ago Mark Twain, in
"Puddin'-Head Wilson." told the story
of a village collector of fingerprints,
who not only fixed a murder upon the
murderer, but at the same time proved
that two babies had been changed in a
cradle. It was pure fiction, but en
tirely plausible.
It is curious to note that a dozen
years after this Missouri genius pub
lished his book St. Louis became the
pioneer in America In adopting . the
fingerprint method of identification.
Within the last two months the St.
Louis police have gone another step,
and, placing their dependence upon
fingerprint identification, have prac
tically discarded the use of their col-
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RECORDED FINGER 1MPRE.T531 ON
or one, "Salter -mscabe.
THI3 FRTNT Ct3KlSPONDED
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HEHjCW)IXFT ON A BPOKr.N
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PRLSOWER CONTET5EX
lection of photographs of criminals
the Rogues' Gallery.
This should not be taken to mean
that Missouriana deserve all the credit
for discovering and furthering this
method.
In India it was used to a certain ex
tent in Identification of criminals as
long ago as 1850. Europe has talked
the idea now and then during half a
century, but Galton, whose treatise was
printed In London in 1S92. was the
first to reduce the material to a proper
classification and render the plan ef
ficient. Tabor, a San Francisco pho
tographer, is said to have proposed
fingerprints as a method of registering
Chinese, and Sir William Herschel, as
early as 1S77, had been experimenting
with fingerprints as a means of iden
tifying the Indian coolies. The honors
have been passed around. The French
were the first to adopt the idea for
police purposes in Europe; the English
followed their lead. The adoption of
the idea in New .York City, of course,
hastened its spread in America. Chi
cago claims the distinction of being the
first city in the United States where a
man was convicted of murder upon cir
cumstantial evidence in which a thumb
print played the most important part.
But even the confidence which the
fingerprint system now has among the
police did not come without misgivings
and ridicule. When a buerau of finger
print records was introduced in the New
York police department it was gener
ally regarded as an experiment, and it
was some time before Inspector Joseph
Faurot, who had installed the system
after having studied the working of a
plan in Paris, found the opportunity to
silence the critics.
Inspector Faurot's opportunity came
when, in Greenwich Village, the police
arrested v a man suspected of having
robbed a guest at the Waldorf-Astoria.
At headquarters the prisoner asserted
he was an English gentleman in re
duced circumstances. The evidence
against him was slight and the detec
tives were unable to identify him as a
criminal.
Back of his appearancae of gentility,
however, were the slight tracings of the
former prison inmate. The time had
come to test the fingerprint system. In
spector Faurot made the test a thorough
one. He sent to Scotland Yard the im
prints of the Englishman's thumbs, in
closing mo photograph, or description.
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fingerprints may be in suits over the
identification of policyholders. Yet It
has long been known that fingerprints
are the only sure means of determining
human identity.
It was throe years afro that Mme.
Jules Guion. the wealthy widow of
a former jrovernor of the Bank of
Paris, started by train from Paris for
hrr country home near Fontainebleau.
She occupied tin apartment alone. On
the following morning her body was
found lying be.'l.le the tracks. As there
was no evidence of crime the police
dimipsed the ense on the theory that
in a fit of despondency over the death
of her husband she had thrown herself
from the cars.
But a certain detective was not sat
isfied with this explanation. Weks
later he undertook an Investigation on
his own account. lie carefully ex
amined the compartment, hoping to
tind some clew to substantial his own
belief that the woman had been mur
dered. Nothing was revealed by hin
search until as a last report he ripped
up the carpet. Underneath he found
a railway ticket bearing the bloody
imprints of a finger. The ticket was
such us ! given to French noldiera
on furlough. Now, in France, as in
Ureat Britain and the United states,
the fingerprints of every uoldler and
sailor are taken at the time of their
enlistment. Somewhere among the
army records there wus a fingerprint
ani only one that corresponded pre
cisely with the MinudKw on the ticket.
The records were Kearchod and the
corresponding impreoxion was found.
Within a week both the murderer and
his accomplice, were arretted, confes
sions were obtained and both were
sentenced to the guillotine.
The first American murder conviction
ou the evidence of f ingerpriiitu oc
curred in Chicago. After nearly a year
and a half of fighting against, this
scientific telltale testimony the Su
preme Court of Illinois 'affirmed the
acntence of the lower court that
Thomas Jennings, a nero. should be
hanged for the murder of Clarence P.
lliller of that city, on conviction of
having shot lliller cilcmber ID. litlO,
when the prisoner wan burglarising
tiio residence of his victim.
Several years aeo a policeman went
Into the Bureau of Criminal Identifica
tion In the New York Police I'epartment
with a soup ladle taken from u house
in Washington square that himl been
robbed. In the polinhed bowl of the
ladle the thief hud Kit the imprint of
one thumb which stood out In a clear,
oily blur. This thumb mark was pho
tographed und the expert in the bureau
looked through his file, out the mate
was not to be found. The thief was be
lieved to be a bogiuricr one that had
never been arrested, probably.
A few months later the precinc t man
brought in a suspect who had been
caught hanging around an Eavt Side
pawnshop. His prints were taken end
carefully studied. His thumb print
was found to be the same as the one
left in the polished bowl of the soup
ladle.
A large photograph of the soup ladle
with the thumb print on It was shown
to the prisoner. Me trembled, and
rather than stund trial he took a plea,
of guilty und went to prison. He was
Herman Kaplan, called the "Candle
Burglar." because ho always carried a
tallow dip with him.
NEW DISCOVERIES ABOUT SHAKESPEARE
press each digit in turn upon a small
pad coated with ordinary printers' ink
slightly thinned. Then he is required to
press the thumb or finger with a slow,
rolling motion upon a numbered space
on a blank chart. In two minutes his
10 fingerprints are registered perfectly
and indelibly, ready to be classified and
filed. From that moment the chances
of escape from punishment for any
crime he may commtt in the future are
considerably lessened.
It makes no difference in what part
of the civilized world he may attempt
to hide himself, with the present sys
tem of international exchange his past
record is almost certain to be available
whenever he is caught tn a crime. No
where can he hide his identity so long
as he takes his fingers and thumbs with
him.
In order that the records of all
known criminals may be quickly avail
able copies of the prints, together with
the other records taken by the police of
the different cities, are kept on file In
the National Bureau of Criminal Identi
fication In Washington, a bureau that is
maintained by subscriptions from the
various chiefs of police throughout the
United States and Canada. This clearing-house
for criminal records now has
fingerprints and Bertillon measurements
of more than 100,000 persons.
So valuable has this great reference
library become that today detectives
sent out to investigate the scene of a
crime first look for any hand print the
criminal may have left behind on fur
niture, door jamb, window pane or ar
ticles which he fingered and theViis-
(Continued From Pase 2)
cover a. small running account for malt
sold at Stratford by "Shexpere" to
Rogers from fortnight to fortnight for
a period of three months, from March
to June of that year. The account
summarized stod as follows:
March 27. thrse peeks malt s
April 10, four pecks malt Ss
April 24. three pecks malt... Ss
May 3, four pecks malt Ss
May 16, 4 pscks malt Ss
May 80. two packs malt 8s lOd
June 23, money borrowed ..........2s v
Total , 41s lOd
Paid on account 6s -
Balance due 35s lOd
For this balance, due and unpaid,
suit was brought as above in Michael
mas, 1604.'
This document was found about 1S14
Dy n. Wheeler, of Stratford, and first
published in 1848 by Halliwell-Phll-lipps.
Since then It has been univers
ally regarded by biographers as a val
uable record concerning the poet's busi
ness transactions. This is the only
contemporary document in the Strat
ford Court of Record naming a William
Shakespeare.
But if it does not, apply to the poet
the impartial historian must record
that it does not. . So ready are we to
accept all references to William
Shakespeare at Stratford as meaning
the poet that no one has seriously
questioned the application in this case
nor analyzed the significance of the
usual inference made from it.
The selling of malt was not a casual
business that any one could engage in
haphazardly. It had to be licensed, and
anyone who required a license required
It for the sale of a considerable quan
tity during a considerable period of
time to more than one customer. Usu
ally too a malster sold also beer and
ale as well as malt on the same license.
The regular periodicity of these sales
to Rogers and the lack of fines for
such sales (the court record itself is
evidence of the legality) indicates that
a certain William Shakespeare carried
on a licensed business of selling malt
at Stratford and that this account Is
only one out of many of its kind dur
ing these same three months as well
as before and after.
Was this malster the poet? Some
support for the belief that he j was may,
at a casual glance, appear t be in an
earlier record, of February. 159S,
when during a corn famine the pre
caution was taken to maksi a census
of all the corn and malt then in the
hands of all the inhabitants.
In that census at Stratford Shake
speare the poet was found to have on
hand 80 bushels of corn or "small
grain," as It is called in America, his
next-door neighbor, Julius Shaw, 58
bushels, another near neighbor about
tig bushels, and so on through the long
list. But this was corn, mainly wheat,
owned by the various Inhabitants. The
malt of the census could have been In
the hands of only the licensed few.
So that document has nothing in' com
mon with the present record and In no
way is a support for any inference
from It.
Halllwell-Phillipps, who Is followed
by later biographers, assumed that the
Stratford maltseller was Shakespeare
the poet. How does the assumption
accord with the known chronological
facts, which he and all others lay
great stress upon?
In 1603 Shakespeare's company at
the Globe Theater was made the
King's players, then and always there
after the most important and the most
honored theatrical company of London.
On March 15. 1604, having been given
special liveries for the occasion. Shake
speare and his associates, with the
rank of grooms of the chamber, are
rightly or wrongly supposed to have
marched In the gorgeous spectacular
coronation procession of King James,
their admiring patron.
Then a fortnight later and for three
months thereafter, we are asked to
believe, Shakespeare, slipping out of
this splendid and busy London activity,
was in Stratford selling malt fort
nightly to at least one customer. Then
almost immediately after, from August
9 to 27, a period of 18 days, Shakespeare
and his associates, as grooms of the
chamber, were by order of their pa
tron, the King, In attendance on the
Spanish Ambassador at Somerset
House. Then shortly afterward, in
Michaelmas, shall we believe, the poet,
having again slipped away from the
splendor of the court and the strenuous
business of playwrltlng and ' theater
managing, was in Stratford prosecuting
Rogers for these plcayunish debts for
malt?
Meanwhile Shakespeare and his com
pany were preparing a great repertory
of plays for performance at court, one
of the best they had ever given. Ami
all the time the company was all but
absolutely dependent upon Shakespeare
for new plays. At the very time of
his supposed three months' absence In
the capacity of a malster at Stratford
Shakespeare must have been writing
one of his plays, probably "Othello,"
which was acted at court shortly after,
on the ni?ht of November 1. under the
name of "Tile Moor of Venice." Three
days later, on Sunday night, Novem
ber 4. they acted before the King and
the court "The Merry Wives of Wind
sor." Then came their great Shake
spearian repertory of plays at court
during the Christmas season, on De
cember lit!. "Measure for Measure"; De
cember 28, "The Coanfly of Errors";
January 6, "Love's Labor Lost"; Janu
ary 7, "Henry V.-'; January 8, Ben Jon
son's "Every Man Out of His Humour."
Next followed, on Candlemas day,
February 2. Jonson's "Every Man In
His Humour"; for Febmury 3 a play
was prepared but withdrawn; Febru
ary 10, Shrove Sunday, "The Merchant
of Venice"; February 11, "The Fpani.-n
Maz"; February 12, again "The Mer
chant of Venice." by special command
of the King. It was. withal, a varied
and exacting repertory, such as no
modern manager would like to under
take short of six months to a year's
preparation.
Yet. in the midst of all this stress
of playwrltinsr, daily acting at the
Globe and constant preparation for
the festival season at court and -with
all this honor and splendor of the
court, Shakespeare the poet Was also
Shakespeare the petty malster In
Stratford? He could not have been
In both places at once, to say nothing
of the mingling of the petty business
of a small brewer or malster with
the production of the nobleet dramas
of human life ever written.
The absurdity and ImpossibilJty of
the assumption that Shakespeare Oie
poet was Shakespeare the malster ne-d
not be stressed beyond the mere pres
entation of the facts. The poet is at
least thereby relieved of the stlg-ma
on his name. The document In tiro
Statford Court of Record dots not ap
ply to him. The William Shakespeare
who was engaged In the business of
selling malt must be sought among
the brewers who shared his name, but
who have no claims upon his fame.
(Copyright, 1915. by the Sun Printing
and Publishing Association. )
Pursuit of an Aim.
Atchison Globe.
Every town has an orgaitezatlon de
voted to flapdoodle.