the
expert in charge of this bureau ascertains that a man indicted for
crime has served a previous term in prison, this fact is to be
communicated to the United States judge and district attorney, and if
convicted the criminal is to be given the full limit of sentence.

Although the system of identification by fingerprints has been in use
in Europe for a number of years, it is not a European invention. As a
matter of fact, it is one of those cherished western institutions that
the Chinese have calmly claimed for their own, and those who doubt
this may be convinced by actual history showing it to have been
employed in the police courts of British India for a generation or so
back. Just who was responsible for its adoption there is not certain,
but Sir John Herschel, at one time connected with the India civil
service, is usually mentioned in this regard. The British police
experienced a great deal of trouble in keeping track of even the most
notorious native criminals and it was a great deal more difficult to
arrest a first offender, for the reason that all the natives looked so
much alike and were such apt liars.

Ordinary methods, even the Bertillon system, were fruitless and
finally the finger-print scheme was tried. It worked like a charm.
Where more arrests had been the exception, they now became the rule
and the power of the law began to merit respect. In case after case
the police were enabled to track the crime solely by the chance print
of a man's finger or thumb on an odd piece of paper, on the dusty
lintel of a doorway or a dirty window pane. Some of the stories told
of their accomplishments in this line rival the most thrilling
detective stories.

In one case, that of the murder of a manager of a tea garden on the
Bhupal frontier, half a dozen or more persons were at first suspected,
among them the real murderer, who was, however, later regarded as
innocent because he was supposed to have been away from the district
at the time the crime was committed. Investigations and questionings
did no good, and at last the local inspector decided to take the
thumb-prints of all concerned and refer them to the central office of
the province. After the records had been searched a messenger came
with orders to arrest the discharged servant of the manager who had
been first suspected and then exonerated, for his finger-prints
tallied exactly with those of a bad character just discharged from
prison. He was later convicte