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About The Sioux County journal. (Harrison, Nebraska) 1888-1899 | View Entire Issue (July 20, 1899)
HORRORS OF THE COMING WAR Washington, D. C Special.) Kvery -over of peace and progress will hope ihat the conference at The Hague of Ihe trusted representatives of the civ .llzed nation of the world will retult .n tangible and lasting Improvement of the sad condition of afTalra with whch we are all so familiar. The conference jlscusifes three main lines of improve ments: First, the diminishing of ar maments; secondly, the conduct of war tin more humane lines than has hither, to been the case; and thirdly, the cre ation of courts of arbitration for the ?ttlement of International quarrels. If the men and women who are weighted with the Intolerable burdens of "armed peace" were to more fully realize the incalculable waste which the existing military system Imposes on them they would cry halt to the economic ruin of their country. It Is appalling to near that In the event of a war be. tween the dual and triple alliance 15, WO.OOO armed men would be set In mo tion, whose dally expense would be $20, 0O,ft"0. The book which Is stated to have been the Immediate cause of the meet ing to bring about the universal peace 4hows plainly the awful effect of a fu lure great war. The author Is Johann von Bloch, a Russian high offlcUl, who nas had access to the Russian minis tries of war and marine, and has evl lently been permitted to give publicity to the valuable statistics and other material which have been unreservedly placed at his disposal. For eight fears M. von Bloch worked at his task, ind six thick volumes crammed with ill manner of detail as to the art and :onduct of war, and the effects of mod ern war on the nations conducting it, arc the result of his labors. His dry, elentlfle method of marshaling his facts and figures, his freedom emotion md passion, are as convincing In their vay as the perfervld appeals to our Christian and moral feelings which we ire In the hnblt of hearing from the smlnsaries of the peace societies. M. von Bloch begins his work with in elaborate Inquiry Into the carrying powers of modern infantry projectile ind the development of modern rifles ind explosives. He explains the com plete revolution which he reveals Is a terrible tribute to the diabolical Inge oulty of the human mind. I-t us look it what the revolution means, using, for convenience, the European measure, I. metre being 3.3 feet, a millimetre 0394 Inches. Owing to the high tra leetory of the old rifles, It was possible to have clear space frue of danger be tween the marksman and the object timed at. but the frightful swiftness of the newest projectile almost abolished trajectory, so that nothing the height of a man can escape until it has reach ed a distance of 600 metres from the rifle's mouth. And Invention In this direction has cot had Its last word. Experiments re now being made with a flve-mllll metre bore rifle, the bullet of which will not rlfie much more than five feet from the ground until it has reached a distance of 1,100 metres. In 1S70, dur ing the Franco-German war, the bullets 3t the chassepot and newdle guns-were unable to pierce a human skull at the distance of 800 meters; the modem rifles accomplish this at ft distance ex ceeding 2.000 meter. At the distance of 100 meters the bullet of the modern Ger man rifle pierces 38 Inches of dry pine wood, which Is reckoned as equivalent to five men standing one behind the other. Another factor which will make the wars of the future still more terrible ia the use of smokeless powder. M. von Bloch shows that the Introduction of this explosive will transform the conduct of war in the field. Formerly the clouds of smoke marked the posi tion of the enemy. In future wars his whereabouts will only be known ap proximately by the direction from which the sound of the flriag comes, and as volley firing cannot hoard clear ly at a mile's distance, It follows that a detachment of soldiers may be In volved In the greatest danger without knowing In what direction the peril Ilea. And It will be remembered that formerly the smoke of battle hid part of the horror of battle. The author of thl work on the war of the future gives special considera tion to an examination of that terrible new engine of destruction the small bore rifle. The most modern of these devilish weapons will fire 78 shots a minute. A bore of five millimetres Is quite common at the present time, but efforts are being made to reduoe the bore to four and eventually to three millimeters. The five-millimeter rifle has so small a cartridge that the ordi nary Infantry soldier can carry 270 of them. During the Russian-Turkish war the full complement was M. If the bore Is still further reduced, It will en able the Infantryman to carry S75 cart ridges. That Is to say, he will be able to fire seven times as many shots as the soldier of twenty years ago, before he requires to have his cartridge case replenished. Taking all these points Into consideration, low trajectory, and swiftness, smokeless powder, qulck-flr. Int. and the ability to carry about a larger supply of ammunition than for merly, M. von Bloch estimates that the new rifle which will be used In the war of the future Is forty times more dead ly than the German needle gun of W0. And what does this mean from the point of view of the national econo mist. It means that among Inventors there will be feverish exertions to reach some degree of finality as to bore and projectile, and that as soon aa this Is reached the European power will re arm their Infantry at a cost of $710.000,. 000. Fom the point of view of the mill, tary strategist. It means that the per fection of weapons will enable the con tending armies to produce so Intense a fire that they will mutually destroy one another. In the same way M. von Bloch dem onstrates the effect of the artillery of the future. The use of Improved steel in the manufacture of cannon enables the modern heavy gun to be fired with an explosive four times as powerful aa that of 1870. In K70 a shell burst Into 19 to 30 fragments. The shells which will be used, should a Ru rope an war break out In the future, will burst Into 240 fragments. Shrapnel formerly burst into 37 fragments; now Into 340. The old bomb, filled with about two-thirds of a pound of gunpowder (ordinary) produced 42 fragments; the same bomb filled with pyroxillan ia shattered Into 1.204 splinters, and every one of these splinters is driven with a far greater force and to a longer distance than was formerly the case. In 1870 a bursting bomb was deadly only In the immediate neighborhood of the point where It burst. The splinters of a modern shell fired at a distance of 3.000 yards deal death and destruction within a circum ference of 1.200 yards. No more terrible writing can be im agined than that in which M. von Bloch attempts to describe the battltta of the future. He demonstrates that In all of those cases where the opposing forces are approximately etual In strength and where neither of them has any special advantage of position, the Issue of the battle cannot be decided without awful slaughter. M. von P.looh, however, Is perfectly convincing In what he says about the duration at the battles of the future. Hitherto It has rarely happened that a great bat tle has lasted longer than one day. In the future a battle lasting three or four days will tie the rule. The reasons are obvious. All the elements of future battles are so absolutely unknown. They will be carried on by ootrteJ bodies of troops over vast' areas of ground. There will be strategies and counter strategies. Artillery may be In action for two days, and the opoHlog forces still be Invisible to one another. And finally the science of field fortifi cation has been so developed that an army defending Its position will have a great advantage over the attacking force and be able to prolong lihe defense indefinitely. The 9cout's Occupation Gone, The most pitiably cheerless men in the west today are those who have elven the greater part of tholr lives to scouting for the army, and oocaslonally for a cattle company or a band of min ers, who have endured a generation of savage hardships and have braved all the dangers of the plalns.and now, griz zled and gray, realize that their occupa tion Is gone forever. There are scores of old fellows in the territories. Several hundred of the younsrer scouts have become vaqueros, sheep herders, express messengers and guards, cattlemen, railroad men, min ers and prospectors. Electricity and railroads principally have made scout ing obsolete, and since the. Apaches in the southwest and the Sioux in the northwest have been beatn into peace ful relations with the white Bottlers there has been no domand for the serv ices of the old-time scout In every town of any size In the west one may see some of the veteran soouts poor n nurse, tattered In person oanng about the saloons, telling vlslotrs from the east of the glories of the frontier before civilization and railroads spoiled it all. and half-heartedly building hopes of the day when something unexpected may traiutptre and scouting be called nto demand again. Like the knight in the band as Rich ard the Lion Heart, who thanked Go he was not a clerk, the true scout of the western plains has few. If any, counterparts. Along with the rangers of Texas he is one of America's most characteristic and picturesque types. It Is hard In these days to realize ham great a part the scouts of the '4Qs aad '50s Played In the settlement and civil ization of the plains and the Pacific coast The earlier scouts, like KH Carson and Jim Bridger, were originally trap pers and hunter, born and reared in Issouri, Tennessee and Kentncky.who had a fondness for adventure. They had pushed their way across the her der of civilization and had gone upon the plains of Kansas, Nebraska and Texas for big game and ewciteoveat The Mexican war of 1847 and the move ment of troops through Tnras and on the Rio Grande brought scouting Into the army service. When the era of oa teams and excited gold seekers headed toward California began In W there as a great demand for scouts at very profitable wages. Hundreds of young mea with a smattering of plain Ufa, exnertnes in firearms aad a lfttle knowledge of Indian ways, became pro fessional scouta No emigrant train would leave flt. Joseph, Mo., or Leavenworth Kan., on Journey of four or frve month to the Pacific ocean without an aonnm panylng scout or guide for at least a nart of the way. As the chain of army garrisons was extended oxrt upon the plains the war depart rrv fit employed more and more scout for the troops. and scouting became a sort of science the plains, in which there was ooro- petition In experience. During the Apache and Sioux wars in 1STT, 1878 and 17 the government had about MOD scouta on the army pay rolls. 'Calty" Is still a weight In use In the treaty ports of China. When the Chi nese first sold tea to the Europeans the7 Inclosed It In little lacquer case j wlileh eacn weignea a "osnu ana in due time were caiiea tea cauiea, ana at last via caddies. AGRICULTURAL. MIDSUMMER WEED DESTRUCTION Geo. O. Turner, Hastngs, Neb.: To eradicate cockleburrs and other weeds I would take a good sharp plow with counter and chain, or hook, on same; plow the ground about four inches deep and sow to barley or oats. Then I would plow again and sow to winter wheat for two or three years in succession plowing early each time. Tou cannot kill them with a corn crop. "Zeb," Eldorado, Kan.: I do not know of any easier way to eradicate cockle burrs, eta, than to put your ground In wheat, rye or oats for two years. Plow In July; a harrow will do the rest M1U let would do if you could use so much hay. It Is that or pull them befor they ripen their seed, which contains more back ache than most western farmers enjoy. Edwin Snyder, Oskaloosa, Kan.: Mid summer destruction of weeds Is an im portant subject A little neglect now means the seeding of the ground for perhaps several successive crops. The earth Is said to be the natural mother of weeds and the stepmother of useful plants, and seems to manifest a nat ural mother's solicitude for her off spring, and only the foster mother's afTeotlon for the useful plants, which causes the farmer constant, anxious care. In the Infancy of the human race a handful of savages had their few simple wants spontaneously supplied by the spontaneous productions of the earth, and on a few tropical Islands a sparse population Is still enabled to ex ist without regular systematic work. A very large part of the farmer's work In the growing season must neces sarily be devoted to the destruction of weeds, In order to protect the growing crops. "From early morn to dewey eve" the warfare must go on or the harvest will be small or a total failure. The average farmer looks upon weeds as a wholly useless and unnecessary element In the economy of nature. Nothing grows in vain. I believe that If all the weeds and so-called use less plants could be entirely exter minated the earth would soon become a barren waste. Barrenness begets it self. If a piece of land could be kept entirely free of all growing vegetation and submitted to the burning sun and wasting rains It would soon become en tirely free of all growing vegetation and absolutely unproductive. The spon taneous production of weeds Is one of the wlso provisions In the economy of nature for the preservation of the fer tility of the soli. Yet, not only are they not needed, where growing crops occu py the ground, but they are fatal If left unchecked, and the good farmer Is in constant warfare to hold them is check. It is a hundred times easier to kill young weeds than after they have at tained considerable growth. If fields could be given a light cultivation after each rain weeds would never trouble, but that Is Impossible In seasons like this, when continuous rains keep the farmers out of the fields for ten days at a time. Midsummer, then, finds our fields luxuriant with an almost tropical growth of weeds. Hoeing is a slow, laborious process, hut an absolute necessity to rid the fields of the rampant growing sunflow erL horse weeds and cockleburrs. It is too much work to undertake to clean out crab grass and smaller weeds with a hoe. I always, every season, go through my corn field with the , hoe, in July or August, and cut out cockleburrs and other coarse weeds. It is the only effectual way of getting rid of them. My pastures I always mow In August, to kill ragweed and the like, which spring up whore stock Is kept. I consider the mowing machine and scythe Indispensable In the midsummer battle wKh the weed a The trim ap pearance of the pasture after the mow Ing pays In looks If nothing else, I sow rrass seed and clover seed In the spring without any so-called nurse crop. The midsummer mowing of this la a necessity to prevent the weeds from choking out the tender plants. Upon the whole I am glad weeds grow. If they did not we would cer tainly have no useful plants. Their ex termination necessitates a careful cul tivation of growing crops. Their growth upon waste places does no harm but holds the fortuity of tho soil for future useful crops. Artemus Paul, Luce, Neb.: I suppose that the question of weed destruction Is Intended to apply to those varieties of weeds which do not yield readily to the ordinary methods of cultivation. The worst and rnpst common weed of that kind which we have In this coun try Is the wild sunflower, which is a very rapid grower and soon becomes so firmly rooted that the corn cultivator wilt not take It out. I have had twen ty years' experience farming In this county, and have never had a badly Infested Held. I find that when yej fields are once free from these weeds it Is not difficult to keep them so. I have a farm of 320 acres to look after, and I find that one day's work of ten hours In each year Is sufficient to destroy all the sunflowers which have come from seed that has drifted In or have been transported from adjoining farms. They should be cut close to the ground when In blossom with a sharp scythe or core kalfe. Fields may sometimes be seen In wbloh tho crop of small grain Is smothered and rendered worthless by the dense growth of sunflowers. With such a field the weeds should be cut with a mower when In blossom, and when dry should be raked and burned to get them out of the way. The ground should be stirred with the disc harroa in the fall or early spring, so that al! seeds lying on the surface may be covered by the soil and germinate early In the spring. The ground should ht plowed some time in May, which will destroy the young plants, when corn oi some ether cultivated crop Bhould be planted on the ground. It Is my ex perience that sunflowers growing in the draws on the unbroken prairie will disappear when the ground Is fenced and pastured with cattle. Cattle do aot like these weeds as a steady diet, but a limited number of the tendei heads will be eaten with a great relish. W. M. Settles, St. Paul, Neb.: This is a very important subject and inter ests every farmer of the west where eorn is grown extensively. The cockle burr has not aot much of a hold in this part, ae yet but there are some farm ers who have them. When I bought my farm six years ago, it was fairly well seeded with them, but I told my neigh bors I would clean the farm in three years, and so I did, to their surprise. I teil you they are a hard weed to fight I used every possible means to get the advantage of them, and with dry years to help me I have a clean farm now. I had to pull them all out of the corn and stubble after harvest each year, and I go over the farm yet In search of them. Wild morning glo ries, sunflowers and sand burrs can be kill by early afll plowing, say as soon after harvest as possible, If fall plow ing Is all right for the crop which will follow. In these parts it seems that we have too much wind; our soil blows away when real dry. If Put to rye It does all right Rye pays very well most years, but this year our ryo winter killed, as also did the winter wheat. One should mow the road, the fence line and odd corners about the prem ises after harvest. I like to see a farm clean and neatly fixed, but they are few and far between In this country. It seems that most of the farmers strike for town as soon as they have a few spare momenta, which gives the weeds somewhat the advantage of the farmer, for a farmer cannot do very much run ning to town and farm many acres In the crop growing time. Homestead. New Rural Mall System. The United States postofflce depart ment has officially adopted and com menced to operate a postal wagon, which Is intended to replace the major ity of the star route postofflces In the United States. The star route offices are those of the fourth class and the postmasters in charge of these have been paid a percentage on the postal business transacted. As fast as possi ble these wagons will be Introduced throughout the United States. Kach state will be divided Into circuits, these circuits being of the length that a wa gon can cover ia a day. The postal clerks In charge of these wagons issue money orders, register letters and transact a general mail business. The mail is delivered either at the houses of the people along the route or placed In what is called a rural free delivery box near a residence. The postal clerk has one key to this box and the occu pants of the residence the other. In this war the postofflce corns to the people instead of their going to the postofTioe. The inventor of this postofflce wagon Is. Edwin W. Sbriver of Westminster, Md., who was for years a purser on the Iron steamboat line between New Tork and Long Branch. Mr. Shrlver has been appointed postal clerk of the wa gon which pegan operations last Mon day. It is estimated by the postofflce de partment that about 40,000 of the minor rural postofflces will be done away with by the use of these wagons. Compiling a Dictionary. Nearly everyone has had the bright Idea that it must be a tremendous lot of work to get up a dictionary, but few have any notion of the real size of the task. When Johnson got his fa mous dictionary started he calculated that, with six assistants, he could complete the task in three years. It took htm nine years Instead. He re ceived the small recompense of $7,500 and had to pay his assistants out ol that. Webster worked St years before hU dictionary made Its bow to the world Webster was very puncMIlous In his definitions, and so painstaking that it was a wonder he completed the work when he did. The words which give the compiler of a dictionary the most trouble are the little one-syllable Saxon words. Their history extends back Into the Saxon period, and their meaning has become twisted In many directions. Words with pedigrees are the hardest to trace. When a new dictionary Is projected one man Is selected as editor-in-chief and he appoints his subeditors. Then appeals are sent out to literary people in general for voluntary contribution In the nature of rare and curious words. There are over 1,000 people who have ofered their services In the case of o dictionary now making. These words, written on slips of paper, are filed In thousands of pigeon holes. Over six tons of clips have been put away. This means 6,000,000 words, but only 1,000 will be printed. The amount of work necessary to properly sort these Is evident. A Presbyterian clergyman, It Is said, has been experimenting by working In mines, foundries and brickyards. H announoes his conclusion that "If can didates for the ministry would work fo a year among those who toll with theli hands, they would be better able to fli; the pews In their churches with work Ing men." ClfATJT cTAnirc wl INDIAN TORTURED. This Is the story told by "Doc ObIJa," i reliable Navajo Indian, of the horri )le tortures his tribe inflicted on Bine Vimalgo, medicine man and sorcerer: "When the spot sickness (smallpox) :ame upon the Navajos they knew that there was magic That was why our nen were dying and our young wo nen's faces were pitted. "Bine Nimalgo was a bad Indian. He leserved to die. His medicine was bad (nedlclne. We bad long known that; ;his was only why he had been driven ut by the tride long ago and lived iway from the tribe. He had his re enge. "It is not true that the sick went to aim to be cured. They would not do -hat. He did not cure people, but made .hem ill. They feared the bad medi cine. "Bine Nimalgo was very strong and rery wicked. He had a magic bow and irrow, with which he could shoot from eery far away the spot sickness and Jther bad things Into his enemies, and ae hated everybody because he was jad. "He alone had the bow and arrow. Wany had tried to find them, but they xmld not. He had well him them. There was bad magic in the cache, so .hat no one found it. By night he shot :he arrows and we fell ill. "It was this that made hundreds He lown, and many of them died. When they felt the bad medicine in them they covered their faces with their olankets and sat waiting. They died ravely. "We could not find the bows and ar rows and the tribe was dying. And the Navajos are greatest of all the Indian people. This is known. 'This is why they went to the hogan hut) of Bine Nimalgo. There were even squaws and five fighting men K'ho went I do not know their names, out they were all Navajos. They did aot fear death for themselves, they ivent for the tribe. "I have said that the angry one was tar off. The chosen twelve went to nls place. I de not know their names. "They reached the hogan and danced the death dance a long time; they tied Bine to a tree, that ho might see the Jance. It was a dance for him. "Then they told Bine Nimalgo how jne by one he had slain the young men and the babies. And one by one as they told him this they broke the bones In him broke them In short pieces, be ginning with the little bones and after ihat the great ones that do not break easily, "He lived long, for he was a very strong man. The bad medicine made him strong. "They took off his scalp, for he was in enemy. They cut off his ears. vVhere he has gone they will know ilm by these signs. I think they cut iway his arms and legs. They danced ;he death dance and sang to him his ad deeds while they did these things. "I do not know the names of the rwelve who did this. "When they were weary they fired :welve bullets into the body. "Then they cut the thongs that held :he body to the tree, and they put Bine .nto the hogan. His legs and arms and ill the parts of the body they put in ;ogether. Then they set fire to the higan md sang and danced about it and It ourned very fast. The fire ate up all :he bad medicine. The ashes were clean. "This Is the true story. Whatever ilse has been told is a He." Doc OWJa was with difficulty induced to tell his story. A small bribe that looks large to an Indian was tho In ducement finally offered. He believed firmly that the sorcerer was guilty and his punishment Just. Of course, ObIJa, like all the rest of the Navajos, knew who the guilty twelve were, but he will never reveal their names. MENTAL PICTURES. "D4d you ever notice that when an idea becomes fixed In the mind It Is very difficult to change it, especially In the case of extremely sensitive and highly nervous persons?" asked a Brooklyn expert on nerves. "Not long ago I had a visit from a man who was afraid he was losing his reason because of a very simple persistence of a cer tain thought or idea which he could not shake off. The history of the case Is one often found in cases of hypo chondriasls developed from using the telephone. My patient for about a year's time had occasion to telephone every day to a trade customer in New Tork Manhattan, if you like. The New Yorker had a peculiar high tenor squeak to his voice, and somehow my friend got to picturing him as a little chap with a thin face. This habit gretf day after day until the customer took S. real shape and form in the mind of my patient all based, of course, up on his voice. As he talked over the tel. ephone there was always mentally pic tured that little chap with the thin face and squeaky voice. Well, one day my patient called at the office of his New York customer, and aa he walked Into the place he saw a tall, fat man weighing nearly 300 pounds he could scarcely believe his eyes. When the fat man opened his mouth and talked, my patient says, the squeaky voice with which he was familiar sounded strange and unnatural. He told the owner of the absurd voice, In view of his sice, about having pictured him as a thin little person, and there was a good laugh over tho odd difference of the reality. 'But the next day when my friend used the telephone and the squeaky voice came to him, he had to struggle to get away from thinking of his fat patron as being little and thin. Hi talked the matetr over with his wlft nd laughed about It, but soon then came a time when he forgot all about the actual existence of his customer, and the little thin faced ohap wat again talking to him over the wire. Then It was that he came to see me. He feared, he said, that his mind wai giving away, because of the persistence of the odd picture of the thin man. I thought the case was easily disposed of, and told my friend to go to Nen York every day for a week and visit hlf fat customer. This be did, but every time he telephoned the squeaky voice would bring up the mental picture formed before he had set eyes on its owner. "I was in despair and my patient was growing gray from worrying when I hit upon the happy expedient of plac ing a photograph of the fat man on the telephone, where che eye of the patient could rest upon it as he talked. The result was the disappearance for ever of the thin chap. My patient, in looking at the picture of the owner of the squeaky voice, got his mind work ing upon the same lines that would have been followed had he met the fat man face to face the first time he heard his voice. These cases are com mon every day. We form queerly op posite pictures of men and women we hear over the telephone and never see, but in the great majority of instances the impression is a momentary one, and It is seldom that the mistake is ever forced upon us in the startling way de scribed by the patient I told of. "The telephone, by the way, has pro duoed very many queer cases of neu rasthenia that remain unaccountable excepting on the hypothesis that the new habit brings them into existence. I have had many patients who had to give up the use of the 'phone alto gether where it had been used to a great extent before." THE FIRST REAL NEW WOMAN. Here is the real new woman at last. Others have called themselves new wo men, but none have proven their right to the title except by word of mouth. While other women have talked, Mrs. Mary Walling has acted. Mrs. Walling is a mining prospector. She lives in one of the wildest por tions of Southern Colorado. Her home is in the San Juan valley. She lives alone In a rough cabin, built by her own hands, on the summit of Gold HM, opposite Buena Vista, the most picturesque city in Colorado. The cabin is perched like an eagle's eyrie, 3,000 feet above Buena Vista and 10,000 above sea level. Mrs. Walling spends all her time In looking for the gold she Is sure she will find some day. She says she will have plenty of use for it when she finds it, for she will build a home In New Eng land for the dear old mother she left behind there. The mother's picture hangs in a rude frame in front of the cabin. Mrs. Walling has one companion and protector, hei- dog Sport. Sport is get ting old. When he dies the woman prospector will be lonely indeed. Mary Walling is a pleasant-faced ro bust woman of forty. She is as strong as a man. She wears short skirts that reach an inch or two below her knees, and stout leather leggings. She seldom wears a hat, and for that reason, per haps, has an unusually abundant mass of hair. "", She fellB trees and cuts them Into firewood. She carries a pick and shovel when she goes, prospecting. She Is a skillful hunter and her gun provides her with all the meat she needs. She carries water from a spring a mile dis tant. She needs few groceries, and these she carries In a bag on her back from Buena Vista, five miles away, over a path so rough that a man could scarcely follow it empty-handed. She often carries a bag of flour up the steep mountain side. Sn Despite aft these masculine aceom plishments there are man feminine touches in the rough cabin that Mary Walling built She has transported the vivid Indian pink and the moun tain rose to flower pots that were once cases of blasting powder which she found occasion to use in her mine. She has pressed wild flowers and framed them and there are skins of animals that she has killed upon the floor for rugs. ' .'. t . FINGER-PRINT TESTS. Ia detective novels finger prints left by criminals, preferably in blood, play . an important part; but truth seems stranger than fiction in the fact that the finger-print system of Identifying criminals in India has been made so perfect that it would enable any Intelli gent person in a few minutes to dis tinguish the Individ nal, If necessary, from all other persons now living la the world, or, if data were available from all other persons who have lived since the creation of man. The system Is simplicity Itself, and there la none, of the elaboration of process of the costly and delicate machinery required for the anthropometric system, All that la needed is a piece of tin, a sheet of paper and some printer's ink. The ink impressions of the ten digits are taken and filed in the proper compart ments of the proper pigeonhole, and II Is on the classification of records and their distribution Into the pigeonholes uim.1 me nun.cn oi ine system aepenas. Every finger mark shows line of th "loop" or "whorl" type and br a simple table of the combination of tht types in the ten digits. 1,024 main class es are made. These are again subdivid ed according to minor details, and th subdivision can be further divided, ad Infilnltum If necessary; but with tht table before him any person of ordi nary Intelligence can place hi finest on the corresponding card to a record In his hand within five minutes, no m ter how many thousand cards therf may be. It Is calculated that UM chances are about (4.000,000 to 1 aMlnaf , any two persons having single anger! Identical, and the chanos srslast aV ten fingers being Identical go tksjofj mathematics altogether. I