PORTRAITS OF THREE MEN WHO COULD SCARCELY BE DISTINGUISHED BY THEIR FEATURES BUT WHOSE FINGER PRINTS ARE UNLIKE. AN EXAMPLE OF THE VALUE OF THE FINGER-PRINT METHOD IN THE POSITIVE IDENTIFICATION OF CRIMINALS Angeles. That they might have a chance to see "Jim" McNamara and identify him, they were taken to court and were given seats where they would have a good chance to see the defendant. Therefore, every day when McNamara looked about the courtroom, he saw one or two persons staring at him intently. Naturally he recognized some of them. He must have asked himself where he had seen those faces before. Sometimes he could not recall. At other times he could. In both cases he was frightened. So was kept up, day after day, an endless procession of accusing faces leveled at him. It did seem endless, too, for there were more than a hundred such witnesses. The The strain began to tell on him. He thought about those faces in his cell every day after he left court. He had plenty of time to think about them in the loneliness and silence of his prison. "My God, this thing is getting on my nerves," he cried one day to his counsel. The law of suggestion was working inexorably. Day by day as he strove to recall just who some of the persons were who were there silently identifying him, as he struggled to advise his counsel accordingly so as to be prepared to meet them, he began to realize the utter hopelessness of his case. Of course, this was not the only, nor perhaps even the greatest, influence which moved him; but certainly a compelling part was played by this elaborate staging of the law of suggestion in bringing this notorious case to the conclusion of a confession. The criminal himself is perhaps the last to realize how tightly he winds himself in a web of his own making under the direction of a skilful detective. Seldom does he realize that it is he, himself, not the detective, who has caught him. A CITY HEALTH PILOT HOW DR. CHARLES T. NESBITT LED WILMINGTON, BY FRANK PARKER STOCKBRIDGE human lives. To-day Wilmington is one of the healthiest cities in the South. It has a comparatively small amount of typhoid; its death rate is little more than that of New York, and conditions in these respects are steadily improving. Two years ago, likewise, the political and moral conditions of Wilmington were bad. The municipal government was in the hands of a ring whose leaders were enriching themselves through their political power. Public improvements were at a standstill and the atmosphere reeked of graft. Although North Carolina is a prohibition state, saloons were running wide open in the city of Wilmington, with all the evils that usually accompany illegal liquor-selling. To-day the saloons are closed, the social evil has been minimized, the political "boss" has been shorn of his power, public improvements are under way, and graft is conspicuous by its absence. All this change has come, not by revolution, but by house cleaning. The power of publicity stirred a lax public conscience into action. One man, Dr. Charles T. Nesbitt, started the movement. One newspaper, the Wilmington Dispatch, backed him. Their joint efforts aroused the people of the city to action. Wilmington, the WHERE PURE WATER IS PREPARED FOR ALL THE CITY FILTERS IN THE MUNICIPAL WATER WORKS OF WILMINGTON THAT SUPPLY PLENTY OF PURE WATER AT LITTLE COST, A COST, HOWEVER, OFTEN TOO GREAT FOR PRIVATE SELFISHNESS TO PAY points in the world. The headquarters of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, one of the three great railroad systems of the South, are at Wilmington, which thereby gives the city a commercial advantage of no mean importance. Yet, with all these natural and acquired advantages, Wilmington has grown but slowly in its nearly two hundred years of existence. The stately brick mansion once occupied by the colonial governors of North Carolina is still the finest house in Wilmington, the home of its leading cotton Four years ago Dr. Nesbitt, a native of Maryland, who had studied and practised his profession in New York, returned from a year of professional study in Europe and visited Wilmington. He liked the town, found it was not over-crowded with physicians, and decided to remain and practise there. As a preliminary to the practice of medicine he undertook a study of community health conditions. What he discovered appalled him. From the incomplete and carelessly kept records of the city health department |