house barefooted, in order to move about with greater freedom and silence. The police found at the point of entry, in the garden, the burglar's track on a wet board. This track showed only four toes. The track was quite distinct and it was perfectly clear that only four toes were indicated. The inspector now set himself to look for a burglar with four toes. An old housebreaker known to have been in the vicinity of the place was taken up. He explained that he could not be the person guilty of the crime because he had five toes, and he removed his shoe in order to convince the inspector. The inspector was satisfied and was about to set the man at liberty when an expert from headquarters happened to come into the room. He looked at the man's feet and at once said to the inspector that the guilty man was before him. The inspector was astonished. He pointed out that the track showed only four toes, and it was evident that one toe of the suspect was missing. The expert directed the inspector to wet the floor and force the prisoner to walk on it in his bare feet. It was done. And to the astonishment of the inspector the track showed only four toes. The second toe had been so displaced by the pressure of tight shoes that it lay on the third toe in such a position that it was entirely off the floor when a barefoot track was made. An important thing to international police has been carefully worked out by Austrian detective centers. It is extremely useful to know as much as possible about foreign diplomatic correspondence. It is often a great gain to get at the contents of letters which the police authorities do not dare to open. Extreme care is taken in diplomatic correspondence, and in political and other correspondence, to see that the envelope containing a communication is not interfered with. Theier and Hardmuth, of Vienna, were the first to experiment in efforts to find a sort of envelope that would prevent the contents from being read by means of the X ray. Envelopes with a bronzed lining, or with bronzed figures running into one another, were the most successful. They asked the Austrian Institute to undertake photographic experiments by means of the Roentgen ray. The bronzed envelopes were found to be very difficult for the Roentgen ray, while those that were ornamented with bronzed figures allowed the light to go through only at the white places. At best, in these cases, the words written in the interior of letters inclosed in such envelopes could not be very intelligently deciphered. A very simple method of getting at the contents of letters in plain envelopes has been finally worked out. The letter is placed in a frame of a photographic plate in a dark room under a red light only. The envelope is laid directly on the glass. A sensitive plate, a little larger than the letter, is placed in such a way that it lies directly over the letter. The photographic frame is closed and the plate exposed. The time of exposure will depend on the degree of light necessary to take such a picture, as determined by experiments. When the plate is developed the writing on the letter within the envelope will appear and the whole interior of the letter can be seen as through a transparency. T CHAPTER V DETAILS OF ITALIAN CRIMINAL PROCEDURE HE Italian detective centers are confronted by a unique feature of criminal investigation. Scotland Yard and the German centers have usually to deal with only the isolated criminal or the criminal and his accomplice. But the Italian investigator is confronted by the work of organized bands. These criminal fraternities are indigenous to the south of Europe. They have extended northeast into Austria and northwest into France, but their habitat is generally the coast of the Mediterranean. We are in a general way familiar with one or two of these fraternities. The Camorra, of Naples, and the Mafia, of Sicily, have been highly colored assets to the writers of romantic melodrama. These, with the Mano Nerathe Black Hand-are the only ones of these orders that have come in any degree to the attention of English-speaking people. These are by no means the only criminal fraternities with which the Italian police are constantly concerned. The smaller bands-as, for example, the Barabas, the Tepisti, the Bulli, the Magnaccia and the Malavita-present equal difficulties to the Italian authorities. The Italian criminologist Lombroso undertook to separate the colored fiction from the actual fact in respect to these criminal orders. His statements may be taken as nearer the truth than those of any other authority. Outside of his notes on the investigation of these fraternities but little accurate data is available. The Camorra, of Naples, was originally formed by a band of old convicts. The person who desired to enter it was carefully tested and must have proved his fitness by at least one assassination. After several years as a sort of acolyte he was finally admitted. The order was wholly vicious and avowedly opposed to every form of established authority. Once a member, there was no way of getting out of this fraternity. The chief of the Camorra is called the Maestro. The whole order is assembled when an important matter is to be determined. The Camorra controls certain gambling houses in Naples and the members of certain low orders of professions. It divides its earnings under a community principle. Its orders must be carried out under pain of death. Ottolenghi, who also studied this order, maintains that it is divided into two grand divisions, l'alta and la bassa-that is to say, the high and the low Camorra. And these grand divisions are again broken up into smaller circles like that of the Capintesta of the high division and the Picciotti of the low division. The Sicilian Mafia resembles the Neapolitan orders but it is more pretentious and boasts of a dis |