IDENTITY INDEX

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 125, 29 May 1930, Page 20

IDENTITY INDEX

BABY'S FOOTPRINTS

AMERICAN SYSTEM

In New York recently a man named S Br6wn sued the authorities of a reputable hospital for having eubstituted a girl baby for-his own infant—a boy. When a tray of six or eight babies is pushed down a hospital corridor, anxious parents sometimes have their doubta whether "their own may be wr,ongly numbered. Paul Popene, an American, eugenist, has perfected a footprint1 test, whi<sh lie claims/should be usecl at evfery,. birth. - ... \/■ .;■ It is not creditable to civilisation, Mr." Poperie: thinks, that the mystery of "Anastasia/' who claims to be the late Tsar's daughter, should be: settled by the method of one of Bret Harte's Jieroin.es, who, after .relating her story to a passing stranger, ended: lolks around here say the-old man's my father. What's your opinion?" "At any moment, absolute proot o± identity may be of overwhelming importance. If the footprints' of the little Bomanoffs-bad • been taken at birth, and the formula registered in central bureaus, ten minutes would have been sufficient to establish beyond a doubt the identity of the present pretender. ... ;,.... .... .. . ■■,-•■ v '^HOW IT IS DONE. -Contests >for'"property ■ have often turned upon identity, and self-styled experts*, in .the pay .of the prosecution and defence respectively, have engaged in mutual contradiction. All these formalities would be avoidable in most cases, if the print of the pattern of the sole of the foot of the new-born baby were taken .{the fingerprints of a tiny baby are difficult to secure). Any bright nurse:can become an expert and take an'infa'ni's sole print successfully, by not using; too much, ink and only the right amount of pressure. .*" A piece of glass should be coated with a thin film of coated ink by the aid of a rubber roller such as photographer's use; then the infant's foot is put lightly n it and equally lightly- placed on the registration card;: The mother's fingerprints, or even^a single ohe^the right index is usual—should be registered beside the baby's footmark. Somo. fascinating cases can be brougHt forward in support of Mr. Popene. It is a fallacy, for instance to suppose that.pretenders to.the throne belong only to-the history book. As late as 1928) a' middle-aged blind.man, ''Prince Louis de Bourbon," appeared in Paris and gained the front-page in the newspapers by reviving the claim of "Ms ancestor, Naundorf, to be .the French' Dauphin. 7 : : Ohe?'of the most famous of contests for property is, of course, tho Tichborno ease, still within memory of older newspaper readers. The claimant (Arthur Orton, a butcher '.a son from New South Wales), died only in 1898. Over 100 persons who had known the heir intimately, including his own mother, swore to the identity of the pretender. Oneoorf r the oldest baronetcies in; England was involved, and it is Baid to havb cost the estate £150,000 to defend itself against Orton's claims; with...-proper .-registration, Mr. Popene claims, it .need not have cost £5. GREAT PRETENDERS. In Royal Families particularly, tho system would, be invaluable. Pretenders arise with astonishing regularity whenever-an heir to the throne dis--appears." "Anatasia" herself has a rival in a young; man discovered in Bydgeszez, Poland, who calls himself Eugeao Mikkailevitch Ivanov, and is asserted to be the Tsarovitch. Sebastian, King of Portugal, disappeared during the battle in Morocco in 1578. Several imposters arose, of whom one,.'' The "Knight of the Cross," had the Hapsburg lip and fifteen other physical marks which,- ho declared would prove his identity. He was hanged in 1603..,;.-■ ....•..-.; ■-.;■■■■. ... .... The most interesting of all the historical cases is that of the Dauphin of France, so-called Louis XVII. The child -waß born on ,27th March, 1785. After itlie: execution .:'of .his parents." Louis 2?YL and . Marie Antoinette, he was kept' as a prisoner in the Temple in Paris, where ho was badly treated, and where he was reported to have died of scrofula and neglect on Bth Juno. 1795. It was given out that ho was buried in the cemetory of St. Marguerite, two or three days later. There was enough uncertainty about thesefacts, and enough to be gained by denying them, to give rise altogether to thirty "dauphins." One of them, Karl-Wilhelm Naundorf, established his court in Holland, '■•■ and his "tombstone bears witness: "Here lies Louis XVII. of JTranee.''