Does fck K^affles Exist ? 
or ’ Tke Mytk of tke 
Gentleman 
Burglar. 
By Monsieur ALPHONSE 
BERTILLON, 
Ckief of tke Identification Department 
of tke Pans Police, 
M. Bertillon, the celebrated inventor of the system of 
identifying criminals by means of fingsr-marks, having 
made a public statement that the gemleman burglar has 
no actual existence, has, in the following article, fully 
developed his theory for the benefit of readers of this 
Magazine. The result is a most interesting article 
from the greatest living expert on the subject, throwing 
a strong light on the methods not only of the criminal 
but of the detective. 
obliged to rectify. The opportunity is a 
good one for correcting a few other erroneous 
but popular beliefs about the world's thieves 
and “ crooks/’ who constitute a very ex- 
clusive social group, to which, with rare 
exceptions, only those are admitted who have 
proved themselves worthy of the privilege. 
Novelists write glibly about this confra- 
ternity of rogues, but they know it only on the 
surface. Either they invent their pretended 
facts or they borrow them. When they 
borrow, it is from the alleged “ memoirs ” of 
famous detectives, which are invariably 
publishers’ “ fakes.” The honest seeker after 
the truth will not learn much from occasional 
visits to the saloons and dens frequented by 
thieves. His appearance is the signal for a 
dead silence, followed by a general departure. 
The detective is, as a rule, much more 
friendly and communicative. Proud of his 
role as a protector of society, it flatters his 
HE gentleman burglar is a 
myth. When, quite recently, 
I made this statement and 
was promptly invited to 
demonstrate the fact in your 
columns, I did not suspect 
how widespread was the 
opinion to the contrary which I should be 
