Unidentified photographer / artist
1884, 29 March
The Police Gazette

Magazine page
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Published in the article "A Curiosity in Journalism" in "Chambers Journal", No.13, Vol.1, March 29, 1884, p.200-201. The article discusses "The Police Gazette" in Great Britain.
 
In addition to being much better printed, the new Gazette already shows decided improvement both in the selection and arrangement of its contents. For convenient reference, particulars are not only grouped according to the usual categories of crime, but are now classified under special headings for the various districts to which cases belong. Illustrations have also been introduced as a new feature. These take the form of woodcuts from photographs of persons ' wanted' on various charges, or of valuable articles stolen. The first number of the Gazette contains the likeness of several criminals of whom the authorities are in pursuit. In one instance, so as to aid identification, the subject is shown not only with beard and moustache, but also as he would appear when clean shaved. Some of these faces, it is true, seem decent and commonplace enough, such as one sees almost every hour of the day in the public streets; but others, ' an index of all villainy,' are unmistakably those of dangerous characters whom none of us would like to meet alone in a quiet road on a dark night. But it is in the police album1 that we can best study the variety of expression by which the human countenance can betray every shade of criminal depravity.
 
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