St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1864-08-11
SECRET: WRITING.

Il al i.T s9s II -
cret writing. and methods, devised for con.
vsying private or importsat messages in
sach aswsy that if they fall into imprope,
hands their meaning win be safe from de.
lection Sympathetic. ink is sometimes
:used,s which 1issai made that thu writing
disappears n : short tine;9bus again be-
comes visible ou tie application q heat, OF
some some chemical preparation. But secrets
thus sealed arc. readily unsealed by any
chemist. The most common method is to
construct . cipher, in which new and
strange characters stand for letters or
words, but p'aoed In some deterninate or.
der. But few; If any Of these, are beyond
the reach. Of an: ingenuous mind to inter-
pref, Ard i, IS not 50, much guess:work
as,maay. people suppose In unrayeliug a
difficult cipher, pumisrous experiments have
to be tried but the operations aarefau bas-
81 en comparison and ~ should BE- regular
3s4to ystematac.s;aa7s i !1ss= ~, sri IF
" sfoe;7 in his sstery Of ..The Gold aBug,,, =,
gives some valuable hints on the Interpret.
alton & .''' e; ;te re most common cryptegraphs
He contends. that the ingenuity of lap can
construct no enigma which the ingenuity. IT..
cf man cannot unravel. Ard he actually,
read several very: difficult ciphesfas5S~ which
we're sent him @ atter: the publication IT, ef,3 '.1he
Gold Bag,n2:l, pos s,os1oazE ,!seorL, 80. 80;
u But we saw wssevetal years ago; ! method
which makes the message absolutely !saf.
from dIetfetiop: Ia .y't We viii undertake to de-
sce'beit. Take a,square sheet Of, paper Of
sVenisnt size; s~y' a0toot square, Il Divide
it By lines At right angles into six hundred
and I'D esl seventy siK squares, trenty-si1 each
way; in tie upper horizontal, crow. write
the alphabet!nits~natur.i order, one let.
tor in each square; in the second horizon
s"l row, write.the alphabet: beg,nn.ng with
b There will then be one square left at
the e end Of this row. into this put 4. Fill
the third row BY beginning With c, and
writing A and B after 2 lat the end: So ON
until the whole sheet.is 1illed.I When com n
pleted, the table, it correct will present
this appearance 1: in the upper horizontal
row, the alphabet IN its natural order from
left to right; in the left-hand vertical row,
the same from top to bottom =. and the di
akonaf from upper right to lower left-hand
corncr. will be slime Of ~. % est5z
Il Each party must have ens of these ta-
ble.. A1key7word must also be agreed mp
on, which may be any word in, the English.
language, or from any other language it it,
can be represented by English letters,
which key-word spells nothing
Now, to send a message. first write the
message in plain English Over i. write
the key word, letter over letter, repeating
it Us many times Is it.is necessary 70 cover
the message: Take. ? simple case as anil,
lustration. Suppose the key-word to be
Grant, and the message W. have flee days.
provisions. 1T should be placed thus: 80
u Grantfgrasntgrantg:rantgrant* or
=. Nv cha vehvedsysprovisions. 10
Now ind inFtbe upper horizontal row of
the table, the letter Of the key-word, G,
and in the left-hand vertical column, the
column, the first letter Of the message, ".
Run . line straight down from G, and Z ono
to the right from ", ana in the angle
where the two lines meet will DO found tn
letter which must be written as the 6tst
letter Of the cipher. With the second let-
ter Of the message, E.. find tho way the
second letter q. the cipher. +'''
= The correspondent. who receives the ci-
.pher goes to work to translsts it thus :: He
4 first y writes over il the. key.word, letter
ever letter, repeating it as of,en As neces-
sary. Then hnding ii the upper row Of
his table the afstslester OF The key word,
hspasses his pencil directly, down until he
comes to ~tAearst letter Of tho cipher The
letter opposite to it'ia the left-hand vsrti-
cal columns 10 the first letter Of the transla-
ton. Each ofrths asueoesdiAg letters are
found in = similar % -R4re'.o1oaieol
'1-'"e.. -: zs2 y ,ss.asa..a stae. rs5.sg
-One Of the agents ofafsl oiusuraln,,cs al,,:s
company IN Hartford, IN sending a small
r.nittansoeI of $4,000 IRON the West tas
Other day, 1af;6tss 1;a;ts upon tie Soot Of d.
ebeot; '..eood fsr burpsu.is41solI' S's'o*