Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1866-04-26


I had still something to do before | could
apply my test. which was the frequency of
occurrence of initial letters. The frequency
of initial letters, as they occur in diction
airy, that is, without repetitions, is as fol-
lows: S, C, P, D, A, 4, B, Z, NJ, [, F, E,
U, H, L, G, W, Q, V, N, J, Q, K, Y, x, T.
But the reader will at once see that the re-
currence of words of frequent and newt
able use may entirely upset this order
This is what does in fact happen. For my
purpose l had to ascertain the frequency
of occurrence of initial letters as they are
found in ordinary writing, or more properly
for my purpose, in conversation. To ar
rive at this, took up number of ''Cham
bers" that was lying on the table, and made
an analysis of few pages of q tale written
in the first person. l found that the order
O, NJ, S, B, F, D, G, N, P, L, G. E. r, U, J.,
K, Y, V, @, X, z. The letter Tpredomin-
ates largely over. all the others, ewing to
the frequent use of such words us the, that,
this, then there, their, them they, these, those,
to. Next comes 4, owing TO the frequency
of the words a, an. and, am, are, at, all, &c !;
then l, under which letters we have l, is, at,
its, in, into; and next ", including many
such words as ape, a0here, when, a0as, a0ere,
aho, achich, sehat, whose, wonld, a0iLk, &c.
In any moderately long specimen of g con
versationap' writing, these four letters, as
initials, will largely predominant over all
others. Now, of these four letters, 4 is a.
the head of the alphabetical order, 1 at
about the middle, and W at the end, except
by few pages, in large dictionaries. l
now proceeded to apply my test, and found
that the numbers lay in a cluster towards
the beginning and end. Those quite at the
end, | was justified in assuming represented
words beginning with W. Taking the last
number, 268. as given, probably, almost the
last page in the key, found that in die
tionary of about that length the letter
should begin at about page 100, or few
pages before, since the small dictionaries
omit numbers Of words with the prefxes in,
an, add re, which go to swell the latter part
of large dictionaries, such as that | was
using as a guide. On referring to my table,
found that there was no great indication
of clustering towards the middle; but the
specimen on which was operating being SO
very short, i could scarcely expect to find
all the points in my favor. Had l had sew
eIal pages to deal with, could have indi-
Gated pretty correctly the limits of all the
important letters.
The key required to read the cipher was,
then, pocket dictionary of about 26S or
go pages. Il was very late when l arrived
at this result, but before going to bed, [
just looked at another point which | had
remarked. / found two groups of figures
identical as regards the numbers before the
dots, but varying in those after; they were
(236 49) and (236-54) By calculating the
proportion to be given to each letter in a
dictionary of 26S pages, found that the
two words indicated by these numbers
should begin with til. There was an inter-
val of .fUe words between them. The COM
pliers of small dictionaries proceed with so
little method, that this interval did not
guide me to the positive Identification of
these two words, but assuming that they
were of common occurrence, | thought
could determine that they must form one
of five pairs-that, The; the, their their,
them: them, then; these, they.
had now done al that could for the
present, and went to bed with fair hopes of
| being able to find the dictionary used as q
key, for l reflected that tlc0 copies must
have been required -one to compose, the
other to decipher, the cryptogram. |
j could probably, then, be a dictionary in
ordinary use, SO ordinary that tloo copies of
it could be purchased at the same time,
probably at the same shop.
In the morning, therefore, ] took cab
to Psternester Row, where as the reader