Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1874-11-26

words, Dear IA aall.srjt 8 4 sou and III
ways will, Pennington Smythe,' and
thus banished his fathers doubt and
wretcsedness. However, the old MAJ
WAS angry enough to desire to give til,
unfor unate Pennington q lesson whicl
he M ght remember. So when ths
young man made his usual evening call
he was waited in the parlor by the in
sCensed ia her and his greatly amused
son, and 'od in the following steri2
and cruel words: 80 rs r. Il
rs M. Smythe, what do you mean by
writing to my innocent daughter in sucI,
Infamous style as this, sir!"' and he shook
Pcnnington's letter before his astonishcd
syes, -. - ...s
"Str," replied the youth, sit is not IN.
famous.> It is an entirely proper note
All the world might, see it. @
Then why lie uevil did you write i:
In this outlaadish lingo p, returned th.s
father. ~.
|E.'She is MT to blame" hastily urged
Pennington jnliciously sinking til
EmAin quest IN Isassure you she never
ran read tf Nj ,nss. .;,cls.=
when she writes them she makes so many
mistakes that often I can't make head or
tail of them"
"By them I suppose you mean the
letters written in cipher" re plied Mr..
Morris. "IWell, I won't add to your
trouble. Only let me advise you not to
write any more cipher notes, my. boy.
Tom, here, read your note almost as easy
As if it had been written in print. There,
60 along now, and don't be silly again.
at least, any more than you can help YOU
Hr nd al
cred from his anger went laughingly
away -
Pennington fingered. us 1t really
true, Tom, that you could read it without
a keys" he doubtfully asked. - p,
OF course I could. Why, Pen, there is
nothing easier to read than that sort of
cipher: Ifyou will write in cipher
and l don't see why you shouldn't ifyou
want to, though you'll find it bcastly
tiresome-I can tell you of . cipher that
no one can possibly translate
4 ''1f you would be 50 very klnd," MUIR
INJURED Pennington.
why" continued Tom, "you select
some book. Then out of the words in
this book you make the cipher. For in
stance, yon want to write dear as pre-.
sumo you do, and you find it, say, on the
twelfth page of the book, in the second
line from the top, and the third word in
the line. You then represent it by the
numbers 12, 2, 8. And so with the rest
of your note. You see, no human being
could possibly read it unless they hap.
pened to guess what book you used"
Pennington was overjoyed at this de.
lightful plan, and, thanking Tom warm.
~, fastened to unfold the new cipher to
Mary felt at perfect liberty to disregard
MIR. Morris advice not to write in cipher.
for he now decided that Marys father
wou:d be justifably regarded as hoary.
headed tyrant, bent upon separating two
loving hearts, and only fit to be circum-
vented by careful strategy. So he select
ed novel of which he knew that both
Mary and himself possessed copies; ex-
plainel the new cipher with the utmost
care, and after he reached home put it in
immediate practice by writing brief
note and sending it by post, as he would
be unable to sec her next evening. This
is what he wrote:
3-45.4.4- 4-89.5.9--65.4. s.
51:15b-15.1. 1.4-77.1 1.1--S5.1 .19.9-934 4 2
83.S6-S9.52- 80 .2.6-117.5 6-71.17.S.
Now the book upon which this ciphe,
was based was printed in double col
umns. Unfortunately Pennington forgo
to explain which Of these columns he in
tended to use. However, he decided tx
use the outer column, trusting that til,
other heart, which, as he frequently re
| marked, was one Of two (which beat a!
one," would instinctively divine his Sc
lection.
Two nights afterwards he reached til,
Morris door, full of delightful anticipa
| tions. He was met by old Mr.. Morris
| who, thrusting a note into his hand, ex
planned, with much necessary emphasis
and a total disregard of the commones
rules of politcness, that if he ever ven
tured to present himself at that hous,
again he would be kicked down tn,
front steps, mixed up in complicated re
lations with the family bulldog. anl
committed to the final care of the police
He went home maddened with thi,
very undesirable mystery, and confiden
that old Morris had been attacked will
delirium tremens. and was an exceeding
ly unsafe acquaintance. Once in hi!
room, he sat down to read the crulnp!cC
letter that had been forced upon him. /
was his own letter to Mary. Below tn.
cipher was written Mary's translation o.
it. The poor girl had tried to translate
it by using the inner columns of thu
book, and with the following unsatisfac
tory result:
"You liar when almost hate her ant
farewell you deceitful never again ant
base infamy."
And still further down on the page wa!
written in Mary's hand, II can make ou
enough Of your letter to see 1t is a crue
wicked insult, and shall tell papa"
It flashed across Pennington's rema
nant Of a mind that perhaps Mary had
made mistake in the columns of tn.
book. He seized the volume and verified
his suspicion. The innocent note tha
he had written was actually
transformed, by the simple process o
reading it with the wrong column as ,
key, into the incoherent, but obviousl,
impolite letter, which had wrought sucl
unhappy consequences.
t. Pennington sank into his chair utterl,
overwhelmed. He called himself all tn
choice names that old Morris had ap
piled to him, together with large select
ion of other epithets. He spent an hou
in profitable occupation. At the end o
that time he had formed a resolution
which he proceeded to put into immcdi
ate execution. =,
He rose up, and going to his trunk
took out his secret society emblcms ant
somenly threw them in the CRATE. H
next sat dawn and wrote twelve separat
designations for twelve different lodges
Then he wrote solemn pledge, never
to the day Of his death, to mcddle will
cipher or any other mystery, and, finally
writing out full history of the ciphe
letter, sent it, together with the bool
which he had used as key, his pledg
to solemnly abstain from mysteries, an
an humble apology to old Morris.
| Of course his exclamation was accen