The Hickman courier., 1874-04-25
MYSTERY AND WOE.

lutely incapable of falsehood.
And vet, curiOusly enough, he had 9
passion for mysteries Although prac-
tically a commonplace Presbyterian, lie
nevertheless affected to believe in the
mysteries of ROsicrucianism. he was
| perpetually striving. with conspicuous
want of success, to magnetic his
friends, and although he was too Ortho-
| 6ox to believe in spiritualism, he lived
in constant hopes OF inducing his wash
| stand to move and his writing-table TO
| rap by the patient contact of his tire
less hands. As for secret societies, they
were his delight. He belonged to near
" every ancient ard venerable order of
very modern mechanics and grOcerymen
in existence, and kept locked up 10 his
trunk more faring gilt badges and
Enthusiastically trimmed aprons and horse
| collars than would have sufficed to
purchase the sovereignty of a dozen
| African kingdoms.
| And there never was more honest
and straightforward little girl than
| Mary Morris, to whom Smythe was en-
| gagged to be married. She was Just out
! of boarding-schOOl. and her respectable
\ father-in the wholesale lard business
and all her thirteen brothers and sis
| ters of assorted sexes, were ready to
that Mary was as good as gold and
many times as valuable.
The engagement of these two young
| persons was with the full appreciation
of the elder Smythes and Morrises.
| Young Pennington was expected to
| spend three evenings every week with
| his betrOthed, and they were always
| accommodated with a convenient back
! parlOr in which to converse after the
manner of their kind. In these circum-
| stances Pennington Smythe ought to
| have been happy, but he was not. There
was no mystery about his love affair,
and the fact weighed upon his spirits.
He did what he could to convince
] himself that the respectable old Mr..
| Morris, who used to say when Penning-
ton made his appearance, Now, you
children keep out of that there back
parlor and give Mary and her young
man shOw''-was bitterly opposed to
the match, and must be kept from per
ceiving that his daughter was beloved
by her young man" But the only
possible way which he could devise to
throw an air of secrecy over the affair
was to write notes to his beloEed in a
very cramped hand, and to deliSer them
| himself. Usually he had to read them
too, since his handwriting was too mys-
tical to be readily deciphered, and when
they were read they usually contained
nothing but an amplifcation of thf inno-
cuous idea that he, Pennington SElytbe,
proposed to love her, Mary Morris,
in spite of every obstacle As there
were no conceivable obstacles this state
ment was not one of tremendous mo-
ment; but still it gave young Smythe
no little comfort to make it IN writing
and deliver it with an air of immense
secrecy.
One day a happy thought struck him
How delightful it would be to cores
pond with his darling in cipher. The
idea filed hIm with Il calm and mystical
Joy that was really frst-class sensation.
So he devised a cipher of tho kind so
much IN vogue among schoolgirls, and
which consisted in substituting one let
ter for another, and instantly wrote a
brief note to Mary. This he carried to
her the same evening, together with a
key, and attained the seventh heaven
of mystical delight in transmitting it to
her.
Poor Mary suffered much from this
cipher. It was very hard work for her
to write an ineligible letter with the
new alphabet. She continuallyN5mad
mistakes in it, and so kept Penning-
ton out of his bed for hours, while
with locked doors and shaded windows
he tried to decipher some such sen
tence as, 81 do SO long to see you"
It was only when mistaksS were
made in the use of this cipLe er that it
became at all difficrlt of comprehen-
sion to an ordinary reader Poor Pen
nington had not devoted much atten-
ton to the subject of cryptocraphy, or
he would have known that there is moth
ing more transparent than a cipher
which merely consists of the substitu-
tion of one letter for another. He was,
however, soon to learn this fact in a
very unpleasant way.
One evening Mary dropped a note
which she had received by mail, and it
was picked up by her father. The old
gentleman was wild with horror There
was his trusted daughter actually cor
responding with some unknown villain
in cipher. Obviously the cipher must
have some shameful secret. He sat in
his armchair with the open note in his
hand, and serious thoughts of immedi-
ate apoplexy in his mind, when his son
Tom, young fellow just home from
college, entered, and, frightened at his
fathers expression of face, asked and
received an explanation.
Tom was bright young fellow, and
he at once remarked that it was hardly
worth while to take to apoplexy until it
was really apparent that the mysterious
note contained something wrong. He
suspected that it was written by the
mystery-loviDg Smythe, and he did not
doubt his ability to read it. The note
ran as follows
ORsM PsArx: II TBDs xBC sYB sTFsxN
FHTT. osYYHYDUBY NPXULs.
In less than ten minutes Tom had !
and always will. Pennington Smytne,
and thus banished his fathers doubt
and Wretchedness. However the OLD
man was angry enough to desire to give
the unfortunate Pennington lesson
which he might remember. 80 when
the Young man made his usual evening
call he was ag aited in the parlor by the
incensed father and his greatly amused
son. and addressed in the following
stern and cruel words:
"Mr. Smythe, what do on mean by
writing to my innocent daughter IN such
infamous style as this, sir ?" and he
shook Pennington's letter before hls
astonished eyes.
"Sir." replied the youth, cit is not
infamous. It is an entirely proper note.
All the world might see 1t.
"Then, why the devil did you write
It in this outlandish lingo ?" returned
the father.
0She is not to blame," hastily urged
Pennington, judiciously Sinking the
main question. 81 assure you she new
er can read them without my help, and
when she writes them she makes so
MANY mistakes that often can't make
beod or fail of them"
"By them suppose you mean the
letters written in cipher" replied Mr..
Morris. "WelI, 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 nose almost as easy
as if it had been written in print.
There, go along now, and don't be silly
again-at least any more than you can
help. YOU know" And the col man,
quite recovered from his anger, went
laughingly away.
Pennington fingered. "Is it really
true, Tom, that you could read it with
out a key !" he doubtfulIy asked.
"Of course could. WhyA Pen,
there is nothing easier to read IL Va that
sort of cipher. If you will write in
cipher-and I don't see why you