National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-04-10
nrpREp RRrrINai

A secret message says the "Corutill Mags-
zine" ought, ike . telegram, TO be cofsPcsed In
as few words IS possible, nay, in as few Istters,
like shorthand, since this Will save trouble TO the
writer and to the reader and Will, moreover, rem
der less likely the danger Of dissection, for the
more OF secret writing that declpherer obtains
the greater is his chance Of deciphering It, But
in very short message, where letters do not re-
cur, IL Is Of little mement what method OF secret
writing We use since the FIRST and most important
rule Of decphering, obssrve repetitions, " 10 here
Of none avail without this, their polar star,
such men even ~ Wallis and Vfets would wander
through the sea OF doubt in vain Secondly, all
spaces or breaks between wards should be care
fully avoided, OF, n used used to mislead and If
It is desired to render writing particularly df-
cult at the cost Of greater trouble let the secret
writing be expressed in another, like wheel
within o wheel, or the skins Of an onion. Any
one interpreting such doubly masked letters
might well be accused, like poor Trithemius, Of
protlng BY the assistance Of the devil his dull
representative Of the present day, spiritual me-
dunn. Thirdly, non-slgnihoants should be used
Often and our slphabets always arbitrarily ar
ranged. Lastly, the difficulty Of q secret writing
may also be much increased by writing in tho
Oriental fashion, from right to len, or, better
still, from right to LEFT and LEFT to right alter
nately, ploughIng letters after the fashion Of the
Japanese or the Greeks.
1t is possible that Danlel-we speak with rever-
ence-hrst introduced the art Of declphering when
he explained to the King Of Babylon that sad and
mystic writing on the wall. That scripture may
have been explained BY the Oabslistis method to
which we have before alluded, and in which in all
probability Jeremiah learned from Daniel as his
contemporary and friend Indeed the art Of de-
ciphering must have been very feeble formerly, or
the Lacedemonian scytals could scarcely have re-
NAMED difhculty; and yet It may have been as
good for their age as 1t is bad for ours. Gorgo's
advice was more piece Of feminine cunning than
artistic skill. A good decipherer must be man
Of many parts. Such Mercury Is not made out
Of every wood. He must be Of lively imagination,
good judgment, and retentive memory; he shonld
be we'll acquainted with many languages for
though the strange assertion is true that q man
skilled in deciphering and not knowing German
or Spanish, may yet explain q mystic writing in
those tongues; though this is true, 1t is neyerthe
less of great to the explorer to be we'll versed
in them. The necessity Of patient perseverance
1t is needless to insist on. Bruce and the spider
should be continually before his minds eye. Prac-
tice alone here, elsewhere, leads to perfection.
The dscipherer should first aid himself as much
possible by collateral evidence as to the remit
ter and receiver, and the date and subject Of the
missive.
He should then consider It under the light Of
certain linguistic criterla, In which he should DO
we'll skilled, in order to determine the language
in which it is written. He should observe, II pos
sible, monosyllables, Diagrams, trigrams, &C., al
ways beginning his investigation with the short
est words. He should set dewn on o table tho
order of occurrences Of each sign letter. Those
most frequent are probably voWels; where there
are only two letters, one is necessarily q vowel.
He should know the comparative frequency Of re-
currence Of all letters in all languages in which
the missive may be written, For instance, that
sc" is tho most frequently repeated letter in
French, English, and German-"o" In italian
and Spanish. That in the latter, "o is frequently
followed by "s," and ''u" by "e." That tho Eng
lish tongue abounds In monosyllables. That the
only monogram in German Is 20, and monosylla-
bles very rare. The presence Of such combina-
lions "sch, " "ich," should, Of course DO looked
for here. In our own language 81" and "a' are
the sole monograms Many other lights Of this
kind tho attentive decipherer will soon kinde for
himself We have already said that for decipher-
i=s patience and sagacty are both desirable; but
patience is yet more desirable than sagacitY.