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

n . AV1 V1 III . 0A3sS ANO WE
A more honest fellow than Pennington
Smythe never lived. He was young-say
twenty-five or three-full of large assort-
ment of varied enthusiasms, possessed of
an unlimited belief in the goodness of
human nature, and absolutely incapable
Of falsehood.
Aud yet, curiously enough, he had a
passion for mysteries. Although practi-
cally a common place Presbyterian, he
nevertheless affected to believe in the
mysteries Of Rosicrucianism. He was
perpetally striving, with conspicuous
wants of success, to magnetize his friend,
and although he was too orthodox to be-
lieve in Spiritualism, he lived in constant
hopes Of inducing his washstand to move
and his writing-table to rap, by the pa.
tient contact of his tireless hands As for
secret societies they were his delight
He belonged to nearly every ancient and
venerable order of very modern mechan-
les and grocerymen in existence, and
kept locked up in his trunk more flaring
gilt badges and fantastically trimmed
aprons, and horsc-collars than would have
sutf1ced to purchase the sovereignty of q
dozen African Kingdoms.
And there never was more honest and
straightforward little girl than Mary Nor
ris, to whom Smythe was engaged to be
married. She was just out Of boarding
| school, and her respectable fa,hcr-in the
| wholesale lard business-and her equally
respectable mother-in the wholesale fam
| lily business-and all her thirteen broth
ers and sisters of assorted sexes, were
ready to swear-or affirm, as the case
might bc-that Mary was as good as gold
aud many times as valuable.
The engagement Of these two young
persons was with the full appreciation OF
tho elder Smythes and Morrises. Young
Pennington was expected to spend three
evenings every week with his bctrothcd,
and they were always accommodated
with a convenient back -parlor in which
to converse after the manner Of their
kind. In these circumstances Penning.
ton Smythe ought to have been happy,
but he was not There was no mystery
about his love affair, and the fact weigh
ed upon his spirits.
He did what he could to convince him.
self that the respectable old Mr.. Morris,
who used to say when Pennington made
his appearance, "Now you children keep
out of that there back parlor, and give
Mary and her young man a show"-was
bitterly opposed to the match, and must
be kept, from perceiving that his daught
er 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 beloved
in very cramped hand, and to deliver
them himself. Usually he had to res1i
them, too, since his handwriting was too
mystical to be readily dcciphered, and
when they were read they usually con-
tained nothing but an amplitication of
! the innocuous idea that he, Pennington
Smythe, proposed to love her, Mary Nor.
ris, 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 secre-
cy..
Ono day happy thought struck him.
How delightful it would be to correspond
with his darling in cipher. This idea
filled him with calm, mystical Joy that
was really first-class sensation. So he
| devised u cipher of the kind SO much in
vogue among schoolgirls. and which
consisted in substituting one letter fol
smother, and instantly wrote brief note
to Mary. This he carried to her the same
evening, together with key, and attain
ed the seventh heaven of mystical delight
in transmitting it to her. .~--s~ =
Poor Mary suffered much from thi.
cipher. 1t was very hard work for her tc
write an ineligible letter with the new
alphabet. She continually made mis-
takes in it, and so kept Pennington ou
Of his bed for hours, while with locked
doors and shaded windows he tried tt
cipher some such sentence as, II do sc
long to sec you." It was only when mis-
takes were made in the use Of this cipher
that it became at all difficult of compre
hcnsion to an ordinary reader. Poo
Pennington had not devoted much atten
ton to the subject of cryptography, or h,
would have known that there is nothing
more transparent than cipher which
merely consists of the substitution of ont
letter for another. He was, however
soon to learn this fact in a very unpleas
ant way.
One evening Mary dropped not,
which she had received by mail, and j
was picked up by her father. The OLE
gentleman was wild with horror. Ther'
was his trusted daughter actually CORES
| IL IL
cipher Obviously the cipher must hav'
some shameful. secret. He sat in. hi
m-chair with the open note in his hant
and serious thoughts of immediate apo
plcxy in his mind, when his son Tom.
young fellow inst home from college, en-
tered, and, frightened at his fathers es
preston of face, asked and received al
explanation.
Tom.was . bright young fellow, and Ii
ct once remarked that II was hardl,
worth while to take to apoplexy until
was really apparent that the mysteriou
note contained something wrong. II
suspected that It was written by the nv.
tery-loving Smytbe, and he did not dout
: his ability to read 1t. The note ran /
I follows:
CRSM PSMX III TBDs XBC SY,
i I6TF8XN FIJI, O6YYHYDUB,
; NPXULS.
In less than tens minutes Tom had tran,
q lated this limo cent mystery into th