Daily press and Dakotaian. [volume] (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1875-1880, 1878-10-23

sists merely in the substitution of one let
ter for another; and there were other svs-
tens Of which we shall have something to
say as the course of our narrative brings
them into view.
THE DOUBLE CIPHEH.
For a very long majority, however, Of all
the southern secret dispatches there was
one system of double cipher, unyarying in
Its principle. though changing often in is
details and mode of application and a
little examinations of the pile of kilograms
suficed to convince us that with the key tn
this in our hands we should have little
difficulty in getting at the most serious OF
The operations Of the democrats in two il
not three Of the disputed states. The sys.
ten consisted OF a cipher within a cipher.
tt,st. arbitrary ciphers-generally geogra-
Dh'cal proper names-were substituted for
all %tell-.sle words and expressions. We
never find, for instance, "democrat" or
Radical" Hayes" or '.Tilden," "Return-
Ing Board" or 'Elec,or,' "Governor" or
"President;" we rarely or never meet with
numbers seldom during the most critical
days Of the couut) with the name of any
state Secondly, these subslitu,ions having
been made, the message was broken up aud
dlslocated, the words being taken out OF
their proper order, and arranged as if they
bad been shaken in a bag, drawn out al
random, and set down as chance dictated.
Here is the beginning of a long dispatch
that has been treated in the way described
Have Rhine river as is of follows Ediu.
burgh river Mississippi been of Rhine
river Rhine Syracuse parcel
TO secured Danube Potomac river sent
Chicago London Edinburgh be river of
T. r,;rh, ho ,ononn1 chat ,b, l;loo,,.1
words could always be put together again
nv the exercise Of a little ingenuity and pa.
tience; but anybody who may try the ex
pertinent for example. with the lines
quoted above (Which are complete in sense
so far as they go, though they are only u
fragment of q dispatch)-will see that the
task is by no means al.ght one. When the
meaning of all the words is understood, i,
will generally be found that a transposed
dispatch can be re-arranged in a variety OF
ways, oil making good sense and good
grammar. bu. all disagreeing hopeless!y in
significance; and when the perplexity is
increased by the Introduction of a number
of blind words, of which we do not even
know whether they are nouns, or verbs, or
adjectives, the attempt To reconstruct the
without the aid of u key is al
most hopeless. And yet the proper Sc.
Of all the words must be ascertained
before we make even an intelligent guess
at the meaning of any considerable number
of the blind words. The double cipher is,
therefore, one of the most difficult cryptic
grams ever devised, and it is not surprising
that the Democratic politicians whose oper !
ations it covers should have flAttered them
selves with The assurance that the Tribune !
never discover the Interpretation.
But almost any cipher, however intricate
and ingenious, can be read ii the translator
have a sufficient number Of specimens to
work with and there was certainly nc lack
of material in this case.
DISCOVERY OF THE FIRsr KEY.
The beginning of the discovery was a
guess at the meaning of one of
the bind words. A sub-titu,ion-cipher that
occurs with notable frequency is Warsaw"
1t ia found in almost all the longer dispatch
once it stands alone, as a message by !
Itself; occasionally we find it taking inAec-
tons, as "Warsawed" The conjecturs i'm
mediately presented itself that it pignifed
either telegraph or ANSWER" but as the
latter word is used without disguise in some
Of the same messages which contain 'War-
ssw," the other alternative was assumed to
be the right one-an assumption which
later discoveries speedily confirmed, "War
saw" proving to be the equivalent Of both
"t.le, raph" and telegram" Accepting
this definition as correct, the following dis
patch of ten words was re I'D 80 easily that it
might almost be said to rearrange itself at
fret sight:
[Cipherl
COLUMBIA. Nov. IA, 1876.
To Henri Hd eWeYer, NeU YOsE:
Warsaw they read all unchanged last ale idiots
can't situation. w.
Can'treadla last telegram. Situation unchanged
They are all idiots.
The words ia. this dispatch are trsnapoeed
according to the folio .ing order: go. 6
l, ~ s, 2, Z, 4, 8. Or, TO make the matter
pher, and illustrate the process Of transpo
tCipher.l
they read 8 ali i unchanged last are idiots 3
can't situation.
To make the translation, according 10 the
key given above, the 9th word Of the cipher
must come first, the I'd next, and then nanst
follow in order the 9th, lat, 10th, 9TH, I'd
7th, 4th and S,h. We tried the same Sc
nee on other dispatches. 1t fitted none
until We came 10 a second message Of exact
~ ten words, as follows:
ICipher.l
Me with yDf Anna communication put Weed
Charles can In. j.
This yielded to the same key Of transpo-
silioo, and the words beng rsarranged nc.
eording 10 The sequence already given, aood
she':