New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-10-07
TILE TTLDEN CIPHERS.
cope OF THE CORRESPONDENCE.

SCOPE OF THE CORRESPONDENCE.
The CAPTURED political correspondence, now IN tho
possession of THE TRIBUNE, covers thePeriod DC
tween the Presidential election i'll November 1910,
and the completion of the count IN all the dlSpu'eu
States early in the following month. IL com
prIses:
/. kilograms between the Democratic managers
in New-York and their agents In California anu
Oregon, relative to the granting OF certlhcate W
one of the Democratic electors who was not
and the purchase of Republican elector 10
recognize and act with him."
Q. Teleprams between tho Democratic managers
in New-York and their friends and secret agents III
Florida during the progress of the count.
8. Telegrams between these New-fork managers
and their friends and secret agents III LouSiah"
during the same critical period.
4. kilograms between these New-York man
ayers and their friends and secret agents in South
Carolina during the operations of the Canvassing
| Board at Columbia, aud the argument before Tue
State Supreme Court, by whose interference Mt.
Tden's representatives hoped to control the action
of the Board
:. Various DISPATCHES between local Democratic
politicians in Florida and South Carolina, including
the series of kilograms the subject OF an armed
onnos,fion To Chamberlan's Inauguration, already
| unfinished by The TRIBUNE under the title OF " run
at the Fair"
The whole number of these captured dispatches IS
not far from 100. About half of them are In pam
English the rest in cipher. The plain kilograms Oh
course are not usually OF compromising CHARACTER
| except 80 far as they refer indirectly
TO transactions which are explained In other paris
If the correspondencc. Many of them however, are
amusing, and many are useful In throwing hsn'
unon the dark ways and vain tricks corcealed in
| ,,nl,,c NM
| last which constitute by far tho most I'M
nortant of the kilograms. We have devoted
| long and close study to them, and have at
last mastered the systems upon which they
were constructed, and obtained the keys when
| unlock their meaning. The public will undouot-
edly agree with us in thinking that the LABOR e4-
nended on this work has not been wasted
THE CIPHER SYSTEMS.
| The enbers employed were of several kinds. The
| orooo, c,rrcspondence was conducted by what is
generally called the " Dictionary Cipher" Here the
6rst word of the message be sent sought in
! dictionary previously agreed upon; tue writer
then turned back four pages lof course any NUMBER
of pages might have been chosen but III this case IL
was FOUR and picking out the word which occupied
n corresponding position Oh the fourth page. wrote
that as the cipher. The process was then
repcated for the next word, and so on
|
| lated tie document into plain English by
reversing The operation in his copy of the dictionary
| I, hapoeued that the Little Dictionary" used by
Patton and Patrick had been employ ed before in the
same way In the course of business transactions at
| the West and somebody who knew the
| cipher explained 1t as soon as the "ap-
| beD dispatch got into print. Several OIL
IN. incrm,nat,ug messages were thus deciphered as
| long ago AZ 1877 and when The TRIBUNE obtained
possession of the entire correspondence, the trans
| lations were completed and full and
| consecutive narrative OF the Oregon anair
,vas e,iven to the public See THE TRIBUNE, Septem-
her 4. 1881 But in the Southern correspondence
the consprators at Gramercy Park employed ciphers
of a very different sort, and of these accident un-
fortunately failed to give us tho key.
II ia true that the " Dictionary Cipher"
| onneared now and then i'll Florida and
sortb Carolina, but the dictionary selected was evil
| d.,tlv not the same that served i'll Oregon, and
| ,bere was no clew to the rule by which the
| hook whatever 1t may have been, was
IN he used. Another system of cryptograms. of
| which we find comparatively few examples, was de-
vscd nv substituting numbers for all the most sig
ni6cant. or as we might say, all the "tell-tale"
words in dispatch; for instance:
TALLAHASSEE, Dec. 1.
To HENRY H,vnMEYtR, Ne,r iorh ;o,.u % half %
| Sixteen fetch may make thirteen forty OF hat or
| a twelve eleven ten can you say two in nine lmme-
| a W. - twentv Fox.
| Some messages contained numbers and nothing
| else. The local politicians occasionally cor
responded in that simplest aud most iuthe
| NJ all cryptograms, which consists merely
in tbe substitution of letter for another; and
There were other systems of which we shall have
| something to say as the course oi our nniati'o
| brings them into view.
THE DOUBLE CIPHER.
| For n very large majority, however, of all the
Soutbern secret dispatches there was one system of
| doublc cipher unvarying in its principle, though
changing often in it's details and mode of application;
and little examination of the pile of kilograms SUIT
sed IN convince us that with the key TO this in our
hands we should have little difficulty IN getting at
,ba most serious of the operations of the Democrats
| in two # not three of the disputed States. The
| svste,n consisted Of cipher within cipher.
| First. arbitrary ciphers generally geographical
proner names-wefe substituted for all tell-tale
words and expressions. We never find,
| for instance, Democrat" or Radical"
"Hayesn or "Tllden," Returning Board"
| or "Elector" Governor" President :"
we rarely or never meet with numbers; seldom
during the most critical days of the count with the
name of any State. Secondly, these substitutions
having been made, the message was broken up
| and dislOcated, the words being taken our
of their proper order, and arranged as if
they had been shaken in bag drawn out at ran
dom, and set down chance dictated. Here is the
beginning of long dispatch that has been treated
| in the way described:
| Have Rhine river as Is of follows Edinburgh river
| Mississippi been of Rhine Copenhagen river Rhine
| Syracuse parcel to secured Danube Potomac river
| sent Chicago London Edinburgh be river OF;
:. II might be supposed that the dlsiocated words
could always be put together again by the exercise
of little ingenuity and patience; but anybody VINO