The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-07-20
SECRETS OF THE RIJs,NEss.
An Operating Room Not Good Place fos
an Inquisitive Man.


Talk with Old Operator.
"a curious man has no right to be a tele-
grapher," said he. 1--WE are forbidden to talk
about what passes through our hands, and if
man were to try to catch the meaning OF
the queer and mysterious things he reads, he
would have no time for business. | remem-
Der once when I was in Chicago hearing some
of the men talking about big strike that
one of the boys made. His name was John
Gilmore, and he is a wealthy New Yorker
now; lives on his money and spends it like
lord, has his fast trotters, his servants in liv-
cry, his trips abroad, and all that. The way
Gilmore got his money. so they say in Chi
cago, and never heard of his contradichng
it, was this: You are not old enough to re-
member the vast speculations that the war
produced, when men bet millions on the re-
suit of a battle by buying bonds or gold or
cotton, when princelv fortunes were made in
an hour and squandered in day; when beg
gars rose in II month to Monte Christos, and
at the end of another month were beggars
again. You can have no conception of the
fierceness of speculation; it was something
like the war that was raging. Everything
those days was sublime. Men specialized
like gods, and robbed each other like
epic heroes. The mighty conflict that was
raging made men distrust everything Well,
in those days cipher dispatches were more in
vogue than they are now. Every speculator
had separate kind of cipher for his broker,
and half our work was done in this language
of shadows. We knew nothing of what We
were doing, whether it were battle won or
a market broken; whether it was the nation
or the stock market that was paved. There
was at that time wealthy old Spectator in
Chicago named Armstead, or Armstrong, or
some such name as that, who dealt only in
cotton and gold. He seemed to have some
secret source of information at Washington,
and never failed to profit by every battle, no
matter whether the South or the North came
out victor. All his dispatches passed through
Gilmore's hands, and all of them were sign
ed Spartica. They were never over dozen
words. These words had a peculiar sound.
They seemed Ikea language to Gilmore.
There was nothing of that harshness of man
ufactured words about them that one ALWAYS
sees in English cipher. Gilmore covertly
copied one of them and took it to learned
friend of his. The gentleman read it and
then said: The words are Armenian, but
they make no sense. 1t is a mere
tumble There is not word of it under
stood Gilmore was in a quandary He
went back to his table, and the next day
ceived another telegram for Arms trong. He
conn pared it with his copy OF the former
message. 1t was precisely the same with
the exception OF one word. He happened TO
come across a friend, who was Spectator,
and asked him casually about Armstrong.
The friend told him that yesterday he had
bought cotton Short but that day he bought
it long. That was all Gilmore wanted to
know. He consulted his learned friend and
learned from him the Armenian words were
for long and short. He knew that the cipher
word that had been used on the second
day must have been long, and the previous
day short. The fact that the word didn't
mean long in Armenian did not trouble
him. 1t was the key word to the cipher Bg
the word he got, think, six cipher letter.
and easily got the balance. He soon undeF-
stood what was said as readily as Armstrong
did. He made money rapidly, 1t is said
that on the result of the battle of Gettysburg
alone ne made $250,000. He knew the re-
suit before any one on Change. He doesn
speculate now. Come around during the
races and I'll give you some tips said the
old OPERATOR you know we get all the