The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1885-11-13
CIPHER DISPATCHES.
BUSINESS MEMS SECRET MEANS OF
CONVEYING IDEAS
Au Absolute Necessity Among i'aT..eEs
and Zig Gpera:o1s-Prepa CoET
for Cipher System-Cea-
sorsIiip of kilograms
New York Sun. !

New York SUM-
The countenance of The operator il charge
Of a Iraacb Office OF thu Westerl Union
Telegraph ,mpany, locaca1 on Broadway,
indicated anna cement tinctured with di.gust
Ie surveyed a message held at arms
lsngtb. The message was written
o the ao.npany's ordinary blanks, and read:
To JOHN CHALFANT. TUFTS ELEPHANT
CORRAL, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH: Xtbg-
g,r,zl, izqboptxag, cxmrtzulyo gTmitpaait,
IGIXxyzabx, racgkpmoib, oozkmra bty,
cGmt balm, hiayrtoibc, gobyaZz
In ths corner was written: paid 81"
That its unfortunate feature, for it was
not the alphabetical jumbo of the m5isaso
that ext ei the operators disgust, but
note from the main office pinned 10 the Dis
rui e . III patch. The note stated that the
Operator had been charged SI3J for the
Ii .-sl1e. An | warned him to DO careful IN
future abnu5 accepting cipher dispatche; at
II lower rate than that of a full word for
each ietor.
Il thought ten letters constituted word,
10 n. iter how they were placed; but Ill
In w etter hereafter" sorrOwfully re-
IN trksd the operator, and then added:
"The next man that comes in here with a
lot OF engagement English will hear from
mo-"
The rate to Salt Lake City is 81 for the
first ten words and cents per word in ex-
cess of that number
THE CIPHER BUSINESS.
ono. do not accept ten letters for a
word, no matter how they are placed ,aid
an official at the company'5 main Office. We
have had to stop that and charge for the
letters in cipher dispatches at word rates.
This cipher business IS troublesome to tle
operator AM makes slow work BE lies
that, mis- takes are 20 ,sib!e. We take cipher
messages now at rates as stated, but we do
not hold ourselves responsible for their cor
rect transmission"
"How about code wordsl'
ANY word to be found in Webster's goes
- regular rates, whether in message that
read, that it il understood or otherwise
We only discriminate against tho cipher.
The use Of cOde system is greatly on the
increase. Some make up their own, but the
majority of business men have systems
specially printed for them make them
up out of the cipher books, which are to be
had of all commercial statiOners-
Mr. F. Parke CODY, the adjutant OF tho
veteran corps of tho Forty-ssventh regi-
ment, when asked about cipher systems
took tho questioner to the fourth story of a
printing establishment, where thin, dark
little man, with intensely black eyes. was
found cutting three dictionaries to pieces
with huge pair of shears. The dicti 1naTies
were in English, Spanish, and German, AMI
them, which he pasted Oh paper, and then
drew lad pencil lines from the words n
written sentences.
PREPARING CODES.
ale Is connected with q South American
stecm'lip company, AMI il preparing copy
for a cipher system for his nfa' explaineI
the printer awe will not print moro than
IA hals Il dozsl of the books. but thu cost
will be over 500. After we strike of the
required number o. copeS we dc troy the
fornr< unl DO not even kes p a sample for
ourza W. You the companies guard
tier secret cpheri a man guard the
apple of his eve. II would never do 30 let
rival or iutsrs ted spectators got hoii Of
their CO les or tho com ANY would often te
fore .tti!sI III tIe mlrlst. We do con id r.
able cipher w rl 70" exporter AMI IMPORT
err, and men in the iron anu foreign trade,
as well as tor steamship compauie, bus VI
never allow ths work when Off the pr3ss,
20 be seen by any one except its
owners. Cipher systems are coming
greatly in vogue with the business
men of New York. There is great saving
of expense III the Uso of the wires and less
chance of misrepresentation and Mistakes
than when sending fully written dispatches.
Some customers arc very Secretive about
their systems, and others do not appear to
care for concealment. We get up IA cipher
system On the interchangeable plan by
which not even tho printer OF the book can
know the meaning of the cole words"
What is the expsnses'
Cipher systems, codes, as they ctS
called. when they are made to order, COST
from $50 mp. Some run hi IN rs 500,
and even moro when very extensive We
make novelty in book form con i,ting OF
a system which becomes secretivs by thu
selection of number. Such are sold at
stores, and can be used by anybody
At the Office of Hatch & Foote, tho bank
ers n sma ll,cIphCr book was exh bited to tho
reporter 1t contained name of stocks,
with orders to buy SELL quantitia-, adj
vice etc, all to be represented by worl,
or two.
CIPHER BOOKS.
There j. nothing Secretive about it." said
Mr. Emmerson. I'VE give the book, 10 our
customers. 1t is saving of money in tele-
graphing. and an easier AMI moro certain
way OF communication. We have no need
Of secretive system in our general business,
though the large operators use private
Codes
This was on inquiry found to b tao case,
but any attempt to get view of the pri-
vate codes WIS regarded trick of 3
stock sharp.
Cashier Quinlan. of the Chemical bank.
pointed to a pile OF books on his desk, and
remarse that they were the cyphsr systems
of various CORES poniing bank, anl that
much OF the business communications be-
tween banks is being done by cipher Banks
generally get ups separate system for each
bank with which they deal extensively.
The cipher books are carefully guarde in
the banks vaults, AMI even then cote Crieri
are vrriisl back and forth by Other code
WORKS. >ystematiZ,I for the purpose, before
a traus action Involving much money is con-
suiama ted