Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-09-04
A CURIOUS y
1nstesd OF Being q Wal Map of Afghanises
1t Proves to BE Directions for KNITTING.

A CURIOUS CIPHER.
11stesd of Being a War Map of Afshan,sta.
1t Proves to BE Directions for knitting.
AS the morning mail was being
opened the managing editor found the
following letter:
Editor of the Item:
-4-s-o-u-2-5-a-b-c-d. Drop one and
SK!p '"ree. repeat. JACKSON.
Then followed an elaborate chart
which looked like a war mar of
Afgnanistan with the names of towns
left out.
The editor wa puzzled. He read the
letter over again to himself. Then he
read it cut loud, running the letters
and figures together as if thew were
one word, in the delusive hope that
they might make sense that way. Find
ing. this unintelligible, he read the
cipher backward. This made no more
sense than the other way. Then he
took the letter and compared it with
the chart, thinking that one might
offer a clew to the other. At last,
weary of the task, he turned them over
to The associate editor for translation.
The associate editor had formerly been
the puzzle editor on a religious weekly,
and he glanced hurriedly over the man
uscript with the eye of one accustomed
to such things.
cts a puzzle" said he, sagely. land
I'll study it out some time during the
day."
Bet that was easier said than done.
The puzzle would not yield to any of
the Common methods Of solution. In
vain he laid it down on the floor and
peered at it from a distance, hoping to
discern in the crooked lines some I'M
seen picture. In vain he looked at it
from every possible position. In vain
he turned it on its face and tried to
read the reverse of it. The author was
evidently too old a bird to be so easily
caught. Finally, IN despair, he took it
back to the managing editor.
cts evidently a puzzle" said he,
''but it must be n of the new fash
toned kind that has come up since I
went out of that line of business. I'd
like to meet the man who made it.
though, he added with admiration.
The editor next handed it to the wal
editor, who was as much at home in
the biographies as the spring poem is
in the waste basket.
''This looks" said the war editor,
after examining the chart carefully,
like a war map. but 1 don't recognize
the country. I'll take it home and
look it over tonight"
The next morning the war editor re-
turned to the office with the manu.
script; which he silently laid on the
EDITORS desk.
What did you make of it?"
Nothing, replied the war editor,
with a sigh. Il spent half the night
comparing it with the atlas. The left
hand corner looks like Afghanistan,
but the center looks like China, and the
lower half was evidently taken from
the map of South America. The other
corner looks as if the writer was suf-
fering from delirium tremens, and had
drawn it with a. snake. The man is
evidently a lunatic. The letter is alb
solutely unintelligible. 1 don't think it
was written in this language at ALL"
The managing editor next handed IL
to the translator, who had once been
private secretary of an English Ad-
miral, and was an fait on the subject
of ciphers.
"Take it at your leisure" said the
editor, and translate it. I am inter-
ested to know what it means"
When the translator handed it back
the next afternoon he wore a look of
WEAKNESS on his face.
"Well?" queried the managing edi-
tor.
81 have studied that blamed thing TO
t%wenty-four hours" replied the trans
lator, hoarsely. 81 have read it back
ward forward and sideways. I have
made fourteen different keys out of it
in fourteen different languages, but l
might as we'll have tried to write an
other Hamlet. 1 think it rnnst be Cop
tic. 1t certainly is not Greek, Latin,
Sanscrit,. Arabic, Russian, German,
Spanish, Dutch, Italian, French. En-
glish, Scandinavian, Danish or Chi
nese. Those are all the languages I
know. I thought 1 had the right key
once, but the figures puzzle me. I
can't make head or tail out Of it,"
.How about the chart?" asked the
editor.
"lnaC IS even IuOfe mysterious Inan
the letter. 1t looks a little like the
cipher a man ono captured on Per
sian spy and sent to England, but I fail
to find any clew to the letter in it.
You had better advertise for the person
who sent it and have it deciphered."
The next morning the managing edi-
tor received the following letter:
Editor of the Item-Dear Sir: l sent you a
communication and a chart last week and am
surprised not to see them in your valuable
| columns. They are of great value to your
lady readers. The directions are for knitting
the new style of wrist mittens. I should
! have added that the material to be used is
knitting silk. The chart might be published,
too, and ould make it palmer to those who
are inexperienced in such kind of work.
Yours very truly.
Mrs. JASON BROWN,
Mustard Station, N. Y.
Philadelphia Item.
just Like Him.
An Austin photographer called at
the residence of Colonel Yerger and
found the Colonel in.