The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1886-03-12
CYpHER 1IRssAeRs By WIRE.
The Strange Messages that the Operators
sometimes Handle.

HAaAAAAAANA eAA4@ANf
"Alaudlln parrot kahn excerpt bread.
These were the words in a Western
Union dispatch that lay open on a desk in
q well known brokers Office at which an
ISTRLLlaEScER reporter, who had called
to sse the broker, had been asked to seat
himself until the broker, who was busily
engaged at the time, should be at leisure.
Without desiring to be unduly inquisitlye
the reporter could not help reading this
peculiar message, which was dated at Chi
cago, and alter concluding his business
with the broker, he pointed TO 1t and re.
isrred to it as an apparently nonsenslcal
arrangement OF words. "Well, there
wasn't much nonsense about the result 1t
led to-" answered the broker; ut has
reference to q wheat deal that Melted me
about S65 this morning, It's aClPher dis
PATCH"
A few days afterwards the reporter call
ed on Manager Tracy, Of the Western
Union office, in this city, and asked him
about the business done in cipher dis
patches, telling him OF the one he had seen
in tbs brokers' office. "We receive such
as that frequently" said Mr.. Tracy. I'm
fact, we are doing quite. business in the
cipher line and it is increasing; during the
past two years the number received each
month has about doubled itself. The
great town for cipher dispatches, though,
is Pittsburgh; in proportion to her size
she handles more mysterious messages
than any city in the country. They have
their origin in the Oil Exchange. For
tunes are made and lost every year by Ci.
pher. But to speak OF the business here
Nearly every broker and number OF mer-
chants use cipher more or less, and they
grow so familiar with their systems that
they can translate almost as fast as they
can read, Here is one received to-day"
he continued, spreading one out on the
desk that read a. follows;
gateway except Paska and Avorica
tomorrow"
snow that is an order in relation to a
staple that is to be raised or lowered so
much, The use oil the Cipher5 pays the
sender and receiver, but the company
loses money by It. There are some cipher
words in use that stand for sentence Of
twelve or fifteen words-sOmetime more,
The use Of cipher 'works a big saving for
those using it, and that Is the reason for
Its having become so popular during the
past two years"
At.er running overs Gle OF papers Mr..
Tracy hshded over one that read as fol.
lows; ~, 9, rs, A. snow, don't you
20 and play policy on those numbers" he
resumed, "ior that dispatch turned out, l
happen to know, a losing one 10 the pOr.
sou who received it. He was dabbling in
stocks, and going on the strength Of that
dispatch, lost. Deciphered, that dispatch
reads-suCh and such stock 7S!, the quo
tation at the time the dispatch was sent
Tho fraction is got by dividing the last
figure by eight. Thasystem 10 exclusive
ly used by the Gold and Stock line;
nothing but figures are used and 1t is
quite simple and very accurate"
In the time that Mr.. Tracy had been
talking he had been going over his file
and now he drew out copy Of a dispatch,
saying, "Here is funny one" thread as
follows;
"Do you accept offer Fifty, preach pan.
taloon perady, Claseness, latluyW
"Now, doubtless in that peculiar ar
rangement there is EMBODIED enough ma
teral for an ordinary business letter. As
1t Ia there 1t is surely model Of ConCise'
ness. Dealers in wool frequently use the
cipher, and ColIees, sugars, mOlasses and
oil staples are daily bought and sold here
by means Of the cipher"