The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1891-06-18
MORE CIPHER WORK.
The Real Meaning Of the Peoples
Party Platform Discovered.

Soon after the platform adopted by
the Peoples party conference at Cincin-
natl was given to the public, the peculiar
nature of the document began to attract
the attention of literary critics who sus.
pected that it must contain some hidden
meaning not apparent to. the ordinary
reader. The author of the document,
Mr.. Ignatius Donnelly, was known to be
an enthusiast on the subject OF ciphers.
A few years ago he claimed to have
found secret cipher in the works Of
Shakespeare by which he discovered
that Lord Francis Bacon and not VIM.
Shakespeare was the real author of the
plays. Donnelly published book in
which he explained the cipher and the
new method of reading Shakespeare
backward 1t was his strong propensity
for this kind of literary acrostics which
led the critics to suspect that he would
not be able to resist the temptation to
try his hand at constructing cipher of
his own and working it into the text OF
the platform.
They therefore set to work in very
much the same way in which Donnelly
began his search for the cipher in
Shakespeare and before long their labor
was rewarded with rich and startling
discovery. Beginning at a certain point
in the preamble and counting 80 many
words forward and so many words back
ward they obtained an arbitrary list of
words something like the following:
ignorance, agriculture, precious, done,
ally, mining, energy, solely, talking,
ought, whiskers, at, land, tax, price,
tinplate, reform. Selecting these
words in manner identical with that
pursued by Donnelly in solving the
Baconian cipher, they arranged them in
the following order: ign(orance) a (pre)
cious don(e) ally Of minGng) e(nergy)
solely taQking) ought (whisk)er of at
lan(d) tax is wrote tn (ose) (pr)ice (tin)
! plat(e) (re)form.
In translating this the reader has
merely to omit the parts enclosed in
parenthesis and combine the remaining
words and syllables so as to make the
following remarkable sentence: "Igna-
cious Donally of Minnesota author
(oughter) of Atlantis, wrote thice plat
FORM" 1t may be observed that the
spelling in this mystic sentence does not
conform exactly to Webster, but the
writer of the cipher doubtless had to
allow himself little license in order to
adapt his photography to the exigencies
| of the situation.
With this much as a starter it was a
simple matter OF arithmetic to trace out
the rest Of the story. The full details of
the disclosures have not yet been made
public, but enough has been unraveled
to show the names and real motives of
the originators OF the Peoples Cincinnati
Conference. The evidence 80 far
divulged is not enough to criminate
the persons whom it involves, but the
light it throws upon the fountain sources
of the movement will produce sensa.
ton when fully brought out. With
every appearance OF honesty and sin-
cerity it is plainly evident that the
leaders are actuated by ambition for
political glory very similar to that which
they SO loudly condemn in others. The
key to the PETER -Simpson-Donnelly
platform will be rigidly applied and the
complete inner history of the third
party movement and the sophistries on
which it is based will at another day be
brought fully to the public view. Mean
while let every Republican and especial
ly every farmer make close inspection
of its principles and see if they are not
for the most part a delusion and snare.