The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1893-04-27
'sOf the character I'll there are

!. ) |:
Nov, in English. the letter which
most frequently occurs is. O. Afterward
the succession runs. thus: o d h t
uyc Il I'm bkpqxz. E predomi.
mates SO remarkably that an individual
sentence Of any length is rarely seen in
which it is not tho prevailing character
Here. then, we have, in the very be-
ginning the groundwork for something
more than q mere guess. The general
use which may be made of the table is
obvious. but in this particular cipher we
shall only very partially require it's aid
AS our predominant character is 8. we
will commence by assuming it as the Of
the natural alphabet. To verify the sup
position, let usObserve if the be seen
often in couples-for is doubled with
great frequency in English-in such
words. for example, as meet fleet.
speed seen BEEN agree. etc. In the
than five times. although the cryptic
graph is brief.
"Let us assume 8, then. as e. Now, of
all words in the language the is the
most usual. Let us see. therefore, whether
| there are no repetitions of any three
characters in the same order of colloca-
ton, the last of them being 8. If we dis
cover repetitions of such letters so ar
ranged, they will probably represent the
word the. Upon inspection we find no
less than seven such arrangements, the
characters being ;48. We may therefore
assume that represents ia represents h
and represents e-the last being now
well confirmed Thus a great step has
been taken.
But, having established II single word.
we are enabled to establish vastly inn
portant point-that is to say, several com
mencements and Examinations of other
words. Let us refer. for example. to the
last instance but one, in which the com
bination ;4S occurs-not far from the end
of the cipher We know that the; i'm.
mediately ensuing is the commencement
of word, and of the six characters sue.
ceeding this the we are cognizant of nc
less than five. Let us set these charac.
ters down thus. by the letters we know
them to represent. leaving space forthe
unknown
1 eeth.
Here we are enabled at once to dis,
card the tn, as forming no portion Of
the word commencing with the first t.
since by experiment of the entire alpha
bet for a letter adapted to the vacancy
we perceive that no word can be formed
of which this tn can be a part. We are
thus narrowed into
t ee,
and going through the alphabet, if neces
sary, as before, we get to the word tree az
the sole possible reading. We thus gain
another letter, r, represented by (. with
the words the tree in juxtaposition.
Looking beyond these words for 8
short distance, we again see the comb
nation ;4S, and employ it by way of ter
mination to what Immediately precedes
We have thus this arrangement:
the tree ;4(t?34 the,
or, substituting the natural letters, where
known. it reads thus:
the tree thrt?3h the.
Nov, if in place of the unknown char
acters we leave blank spaces or substi
tute dots. we read thus:
the tree thr.. n the,
when the word through makes itsel
evident at once. But this discovery
gives us three new letters-o, u and G.
represented by ! : and 3.
r,nxx, ,,orrOxu1v fhrO1 OH fhl
9cipher for combinations of known char
acters, we find, not very far from tn
beginning. this arrangement:
1888, or egree,
which, plainly, is the conclusion of tn
degree, and gives us another letter, d
represented by I.
''Four letters beyond the word de
gree we perceive the combination
a48:S8.
'Translating the known character
and representing the unknown by dots
as before. we read thus:
tn rtee
an arrangement Immediately suggestiv
, of the word thirteen and again ful
nishing us with two new characters.
and n, represented by and y.
Referring now to the beginning Q
the cryptograph, we find the combins
ton
: 53ttt
''Translating. as before. we obtain
: good,
which assures us that the first letter
A, and that the first two words are =
!. good
1T is now time that we arrange on
key, as far as discovered, in tabula
form, to avoid confusion. 1t will stan
thus:
represents
: ! 8 3