The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1898-05-08
JARG0N.
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tion room and the corridors, waiting
for the news.
The naval cipher is one Of the most
complex in the world. The messages
came in words Of strange formation,
taken from all languages. These
words are turned by the trhuslating
clerks into groups OF figures, and these
in turn are resolved into their equiva.
lent words in English, All this takes
time. Meanwhile Secretary Alger,
hearing Of the receipt Of news, had
come over from the war department,
but he was obliged to wait patiently
FOR the translation. Senator Hoar, a
member of the foreign relations com.
mittee, also joined Secretary Long and
waited upon the experts. About 10
o'clock Assistant Secretary Roosevelt
in the kindness of his heart, and, as
he expressed it, as perhaps the last
favor he would be able to bestow upon
the newspaper men, came to their
relief and gave them a short abstract
Of the cablegram so far as unraveled.
This only whetted the interest Of the
crowd in waiting. Half an hour later
Secretary Long appeared with a copy
Of the translated cipher in his hand.
There was a great rush towards him,
but the secretary good-naturedly made
| allowance for the excitement of the
crowd and smilingly read from the
| corner OF the room, into which he had
been forced, the following cablegram:
MANILA, May 1.-Squadron arrived
at Manila at daybreak this morning.
| Immediately engaged the enemy and
des troyed the following vessels; Reina
Cristina, Castillo, Don Antonio de
Ul,oa, Isla dc Luzon, Isla de Cuba,
| General Lezo, Marquis de Duero, Cor
REQ, Nelaso, Isla de Mindanao, a trans
port and water battery at Cavite The
quadron is uninjured and only few
n en are slightly injured. Only means
of ttlegraphing is to American consul
at Hong Kong. l shall communicate
with him. DEWEY"
IL was Immediately noticed that the
official eablegram as translated did
no entirely agree with the brief sum
mary { I its points which had been pre-
yiously gi' el out, and the immediate
presumption was that in the short
time accorded for consideration the
/ officials had concluded that IL was
| p lblic policy to eXpurgate the dis
patch. Thus, as made public, it con
tained no reference to the cutting of
the cable by Commodore Dewey, to the
fact that he lacked men TO take posses
sion Of the place, and finally that he
had the entire bay of Manila st his
mercy
IL was also noticed that the dispatch
| bore date OF May 1. The MeCulloch
! could not have occupied more than six
days in making the short run across TO
Hong Kong, Therefore 1t was imme-
diately assumed that the above dis.
patch was only the first Of two more
that had been brought over to Hong
Kong by the McCulloch. In other
words, Commodore Dewey had written
Sunday, stating in his message the
brief account OF the days work. In
stead OF sending il Immediately by the
McCulloch to Hong Kong, he had de-
layed that vessel for two or three days
AZ least, probably 10 use her in the
subsequent bonn mbardment OF the town
and forts. The events of these last
few days were. without doubt, made
the subject OF one or more official dis
patches which are to follow the origi-
nal message. The department at 10
o'clock, after the first message was at
hand, was still receiving sheets Of the
cipher code from the telegraph com.
pany while the cipher experts were
still al work behind heavy clo9ed doors
Of the navigation bureau