The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1899-07-08

which it communicates with ambassadors
and ministers, and the navy has what is
practically cipher, code intended pri-
marily for signalling, but so constructed
that it can be used for secret comm uni
cation with the Washington authorities.
The naval code is bound in a book, the
covers of which are Of lead, and copy
Of it is in the possession of each captain.
If the ship is about to sink, or be cap
tured it Is the captains first duty to
throw the code book overheard into the
"deep bosom of the ocean, The govern
mant clphers are known of course to
those high in authority in a general way,
but it is doubtful if the president could
translate a message from General Otis
without great trouble. There are in
Washington certain trained and trusted
clerks who are experts at the unravel-
ing Of oiphers, and to those the work
of reading cipher messages is entrusted,
says the New York Press.
ne State department cipher of the
United States is believed to be as per-
feet as any in the world, and, so far as
can be found out, has not yet been~un-
raveled by any other nation. 1t is, of
course, the desire of every nation to
have a key to the official cipher of
other nations. The United States had
the key to the cipher of Spain before
the Spanish war broke out. European
royalties have all sorts of ciphers. The
German emperor is said to have a pc
culiarly complicated one, with which he
is supposed to communicate with the
German kings and princes of the fedora
ton. 1t is alleged that this cipher is
Y13e
finds it saves time to take a sleeping car
and visit the crowned person he wants
to communicate with rather than try to
unravel the cipher. The following is an
explanation Of the imperial cryptograph:
First, William writes down the twenty
five letters of the German alphabet
(Which doesn't recognize 'j'') in a hori-
zontal line, indent!ng it a fraction of
space as big as a single letter. This he
repeats twenty-five times, with the diff
7sEff hG SgW e 5Sa 9Eagsf r. s sfe9 RRs
margin. Thus. while his first line ends
with 81" "a marks the end of his Sec
ord line and 'sb' the beginning as we'll as
the end of the third. The last of the lines
begins with ~ and also ends with ''z.''
T.. The first Of the horizontal lines is called
"laffg aage line" the Wrist verticle line
% A5 5Ss 81 to s9 ~ 5pke called watch
word, is written in single letters under
the cipher letters. .es
| The meaning Of the cipher Is found by
an ingenious method of mixing up and
exchanging the letters of the watchword
with those of the language and the elec-
ton lines. Nv 90 ,.. . ~ p - "a.
Sometimes the watehword : is spelled
backward; again the method Of decipher-
ing is simplif1ed by using only as many
Language lines as there are letters In
the watchword. - =
How charmingly simple! As clear as
mud. No wonder the emperor fees by
midnight train from contact with his
crytograph. and that when he receives
a dispatch in this cipher from one of the
federal princes he replies that 'His maj
esty is too busy to make out the cipher
kilograms and letters, and dare not in
trust the job to his adjutants." The
German government uses two distinct
systems of cipLers. One is for communi-
eating with ministers at unimportant
courts and with consuls. The other is
used for correspondence with ambassa-
doris. The first mentioned has for its
basis a quadrilateral divided into thirty
six squares. The upper square to the left
is left vacant, while in the other squares
of the top row and down the first YER
teal row of squares to the left are writ
ten the five voWels. The German al
twenty-five squares. This seems clear
enough, but the direction for working
the traverse on the thing after you get
tho vowels and the consonants written
in their proper squares Is another story.
The instructions are as follows:
The official part Of the dispatch appears
in novels exclusively. In writing It the
following method Is observed. The word
ing of the dispatch having been decided
upon rectilinear lines are drawn from
the letters in the squares THAT correspond
with those of the word selected) In the
direction of the novels, and those upon
which the lines terminate are used instead
of the real letters.
Now, all you have got to do is to com
prehend fully these instructions and you
will BE able to send cipher dispatch tc
q German minister at second-class
court. The German cipher used for com
munication with ambassadors was worked
out by Bismarck, and there is up to this
day no printed or typewrittem copy, mol
ds the key known to anybody except the
kaiser, the chancellor and the ambassa
doris. After connecting the crytograpf
Bismarck wrote the set Of eleven. key:
needed under his regime (that was be
ated) with his own hand, and when Ca
privi moved into Wilhelmstrasse he fount
In the secret archives. a letter advising
him to undertake the work Of making
more copies, whenever required, himself
This ito avoid mistakes" Consequent!
it may DO assumed that Herr Won Hole
ben's cipher, In accordance with the ira
dit!on Of the German foreign office, is II
the handwriting of Prince Hohenlohe.
AS Bismarck detested the mechanical
work of writing to the last degree, an,
as, moreover, ne had in Lothar Butcher I;
most trusted and trustworthy secretary
it IS evident that he attached immens
Importance to the safekeeping Of hi
cipher. Even the emperor is said to hav
experienced some difficulties in obtaining
his copy, Bismarck arguing that 1t Nigh
not be entirely secure In the kaiser
study One Of the adjutants or servant
might find occasion to look into 1t, b
said.
The cipher iaas In the neighborhood Q
SEQ words, by which the ambassador
must manage to express all they have t
say. Addenda are made from time. to tim
for technical terms or new names tina
may come up. 81
In the dispatches each word or phras
& respectively ID represented by g. certaf
s figure. spelled out Of course, and to prt
vent the meaning OF these word figure
from becoming known by constant repe
tition each amlba ssador Is Instructed
disguise his subtraction.
Thus. during certain days Of the yea
s ;}Ss