The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-07-03
ROYAL CIPHER CODES.
Emperor Williams Complicated One
and His Dislike for Using 1t.
From the chicago Tribune.

+ rom tne NnlCdBO tribune.
Perhaps the world would not wonder SO
much at the Kaisers frequent visits TO
foreign courts if it knew the dimculties
of his private cipher As it is he prefers to
spend night on the train if he must com
municate with Munich, Karlsruhe or vi
emma than exhaust his patience on his
cryptosraph, that is about the most com
plicated affair of its kind.
This cryptograph, designed especially
for his majesty's correspondence with the
federal princes of the empire, is written
after the following fashion:
First William writes down the twenty
five letters of the German alphabet which
doesn't recognize "j' in "a horizontal lire,
indenting it fraction OF a space as big
as single letter This he repeats TWEEN
ty-tive times. with the difference, how
ever, of beginning the second and follow
ing rows directly at the margin. Thus,
while his first line ends with - "a"
marks the end of his second line and "b"
the beginning. as well as the end of the
third The last of the lines begins with
~ and also ends with ~
The first of the horizontal lines is called
language line the first vertical line on
the left election line
The key to the cipher, called watch
word is written in single letters under the
cipher letters.
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 election
lines.
Sometimes the watchword is spelled
backwards, again the method Of dec-
phering is simplfied by using only as
many Language lines as there are let
ters in the watchword
OF course, the Kaiser hasn't got the pa
ftflfa ng.ft
than he is actually obliged to do. Hence
his frequent sudden disappearances ia the
direction of foreign capitals For the
same reason Us ministers are frequently
obliged to chase after him when he is alb
sent from the capital. His majesty is too
busy to make out their cipher kilograms
ana letters and dare not trust the JOB TO
his adjutants.
The German government uses two dis
tinct systems of ciphers for its cOrre-
spondence with representatives. abroad
The one for ministers and consuls at
important courts or seats of government
has for basis a network of thIrty-siX
squares. The uppermost quadrate on the
left remains free The upper horizontal
and the first vertical line of squares are
inscribed by the five NOVELS, while the
German alphabet is inscribed in the rest
of the twenty-five squares.
The officia. part of the dispatch appears
in vowels exclusively. In writing it the
following method is observed: The word
ing OF the dispatch having been decided
upon, recti!inear lines are drawn from
the letters in the squares 0hat correspond
with those of the word selected in the di-
rcction of the vowels, and those upon
which the lines terminate are used, in
stead of the real letters.
This seems to be an improvement upon
an cid English cipher recognizing exclu-
1s.r
a variety of positions. were 50 arranged
that each in groups of five represented
all the letters of the alphabet.
The correspondence between the Russian
and the French foreign offices is said to
be carried on in a cipher of broken num-
bers. The letters of the alphabet lin which
the 'j' doesn't fgure) are divided INTO
five groups, and each is given a number.
In the correspondence this number figures
as the enumerator Of the fraction. while
the denominator gives the group to which
it belongs Naughts and numbers above
are used for dummies
diplomat told me that the true pur-
pose of the correspondence carried on be-
tween the Queen Regent Of Spain and her
various royal relatives during the war
with America were disguised by an agree
ment between all concerned to make GER
tain commonplace phrases represent com
plete ideas by signs, strokes or ink spots.
looking Ike slips Of the PEN" thus a
sovereign might have shown Christmas
letters even to his minister without Civ
ing away the regents secret intentions.
Empress Augusta Victoria Is fond OF
sending her husband political news and
gossip when he is absent on his junket-
ings. and to make il perfectly safe has
adopted a cipher wherein the first seven
letters of the alphabet are represented by
the second seven, the next three by the
last three, etc. Names she always spells
backwards, substituting in each the let
ter previous to that intended
The Empress Frederick used to make
her messages to her late husband unintel-
ngible by altering the place of letters
without changing their power, and by
transposing letters In irregular advance
after a certain system.
The Russian secret service which con-
trolls the wise of passports, often makes
it exceedingly warm for travellers IN Rus
STA and foreign countries by ornamenting
their writing with certain 1ourishes where
by the political police is advised that the
bearer is ian unsafe person or thar
he is capable of committing this, that or
the other criminal act. and needs watch
ing, moving on" etc, Sometimes num-
bers or letters, seemingly indicating regis
try, are used for these denunciatons
Among other curious materials which
have been used for pavement may be mem
toned molasses, mixed with sand and