Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-09-02
E~. Ia. 1<<,

1t will be noticed that the final r. In
your terminates abruptly. Had 1t been
made with a slight upward flourish, nke tne
IA in received, its union with the II
that succeeds it would have been indicated.
1t is a !aborious and cumbersome system,
with the sole virtue that 1t passes unsus-
pected-or did pass until false nihii1st
brother betrayed it to the Russian secret
service and the world. 1t is not at all IN
decipherabe to experts, once it Is suspect
ed. but, then. the experts are of untirif =
patience. habituated to minute research,
and the custodans of a tradition that dates
back to the days of Richelieu.
The Panizxardi Telegram.
The deciphering of the Panizzardi tele-
gram occupied the experts of the French
foreign Office almost a month; and as 1t
was. Col. Henry took advantage of a re-
jected phrase to make up new document
for the secret dossier." Panizzardi, Ital-
ian military attache. had addressed to his
government dispatch beginning: S34, II,
0iS 1900, 453, etc. These figures might
stand for phrase In french, !tailah'
Latin, German or English; they might De
taken from code book where each inquire
represents word; they might represent
syllable cipher. or they might even be
complicated with a grill. How the experts
decided in favor of syllable cipher must
remain a mystery of their profession.
1t was pretty evident however, that the
dispatch had not been ciphered letter by
letter, as there are only twenty-Six letters
in the alphabet, and the Panizzardi tele-
gram, short as 1t is. contains more than
twenty-six different figures. On the other
hand, a syllable alphabet may be COM
posed of thousands Of different figures.
Again. ciphering letter by Letter has gone
out. The old receipt classically embalmed
in Edgar Poe's Cold Bug" and the cyclo-
pedias. has brought 1t within the reach of
every schoolboy. Certain letters, like ''e,
s. .'r'' and st." repeat themselves oftener
thaY 9th pth kl h ttyN1 ''crr''
and ''ch.' group themselves together; and
the recipe, with a short phrase, like the
Panizzardi telegram. is to keep on trying
till they fit Now, the cipher in THE Gold
Bug may be a back number, but the
analysis of Edgar Poe remains. Only, In
the case of a syllable alphabet, the difficult
ties are almost insurmountable The same
figure may not repeat once in dozen lines.
One may set up a hundred hypothesis,
and be nearer the truth. until some 9TH
er telegram or letter in the same cipher
GENES along for comparison. Indeed. even
when certain figures repeat themselves-as
they did in the Panizzardi dspatch-they
may offer themselves to more than one In
terpretation-as they did in the PaniZZardi
dispatch
A professor of the Ecole des Charles has
just been explaining this to his pupils, one of
whom has shown to me trick cryptogram
of his own composition, that may perfectly
well read: Our friend Loubet loves the
sound of the flute" or Last year Bour-
geois frequented a Hamburger" or Mon
sieur Delcasse will soon have his back
broken!
Read in Several Ways.
The cryptogram itself reads: 1874. II, O4s.
800. 4I3, $500 525, 1904, a35, 74S, 1900,
4:3. Now, as only two figures are repeated
-1.50 and 453-they are the only checks
on the widest kind of guessing, the only
guides for fitting In Were an amateur
to stumble on the syllable bet for 45,, and
lou" for 1.5oo he might we'll triumph over
their fitting into a hypothetical sentence;
but when shown that ''bour'' and "geois''
and "cas" "se'' fit in to make up as intelli-
gible sentences figure for figure, he would
have nothing to prove that he was on the
right track