The Savannah morning news., 1900-06-14
FAMILY CODE BOOKS.
HOW SECRETS ARE FLASHED
SAFELY OVER PUBLIC WIRES.

some Are Very EIabOrate-How They
Must he Guarded, Lest They he
Made PubIic-Why Governments
Have, the Best Codes-Scme Noted
Examples.
From the New York Mail and Express.
The rigging up of sb cipher code is said
to be the most simple thing in the word
by. those who know nothing about il.
Those the larger governments possess
have taken years TO put together, and
some of the most competent minds have
been employed in their construction. No
withstanding the claims of many news
)aperg, Their is not d single code book that
ully meets the requirements of newsp1-
per work. During the war with Spain
many of the correspondents invented what
is known as a blind code, and che repre-
sentatives of certain metropolitan daily
which claims to have the finest code in
the business yelled their heads off trying
10 call the censors atten ion to the fact
chat the other fellow was using blind
code. This was because nothing coul1
be found in "the finest code in The bust
ness" to convey the ideas of the CORE
spondents OF the sheet to their office The
chap with the homemade blind code that
cost about 6 cents worth of labor to
make knew how 10 get his information
through every. time.
FOOling the Censor.
A blind code is rugged up in various
ways. bur the most popular is to wire
Send me $780," or, How many words
do you want?" which sentences. while
simple enough apparently, might NEAR
''Sampson's feet has begun the bomb1rd
ment Of Havana" or 1.-The Texas has be r
| sunk by Spanish warship," news G.
great Importance when the censor is wiz"
awake, as censors generally are. Blu i
| ness and government codes have been il
use as long as the submarine telegraph
the original high cost of cabling being re.
spoisible for their creation. The desire
for secrecy has encouraged the building
| oC business and official codes more than
| has the mere question of Geographic tolls
The Family Code.
The latest thing in the code line is the
social one. Within the last five years
families i'm society have arranged for Their
private use. Commodore j. Pierpont Nor
gan and Mr.. John w. Mackay have prob
ably the finest codes extant They are
used exclusively for conveying messages
of a family nature. One of the most sue
Cessful mining operators of America
whose wife and children spend much time
abroad. communicates long messages to
them daily by means of his private code
He keeps them informed of all the latest
society gossip, and they in turn convey
to him how, when and where they are
being entertained. This particular code
book contains 1876 pages and is the labor
Of years, in which all the members of the
millanire's family took part. II contains
the names of the individual membsr of all
the prominent families in society and adj
dilons and alterations are constantly
made to the work each side notifying the
other by mali of the improvements and
increases in groups and characters. A
similar book. though, OF course entirely
different as to the code words and their
meanings, was prepared for "A railroad
and telegraph magnate recently, the print
ing being done by a downtown firm.
which received The contract in a rounda-
bout way. The printer was paid by the
general passenger agent of one of the
railroads. the owner of the code controls.
and he did not learn whom the book was
really for until some weeks after it was
delivered and The types distributed
Danger I'm Losing Codes.
The creation Of family code is natur-
| ally dangerous where a copy of il is liable
| to fall into the hands OF an outsider VINO
may have access to the messages that
pass between the members of the house
| rold The social code being used for land
! telegraphing, as wen as submarine, makes
| it the more valuable 60 a dishonest en-
ploye.
butler in the employ OF man into
{ sted in oil recently dropped a piece of
paper in his employers room. The latter
picked it up. and was astonished to see
that the paper contained abstracts from
she family code book. which was sup
| posed to be locked up in private safe.
| The changing of a code book is not diff
cult. however. It being possible 10 move
the characters up or down as desired so
| that they represent new meanings. In
the case Of the butler it was found that
he was not dishonest, but had copied por-
lions of the book out Of curiosity TO know
| what the family was dong.
Has Thirteen Books.
The private secretary of a Wall street