The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1902-01-12

Cipher codes, two or three crude exam
pies of which were among the recently
discovered John Brown letters, have, for
years untold, been one of the most fasci-
mating studies to the man with the
curious bent Of mind, and have since the
time OF Edgar Allan Poe been play
thing, and an effective one, of the ro-
mancers. Now the cipher, in a most
elaborate form, is used by the Govern
ment, by business men and by the police
both for brevity and secrecy, as much
for one as for the other
The cipher code to-day stands as mon
unent to the progress of America in is
business deals. In every business house
of consequence in the world it is used al
most exclusively III cable dispatches, III
kilograms and at times in letters, and in
this manner it is of vast benefit as saw
ing money and preserving secrets, even
from the man to whom it is dictated. But
the chief interest in the cipher code hes
not so much in its Drosaic adaDtabiuLy
to the uses OF commerce, but rather IN
the uses to which it has been put in Grim
inal cases. in affairs du occur and in the
novel of mystery
INTELLECTUAL PUZZLE.
AS an appeal to the highest intellectual
faculties of man and as something to be
pored over and figured on the cipher code
is always interesting in its very mystery-
AND llVSS nave DSel TISESSu iOl C4-JiIsi
codes. Possibly the latest and one of the
most striking incidents Of this kind was
the saving of the cipher code OF the bat
tleship Maine when she was blown up IN
Havana harbor. It was feared that the
United States naval cipher would fall into
the hands OF the Spanish, and lives were
risked to save 1t.
There are ciphers and ciphers. AS used
by Poe the cipher gained its first prestige
in, fta hn,, r. Of ffo ron
case Poe made one of his characters solve
an intricate and arbitrary cipher through
the letter E. Assuming that as the tcttcr
e is used more frequently than any other
in any kind of communication, which as
sumption is correct. Poe called the SYM
boil that appeared oftenest e, and II: this
manner reached solution Of q ciLhef-
For instance. if a should have been
numbered 30 and z numbered I and the
other letters numbered arbitrarily. it at
first glance presented a difficult problem
Through the frequent use OF the letter
E. and basng on that an average. which
can be readily reached by counting the
various letters on one page OF a booh Il
cipher of this nature might be unravelled
without great deal of trouble. This IS
presuming. of course that the coTHuni-
cation in hand has no eccentriclty CT
spelling or of formation.
BETTER THAN POE'S.
In this connection a later genius in one
of the dime novels of the day threw out
a cipher code which paralyzed analysis
and would have made Poe blink II he lad
gone at it on the same propoSi-.0a I'2ls
cipher, infinitely more effective III e,cr'
way, simply doubled the z sign. as, for
instance. i. appeared in one place as J .:!ei
IN another place "A. thus making &c IN
possible to count on the basis OF the ct
npH1rrfnr 1rpnrentlE. A II
other voweIs had double symbols. and II
and T, which are two of the most ire
quertly used of consonarts, were SINH
Iarly honored If Poe's character had
gone against this one he would probably
have been at work. on it yet.
But III many ciphers it is not desirable
to hide the meaning any more than it is
to have the cipher present a plausible
front In this line human ingenuity has
probably worked harder than along any
other. Thousands of ciphers are trteil!gi-
BILE or. could be made SO If the idea OF
covering the real meaning OF the docu-
ment did not enter into the case lGnatlus
Donnelly in the Great Cryptogram takes
this idea OF Shakespeare in his alleged
eIucidatiou of the real meaning OF these
immortal contributions to the letters. and
after you read the book you are firmly
convinced that Dopnelly is right Others
have taken the same attitude toward the
Bible and worked out more or less coher-
ent curiosities.
THE BEST CIPHER
Possibly the most effective OF these is
one used by Dumas. This cipher Is con-
ceaIed in the body of the letter proper,
and is only ineligible to the one who
receives it, through an arbitrary key IN
the shape of punctured sheet of paper.
lis extremely difficult of execution. For
instance, say the following contains
cipher:
| 1--WE have, been unable to do anything
to save YOU All hope is gone. and while
your friends have been steadily at work
In Your behalf. we are losing courage
through continual set-backs We now
learn that 1t Is the purpose OF the soYssn-