The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1904-10-20
He FOUND A WAY.

Captain of Industry's Ingenious Device
for Sending a Secret Telegram.
The conversation at the club had
turned upon one of the wen known cap
tains OF industry, when somebody ex-
pressed the opinion that his rapid rise
to fame and fortune was more a matter
of luck than of anything else.
Don't delude yourself with any such
foolish notion said one of the elder
members of the group. u had one ex-
perience with him several years ago
long before he had attracted any gene
raj attention-and think you will
agree with me that it demonstrated a
quality of mind which accounts for
much of his success. se.a...- ....
81 was at that time connected with
one Of the big industrial combinations.
1t was necessary to the success Of our
plans for the future that we either buy
the plant Of a large independent compa-
ny in the west or obtain its cooperation
with us. Neither Of these ends was
easy to attain, because we had to pre-
serve the utmost secrecy, since il the
independent company got an inkling of
our plans it would adopt them itself;
and 1t was really in better position than
we were to carry them out,
1T was, therefore, necessary that
somebody who was not known to be
connected with US should conduct the
negotiations, so the gentleman of whom
we are speaking was chosen to do this
4 an Il ~ ,,1.l I'm ~ q, f7fa 70
"Well, he and l went to Chicago by
different roads, he going to hotel
while hid myself away in the home Of
a personal friend, where he came often
to report to me and to get Instructions.
4 Negotiations were progressing very
smoothly when all at once we came to
a point where we had to have immediate
instructions from New York, and there
was no way of obtaining them without
fully informing our New York people.
This was dangerous thing to do, since
it put the men in the telegraph offices
at both ends of the line in position to
sell us out for a temptingly large sum
of money. So ! worked nearly all night
over the construction Of a message
which should be understood by our peo-
pie, yet meaningless to anybody else,
but found this an impossible task. AT
last, since there seemed to be nothing
else to do and the time was growing
shorter, / determined to write the stu
alton out perfectly plainly and take the
chances.
EARLY next morning my assistant
came, as usual, and gave him the mes.
sage. telling him to copy it and send il
at once in his own name. He hurried
away to do my bidding, but in half an
hour he was back, saying he had not
lsent the message, because he had what
he thought was safer way of eommu-
nicating the same facts to our New
4 York people.
Now, when tell you the scheme he
had invented, you are going to say that
any fool ought to think that out for il
| is simplicity itself. So, am going tc
lgive you while to figure on it before
tell it,"
With this the speaker arose and went
into the reading room.
The remainder of the party discussed
several schems that different ones sug-
gested, but none Of them, when sifted
down, would have accomplished the
purpose. Then they called the old pro
moter back and told him they had Civ.
en- the conundrum up.
well, them" said he, 'his success i:
not due wholly to luck He certainly
solved one problem that none of Iii
Ecould have solved in the same time
He merely sent the message by two
lines, writing the first word on West
ern Union company's blank, the secont
on Postal Telegraph company's blank
and thus alternating to the end Of thu
long message. The result was that eacl
company handled only an unintelligiblt
tumble of words. Then, few minutes
later, he sent a message by the Western
Union, saying: Read both messages
together" This, Of course, meant moth
ing to anybody who did not see boil
messages; and as these could not come
together until they reached our New
York office, the secret was pretty SUR
to be preservd. ''B Brooklyn Eagle.