The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-12-28

their clandestine meetings were TO be
held. Moreover. they told a lot of
things that they would not like to have
anybody know. 1 wonder that some
cheap detective didn't spy upon them
and blackmail them"
Gould a cheap detective study out
their cOde?" I asked, doubtfully.
"He ought to. 1t is about as crude
and easy to decipher as hog Latin is
Are they still carrying on this cipher
correspondence"
They were a few weeks ago. They
met, or at least engaged TO meet, at a
certain little restaurant at 4 o'clock IN
the afternoon of Sept. &C."
Won't those people think things If
they happen to read this and learn that
their whole newspaper correspondence
is like an open book TO at least one
cryptographer in this town?
This scholarly man, whose achieve
ments IN other fields OF learning have
given him the right to use that much
abused title, professor" says that Of
all the studies he ever pursued cryptO-
graphy is the most engaging and not
the least profitable to the mind.
when / have need of mental recrea-
tion," said he, II find more real re-
freshment in cryptics than in anything
sOrbing and furnishes good relaxation
from other mental labors, but 1t lacks
one Of the most interesting features
of cryptology. That is the personal
equation, the temperament of the per-
son who has invented the cryptOgram,
or the mental attitude of the person
using 1t. l sometimes think it is pos
sible to read a persons character more
clearly by the style of secret writing
which he employs than by any other
means"
You speak as if secret writings
We're common"
They are" he asserted. II venture
to say that 80 per cent Of the so-called
educated people Of this country and
Europe could truthfully plead guilty
TO having used cryptics. and the great
er part of them have probably gone so
far as TO invent, or partially invent,
systems No, / am not referring TO
business codes merely, but to cryptics
OF a more closely personal character.
Few of us are utterly without personal
secrets; and whatsoever wishes TO pre-
serve his memory of such a secret al
most invariably resorts to cryptic
writing. 1t may be very crude, a mere
sign in a pocket memorandum book,
which the writer thinks nobody but
himself can ever understand. or it may
be an elaborate system gradually. per
haps almost uncOnsciOusly worked out.
And this is where the greatest interest
in the study comes in: for the person
who has so invented a cryptic system
almost invariably Celebrates it sooner
or later and practically always does it
along definable lines which his partic-
ular quality of mind suggests to him.
You have heard that a skillfuI detec-
tive, having seen the work of a
craftsman, can always afterward dis
tinguish that particular cracksman's
work. Assuming that the detective is
deep enough to analyze the mental
processes of the craftsman, this is
true; for every mind operates along its
own peculiar lines.
You probably know how difficult it
is to sustain disguise of your hand
writing for any considerable time. If
the mind lapses for an instant you
make some letters, or perhaps even a
period or comma, in your own natural
way, and it exposes you as clearly as
the tone OF your voice or the imprint
of your thumb would. So the cracks
man exposes his work, and so the
cryptic writer Identifies himself. Sup
pose. for instance. you received an
letter cOuched in ingram
matte terms. Suppose also there was
a little semicircular mark, not larger
than half the circumference of a PIN
head, under a letter u What class
of person would you say had writ
ten it?''
Somebody accustomed to writing for
the press" l answered, since few
others employ that method of distin-
gushing u from n
VERY well" said he. Then all the
writer's elaborate scheme of hiding be
hind ungrammatical sentences would be
lost You would know he was not the
ignOramus he pretended to be-"
In the name Of the iattered press
writer's 1 thanked him, but he went on
without noticing my bit of irony:
THE cryptographer soon learns to
eliminate the nOn-essentials. Here for
example. is a personal which was once
submitted to me by a detective agency
for which l have done some decipher-
ing"