New-York tribune., 1909-05-15
The directions for the reader are as follows:


Begin TO read on the large ornamental letter w.
with which the first line of the text begins: to the
right: all letters of all words Gincuding stage
speare Will arrive at the initial OF the "ora
Begin TO read from the initial F of the name
Fran which stands under the WORDS MHos
of oil the words: spelling Francis Bacon, you viii
arrive the letter in the word "thankes' (ninth
read ofIo from the he initial ord Of the to wqFa 9bi
spelling Francis Bacon. you viii again arrive at the
same Of the word "thankes
Following this process Mr.. Booth disengages
from the text an acrostic reading. who's there?
William Shakespeare, Exit; Francis Bacon. For
this releefe much thankes"
We have given specimens from Mr.. Booths
book in order that his cipher might speak for
itself and we may add that careful scrutiny II
his collection has shown that when his direc-
tions are scrupulously followed his acrostic
works out But this is not by any means TO
say that his demonstration convinces us Of the
validity of his cipher even for the purpose
which at first blush ii seems so effectively 10
serve There are many pointed questions which
the reader is provoked to ask he goes along,
and one of the first is whether there may not be
something arbitrary about the application Of
this cipher. whether it might not be so manipu-
lated as to prove ANYTHING For example, if 1t
were always to start and end at given points,
those points being clearly visible, and If it in
variably worked out this hypothesis, it would
wear very plausible air. But what If the
starting point is arbitrarily fixed where the lit
erary detective chooses TO have it fixed? We
NAV illustrate this very serious phase OF the
question by reference TO Mtons well known
poena on Shakespeare 1t is reproduced here
With
| What needs my Shakespear for his honourd Bones,
L,abOuT of age IN plleu stones,
or that his hallow,d Teliqnes should be hid
Under a Star-y-pOinting Pyramid:
Dear son of memory, great heir of Fame.
What need st thou such weak witness OF thy name!
Thou IN our wonder and asJonShment
| Hast built thy self lve-ong Monument
tn, "a sic numbers flow and that each heart
Hath from the leaves OF Thy unvaIud BOOB +oo
Then thou our fancy of itself bereaving:
.Ua go San,1Icher'd in such por1p doth lie,
That Kings for such a Tomb would wish TO die.
Mr. Booth states in his directions that if you
begjn 20 read from the f. of the word For
in the last line the right; upward; on all the
letters of all the words: spelling FIrauncls
Bacon you will arrive at the initial M OF the
word Name" which ends the sixth line from
the top. We have tried this and it works out.
P,t naturally, We have wondered why Mr..
Booth chose TO start on the For in the last
line since his mention Of IT as supplying the
only IF" in that line does not, by itself, settle
the matter To test the point we thereupon pro-
ceeded TO spell out 'Ffrauncis Bacon by the
same process only choosing to start it with the
..Fr" in Fancy" in the fourth line from the bot
tom Easily was the acrostic worked out, end
ing on the word 'Needst." in the sixth line from
the top. instead of on the word Name in that
line Furthermore, Mr. Booth is only able to
work out his acrostic by using the l645 edition
Of the poem. that edition containing change in
one word which makes his acrostic secure. His
acrostic will not work out in the edition of 1852
But our acrostic works out perfectly in both
editions Mr.. Booth would probably prefer his
own acrostic. because it ends on the word
Name" and he ends that Name" when he
finds Bacon In the poem by another process.
But we must confess that experiment with the
poem as indicated in the foregoing remarks has
only made US the more dubious about this
cipher. II he get his acrostic by choosing
the third word in the last line, and we can get
the same acrostic by choosing the fourth word
in the fourth line from the bottom. then where
is the multiplication of acrostcs in this poem,
or for that matter in any other, 10 stop?
This, moreover, is but one of many questions