The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1909-07-21
The JUNIORS CODE,
BY THOMAS G. EckLEs.
copyright. 1909, by American Press Asso-


copyright 1909. by American Press Asso-
ciation.l
There are cases of individual stu,
pidity and there are combinations of
stupidity. 1t has been my fate to suf-
fer from one Of these combinations.
In my case it consisted Of man in
love and small boy who hadn't any
sense.
Mr.. Perkins. the Junior member of
the firm where l was confidential
clerk, was the man in love. His
fiancee lived in IN interior town, and
he was continually neglecting the 4
business to go and see her or in de
voting himself to her when she came
to town. He was obliged to go abroad 4
on business. and before going he called
me into his private office ana said:
Frank. I'm going to take you into
my confidence. am engaged to be
married, as you probably know. to the
loveliest girl In the universe. She is
Miss Octavia Allerton and lives at
B. shall wish to cable her occa-
sionally and have made code. of
which she has the key. Now. don't
wish these kilograms to be inspected
by the whole Office force. SO shall nd
dress them to you. AS soon as you
receive one of them take 1t to the tele-
graph Office and send 1t to Miss Aller-
ton. Now. be very careful and say
nothing to anybody, and IL you follow
orders and handle the dispatches as In
structed will see that you are well
paid for your trouble
promised to attend to the matter.
and when left him he felt assured
that he could send messages to his
fiancee safely and with secrecy. While
he was on the ocean received
wireless message every few days, and
they continued at intervals when he
got on land. l took them all to the
telegraph office and forwarded them.
There was an interval Of five days
during which none came. and then
received one Just rs was leaving the
Office in the evening to go to keep an
engagement OF Importance to myself
in q suburban town. Having just time
to catch the train. l called Joe. an Of
fee boy. gave him the message with
the proper address and told him to take
1t to the telegraph ot1ce. BE very
careful" said. ito see that 1t goes
all right II 1t doesn't. my head will
come of.
There's such thing as squirting PEG
pie to overdo things. l put too much
caution into Joe. If had said moth.
ing to him he would have handed the
telegram in without looking at 1t and
nothing would have happened. AS 1t
was, while going to the telegraph of.
fee he took it out Of the envelope and
read it:
Notary. alternative.
Not knowing that It was cipher
telegram, he at once assumed that
there was something wrong in 1t. since
Notary. alternative. meant nothing
as 1t stood He ran back to find me.
but l had gone. He set out again for
the telegraph Office. trying on the way
to make sure of the message He had
heard Of blunders of operators in re-
cordfng messages and concluded this
was one of them He put number Of
words in place of notary In order to
| make proper reading and finally hit
on the word another Another all.
Tentative meant something. Before.
reaching the telegraph Office he had
written another" in place Of notary"
The next day u cablegram came from
Mr.. Perkins that he would return Inn
mediately. He reached America with
in week, but went straight to his;
tiancee. The next day he appeared at
the Office. He glared at me as he
passed me, and, going into his private.
room. he sent for me. saw check
laying on his desk before him. 1t
looked ominoua He handed It to me
and said:
Here is your salary. paid to the end
OF the month We shall not need your
services any longer
OF course asked the cause of my
discharge.
II sent you a cabtegram from PAT
b." he said. TT read. .Notaty. aiterna-
tive" He HANDED me a copy oe the
cipher code the wosd notary" undael
lined. It read:
am very lonely wttssosA 20. IS
Then he told mo 10 turn to the vpsa,
alternative" end saw that It mea1t,
"lova" The whole message read:
I'm very ioaaav without 30. love. AZ
Meanwhile he was scratching SONG
thing on piece 6 paper. When I
had read the Interpretation q hls