Willmar tribune., 1909-09-01
THE JUNIORS CODE,

InL JUuIUn } UUult
BY THOMAS q. EckLEs.
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 1t 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
fancee lived in an interior town, and
he was continually neglecting the
business to 60 and see her or in de-
voting himself to her when she came
to town. He was obliged to 60 abroad
on business. and before going he called
me into his private Office and said:
Frank, I'm going to take you into
my confidence. l 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. l 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 ad-
dress them to you. AS soon as you
receive one of them take 1t to the tele-
graph Office and send It to Miss Aller-
ton. Now. be very careful and say
nothing to anybody, and II you follow
orders and handle the dispatches as in
structed l will see that you are well
paid for your trouble"
l 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 l received q
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 I
received one just as was leaving the
Office in the evening to 60 to keep an
engagement Of Importance to myself
in suburban town. Having just time
to catch the train, called Joe. an Of
fee boy, gave him the message with
the proper address and told him to take
it to the telegraph Office. BE very
careful" said, ito see that it goes
all right. If it doesn't. my head will
come off,"
There's such thing as spurring peo.
pie to overdo things. put too much
caution into Joe If had said moth.
ing to him he would have handed the
telegram in without looking at it and
nothing would have happened. AS it
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 it. since
Notary. alternative" meant nothing
as It stood. He ran back to find me,
but 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-
cording messages and concluded this
was one Of them. He put number Of
words in place Of notary in order to
make a proper reading and finally hit
on the word another" Another al
tentative" meant something Before
reaching the telegraph Office he had
written another" In place Of notary"
The next day cablegram came from
Mr.. Perkins that he would return i'm
mediately. He reached America with
In week, but went straight to his
fancee. 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. l saw check
laying On his desk before him. 1t
looked ominous. 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 l asked the cause of nv
discharge.
II sent you cablegram from Par.
is," he said. 1T read. Notary. alterna.
tive" He handed me a copy Of the
cipher code. the word notary under
lined. 1t read:
am very lonely without you.
Then he told me to turn to the word
alternative" and saw that 1t meant
'love." The whole message read:
I'm very lonely without you. love.
Meanwhile he was scratching some.
thing on a piece Of paper. When ]
had read the Interpretation Of his
message he said, "Would you like to
know how that message read when II
was received by Miss AllertonY' re-
piled that l would. and he handed me
! what he had written:
I have found another love.
I explained to him how the blundel
occurred, but my excuses made no i'm
preston on him. Turning to his desk
he indicated that the interview was
ended.
Going out, met the head Of the
firm. "Pm sorry for you. Carter" he