Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-06-10
WEIRD WAYS OF
KEEPING SECRETS
The Lemon Rub" Given to FoiL
Leaving Germany Suggests
Many Curiosities of Code
and Cipher

TNHE latest from Germany IL ~.
i lemon rub" According to dlspatchs.
folk who are leaving that country t,a.,
days under a cloud of suspicion are ~
only required to disrobe; the surface i
their skin is inspected for tracas !,
delioately etched designs of fortresses ans
maps of defenses and all marks surgss
tive of these are carefully rubbed VIII
bit of lemon. If this is so, any one W.
has used the slice of lemon that floats I
some finger.bowls, and who remembst,
the sharp sting of pain 1t caused in soros
abrasion of the skin, will sympathize
Latest reports do not state whe,hsr
the German agents have begun to shaw
the heads of their departing guests. Al.
though there would be good precedsnt
for so doing Herodotus, fairly reliahI.
war correspondent, relates this story,
Histiaeus, when he was anxious "a
give Aristagoras orders to revolt could
find only one safe way to make his
wishes known, as the roads were guard.
ed. This was by taking the trustiest q,
his slaves, shaving all the hair from hIs
head and then pricking letters upon the
skin. Then he waited till the hair grew
again. When the hair was grown M
dispatched the slave to Miletus, giving
him this simple message: when thou
art come to Mietus bid Arstagoras shave
thy head and look thereon" The mes.
sage on the head was a command to
revolt.
Caesars Simple Code
History Is full of curious codes and
methods of sending secret messages,
Julius Caesar and Augustus had code
which any modern schoolboy who knows
his Edgar Allan Poe can read-that is
IL he knows his Caesar, too. They wrots
d for A, E for B, and so on. But even
simple codes need time to unravel, II
they are short, for the shorter they are
the more difficult it is to determine how
the letters are redistributed. When the
Chevalier de Rohan was In prison await
ing trial, his friends sent him the fol-
lowing, written on a shirt: "Mg duhxc
clgu CHI yxuj; I'm ct ulgc ALI" In vain
he worried over the muddle, tossing about
on his cot in the feeble light, and at
last gave it up. He pleaded guilty
The message read: lie prisonnier est
mort; il ma rien dit"-that is, THE pris
oner is dead; he has said nothing" De
Rohan's accomplice had died without con.
Tossing; he himself need not have con.
fessed.
In 1880 De Louvois, French Minister Of
War, summoned one day gentleman
named Chamilly, and said:
"Go to Basel, in Switzerland; you will
be there in three days; on the fourth at
2 o'clock station yourself on the bridge
over the Rhine with pen, ink and paper
Write down everything that happens for
two hours At 4, mount and return to
Paris"
Chamilly obeyed, although he thought
he was being made a fool of. On the |
bridge this is all he saw that seemed
worth writing down. "A market cart
drives by. An old woman with basket
of fruit passes. A boy goes by trundhng
hoop. An old gentleman In blue top
coat jogs past on a mare. A tall fellow
in yellow waistcoat and breeches saun
ters up, goes to the middle OF the bridge
looks at the water, then takes step Dack
and strikes three blows on the footway
with his staff" Chamilly took these 1ot
tings to the War Minister, who read them
in a delirium of excitement. When ne
came to the yeIlow.waistcoated man Nne
jumped for joy and rushed off to tns
King. Eight days later Strasbourg was
surrounded by French troops and sur
rendered. Evidently the three strokes ol
the stick given by the man in yellow
were the signal of some intrigue by whlen
the magistrates of the town were TO de
liver it into NJ de Louvois' hands.
Complexity of Simplicity
Poe came to believe that he could read
any cipher based on a principle that did
not change in the course of the message
His mind delighted in complexities, bu' ~
had the acumen to observe that tns
simplest situations often seemed mot
complex to those who expected TO hDl
compleXity. For example, in his ruF
loined Letter" he has the detectives tsar
ing up the planks of room TO ma 'na
stolen letter, which all the while was y
plain view in a receptacle on the wall
The best methods of secrecy are the moss
homely and simple, Take ribbon y
paper and wrap it evenly around walh
ing stick Then write the message straishs
along the length OF the stick. Remofs
the paper and the message will be aos~
lutely unintelligible to any one who does
not know that the ribbon should p
wrapped about a stick.
Another remarkably easy method y
sending a secret message is to write IT'D
milk on a piece of white paper IL aR
pears to be a blank sheet OF paper uhlp
held before reddish light, which prlnks
out the milk writings several shaass
darker than the paper.