The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Edgar Allan Poe [647]
This challenge has elicited but a single response, which is embraced in the following letter. The only quarrel we have with the epistle, is that its writer has declined giving us his name in full. We beg that he will take an early opportunity of doing this, and thus relieve us of the chance of that suspicion which was attached to the cryptography of the weekly journal above-mentioned--the suspicion of inditing ciphers to ourselves. The postmark of the letter is Stonington, Conn. S——————, CT., APRIL 21, 1841. To the Editor of Graham's Magazine.
SIR: — In the April number of your magazine, while reviewing the translation by Mr. Walsh of "Sketches of Conspicuous Living Characters of France," you invite your readers to address you a note in cipher, "the key phrase to which may be either in French, Italian, Spanish, German, Latin or Greek," and pledge yourself for its solution. My attention being called, by your remarks, to this species of cipher-writing, I composed for my own amusement the following exercises, in the first part of which the key-phrase is in English — in the second in Latin. As I did not see, (by the number for May,) that any of your correspondents had availed himself of your offer, I take the liberty to send the enclosed, on which, if you should think it worth your while, you can exercise your ingenuity.
I am yours, respectfully,
S. D. L. No. 1.
Cauhiif and ftd sdBtirf ithot tacd wade rdchfdr tin fuaefshffheo fdoudf hetiusafhie tuis fed herhchriai fi aciftdu wn sdaef it iuhfheo hiidohwid wn acn deodsf ths tin iris hf iaf iahoheaiin rdffhedr; aer Ad auf it ftif fdoudfin oissichoaPheo hefdiihodeod taf wade odeduaiin fdusdr ounsfiouastn. Sacn fsdohdf it fdoudf iuhfheo idud weiie fi ftd aeohdeff; fisdDhsdf, A fiacdf tdar iaf ftacdr aer ftd ouiie iuhffde isle ihtt fisd herdhwid oiiiuheo tiihr, atfdu ithot tahu wdheo sdushffdr fi ouii aoahe, hetiusafbie oiiir wd fuaefshffdr ihEt ihffid raeodu ftaf rhfoicdun iiiir hefid iefhi ftd aswiiafiun dshffid fatdin udaotdr hff rdffheafhie. Ounsfiouastn tiidcdu siud suisduin dswuaodf Stied sirdf it iuhfLeo ithot and uderdudr idohwid iein wn sdaef it fled desiaeafiun wdn ithot sawdf weiie ftd udai fhoehthoafhie it ftd onstduf dssiindr fi hff siffdffiu.
No. 2.
Ofoiioiiaso ortsiii sov eodisoioe afduiostifoi fit iftvi si tri oistoiv oiniafetsorit ifeov rsri inotiiiiv ridiiot, irio riwio eovit atrotfetsoria aioriti iitri If oitovin tri aetifei ioreitit sov usttoi oioittstifo dfti aSdooitior trso ifeov tri dfit otftSeov softridi fitoistoiv oriofiforiti suitteii viireiiitifoi fit tri iarfoisiti, iiti trir net otiiiotiv uitfti rid lo tri eoviieeiiiv rfasueostr fit rii dftrit tfocei.
In the solution of the first of these ciphers we had little more than ordinary trouble. The second proved to be exceedingly difficult, and it was only by calling every faculty into play that we could read it at all. The first runs thus.
"Various are the methods which have been devised for transmitting secret information from one individual to another, by means of writing, illegible to any except him for whom it was originally designed; and the art of thus secretly communicating intelligence has been generally termed cryptography. Many species of secret writing were known to the ancients. Sometimes a slave's head was shaved, and the crown written upon with some indelible coloring fluid; after which the hair being permitted to grow again, information could be transmitted with little danger that discovery would ensue until the ambulatory epistle safely reached its destination. Cryptography, however, pure, properly embraces those modes of writing which are rendered legible only by means of some explanatory key which makes known the real signification