Every Saturday,
April 14, 1806.

A PRIVATE INQUIRY.

, for the moment, restricted my attention. I found hat (taking all the groups) they ranged, with interals, from 5 to 268; in 37 cases out of the 55, there vere three figures. Discarding repetitions, I found hat under 100 there were 15; between 100 and 200, 5; and from 200 to the end, 13; a degree of uniormity higher than I had expected to find, and igh enough to establish that it was the result of he grouping being dependent on a plan.

I had thus determined that the divisions were not rbitrary, and that the characters used did not singly epresent letters; by inference, therefore, as they must be held to mean something, that in groups hey represented letters or words.

I now went over the groups of figures after the ots, and found that they ranged from 1 to 112. Dividing the numbers between these points equally t 56, I found, discarding repetitions, that up to With shat number there were 27; above it, 22. he light I had now got, all converging on one oint, I should, in a long specimen, have expected far more exact proportion; it was one of my diffiulties that I had to deal with so short a piece of riting. The proportion, however, was, as in the adto ormer case, sufficient to prove the existence of a ystem. The numbers stopped short at 112, whereEs, in the other groups, they went as high as 268; phe two systems, regulating the groups before and fter the dots, were therefore different. It did not bsolutely follow that they depended one on the ther, but the bracketing rendered it highly probble that they did. I considered myself justified in assuming that each bracketed group represented a

etter or a word.

constructed with the ingenuity of which this gave
evidence, it would have been very easy, had each
sign, by the indication of a page in a book, and a
line or word in that page, represented a letter only, to
pick out dozens, or even hundreds of each letter, so
as to avoid a recurrence of signs which might afford
a solution to the enigma. The repetitions, on the oth-
sign representing a distinct letter. The recurrence,
er hand, were too few to allow of the possibility of each
but not too frequent recurrence, of signs led me to
I
the page;
gave
believe that each group of figures within a bracket
represented a word. I had arrived at the conclusion,
was convinced that the number after the dot repre-
that the number before the dot
sented a line in each page. The highest of these
numbers was 112; now, it must be a very empty
page indeed which does not contain many times 112
words. The second number could, then, hardly refer
to the sequence of words; it could only represent
the line.

Now, what book would one take by preference
for the construction of a cipher of this character?
In any ordinary book, there would be extreme
difficulty in finding the particular word required,
-a dic-
amounting, in many cases, to impossibility; there is
only one class of book which will furnish immedi-
ately, without labor, every word wanted,
no necessity to indicate more than the line in which
tionary. If a dictionary were used, there would be
the word, in its alphabetical order, was found; with
other books, three numbers would be required,
for the page, the line, and the word, respectively.
ination of the cipher, I might test this view, and I
This confirmed my supposition. By a fresh exam-
therefore arranged in a table, like the following, the
There was now, how-numbers before the dots, indicating by a mark, for
a reason which the reader will see presently,
place of the absent numbers.

So far, the conclusions at which I had arrived had een almost forced on me.

ver, less certainty in my progress. My examinaion of the cipher had, nevertheless, shown me in what direction the probabilities lay. They pointed o a conclusion which might well have made Chr. Waitzen tremble for the success of my attempt. The first instinctive notion I had formed of the ipher had been confirmed by all I had arrived at; t was, that the numbers referred to a book, - the irst group of figures in each bracket indicating a page, and the second, a word or line in that page.

(2)

10 (2) 37

12
13

15

19

21

.2

110

the

245

38

(3) 121

175

202

256

230

238

265

268

Now, when Poe, in his remarkable story of The Gold Beetle, tells us "that it may well be doubted whether human ingenuity can construct an enigma of the kind" (he is speaking of cryptograms)," which human ingenuity may not, by proper application, a proposition safe in its vagueness, resolve," he must be held to speak only of ciphers which proceed on a plan the very method of which affords a guide to its solution. Taking the cipher in his tale, for example, each letter being represented by a distinct sign, the frequency of recurrence of particular signs leads to their identification with certain letters. His remarks can hardly apply to cases where, the signs used being purely arbitrary, their solution I had still something to do before I could apply my requires a knowledge of the prearranged plan. In test, which was the frequency of occurrence of inithe cipher, the meaning of which I was attempting tial letters. The frequency of initial letters, as they as follows: S, C, P, D, A, R, B, T, M, I, F. E, U, to discover, I had reason to believe that the signs occur in a dictionary, that is, without repetitions, is an arbitrary manner, letters or HI, L, G, W, O, V, N, J, Q, K, Y, X, Z. But the represented, in words. If this view was correct, the cipher did not contain within itself the means by which it might be reader will at once see that the recurrence of words This is what does in fact happen. For read; I could only be successful by discovering the of frequent and inevitable use may entirely upset very book used in its construction, and the mode of this order. currence of initial letters as they are found in ordiusing that book. The task, at first sight, appeared my purpose, I had to ascertain the frequency of ocsaw enough to nary writing, or more properly for my purpose, in hopeless; but, upon consideration, induce me to proceed. conversation. To arrive at this, I took up a num

I remarked several repetitions. Now, in a cipher

to.

inspection of all the pocket-dictionaries in sek.
I selected about half a score, that seemed more or
less likely to meet my requirements, and then
ried home, having foolishly left my cipher bead
me. On reaching home, I carefully tried my i-
tionaries one by one, in every way suggested by
what I had already learned of the nature of the
cipher. I at last found one, which, by taking the
first number for the page, and the second for th
word, not counting lines, but only words in the
alphabetical order, gave sense.
The title-page a
formed me that it was Webster's Dictionary, to
one hundredth thousand," and was published
158 Fleet Street. With very little trouble, I .
out the following:

ber of "Chambers" that was lying on the table, and
made an analysis of a few pages of a tale written in
the first person. I found that the order of initial
letters was this: T, A, I, W, H, O, M, S, B, F, D,
C, N, P, L, G, E, R, U, J, K, Y, V, Q, X, Z.
The letter T predominates largely over all the
others, owing to the frequent use of such words as
the, that, this, then, there, their, them, they, these, those,
Next comes A, owing to the frequency of the
words a, an, and, am, are, at, all, &c.; then I, un-
der which letters we have I, is, it, its, in, into; and
next W, including many such words as we, where,
when, was, were, who, which, what, whose, with, would,"
will, &c. In any moderately long specimen of "con-
versational" writing, these four letters, as initials,
will largely predominate over all others. Now, of
these four letters, A is at the head of the alphabet-tion
ical order, I at about the middle, and W at the end,
except by a few pages, in large dictionaries. I now
proceeded to apply my test, and found that the
numbers lay in a cluster towards the beginning and
end. Those quite at the end, I was justified in as-
suming represented words beginning with W. Tak-
ing the last number, 268, as giving, probably, almost
the last page in the key, I found that in a dictionary
of about that length the letter I should begin at
about page 120, or a few pages before, since the
small dictionaries omit numbers of words with the
prefixes in, un, and re, which go to swell the latter
part of large dictionaries, such as that I was using
as a guide. On referring to my table, I found that
there was no great indication of clustering towards
the middle; but the specimen on which I was oper-
ating being so very short, I could scarcely expect to
find all the points in my favor. Had I had several
pages to deal with, I could have indicated pretty
correctly the limits of all the important letters.

s canal was drag d Hwas arrest on suspicion FRED. I hear that search is being made in all á” servant saw another man in the cab at the time a pac man also saw him afterwards in it cab man not to stay where you a re I will advertise twentieth Na I need only say in explanation, that where a wr like "are was not in the dictionary, it was spell indicating the letter of the alphabet at the best in the word "dragged," the termination being in each division in the dictionary; a plan also adoper cated by the separate "d." It was thus possible spell any proper name or word which might not cur in the dictionary.

The contents of the cipher were so different tive what Waitzen had led me to expect, that it wa be? He could not have given me a wrong ship, evident there was some mistake. Yet what con he had called my attention to the word at the be had fairly earned the promised reward, but ti » was so clearly a mistake somewhere, that I was 20.

I

ious to ferret out the mystery, Waitzen had
me the date of the paper, and I therefore sent fr.
copy, which was got after some delay. Singul
enough, there was in it, just below the advertisem
second cryptogram was of the simplest descripti
I had deciphered, another one, also in cipher. I
one letter was substituted for another. In ten
utes, I had a translation of it lying before me. H

it is:
:-

FEDE. I don't think that I am watched; not

The key required to read the cipher was, then, a pocket dictionary of about 268 or 270 pages. It was very late when I arrived at this result; but before going to bed, I just looked at another point which I had remarked. I found two groups of figures identical as regards the numbers before the dots, but varying in those after; they were (236-49) and (236.54). By calculating the proportion to be given to each letter in a dictionary of 268 I found that the two words indicated by pages, these numbers should begin with th. There was an interval of five words between them. The compilers of small dictionaries proceed with so little This looked much more like Chr. Waitzen's aff method, that this interval did not guide me to the I had just deciphered it when I heard his knock positive identification of these two words, but as- the door. I showed him my reading of the first suming that they were of common occurrence, Ivertisement; he looked at it in blank dismay thought I could determine that they must form one of five pairs-that, the; the, their; their, them; them, then these, they.

I had now done all that I could for the present, and went to bed with fair hopes of being able to find the dictionary used as a key, for I reflected that two copies must have been required, one to compose, the other to decipher, the cryptogram. It would probably, then, be a dictionary in ordinary use, so ordinary that two copies of it could be purchased at the same time, probably at the same shop.

In the morning, therefore, I took a cab to Paternoster Row, where, as the reader probably knows, there are wholesale booksellers at whose warehouses small shopkeepers can supply themselves without the trouble of sending to different publishers in quest of works. At one of these warehouses I was known, and was allowed to make an

Police went down to Liverpool after you. Get as > as you can to A., where I will join you. I got the s all right. Steamer sails on the seventeenth.

when I assured him that there could be no mista and producing the key, showed him, greatly to's wonderment, how to use it, he took from his pocs. book a check which he filled up, and hande! me. "One moment!" I said, handing him the ond: "is that what you want?" I saw by his that it was, and he assured me that the informa given, slight as it was, was quite enough for him. explained to him how I had hit upon it. But words at the top! Well, after all, they were very dissimilar, in the letters that composed the at all events; and if they had got changed by se mistake, perhaps the confusion was not alte without precedent. Chr. Waitzen enlarged. figures on the check, and was preparing to immediate chase, when I stopped him. “D know anything about the other affair ?" I asked

Yes," he said, "and a curious affair it is; w you like to hear it?"

C

Ivery Saturday
April 14, 1866.

the

THE EXHIBITION OF FISH.

I nodded assent, and offered him a chair. "Two friends, A. and the H. of the advertiseent, went one day, about a month ago, to dine at foreign restaurant at the West End, and having ined, returned home together in a cab, both living - St. John's Wood. H. same neighborhood, ved nearer to town than A., and to his house acordingly the cabman drove first. It was a wet ight, and the cabman got down to knock at the bor, telling the friends as he did so that it was rainIt was perhaps lucky for II. that things so fell it, for the servant who came to the door, and who new A., saw him in the cab. H., after bidding A. od night, went into the house, and as he did so, A policeman w the cab drive off with A. in it. hom the cab passed a little further on also saw a an within it. That was the last seen of A. alive dead from that time to this."

A curious story," I said, “what can it mean?" Don't know," replied Waitzen; "but A., who is very close on the subject, had passed years of 3 life abroad in Italy, roving about no one knew here or how. His disappearance may in some way connected with his old continental life, and H. members a trifling circumstance that seems to ake this probable. He observed that when at the staurant, a foreign one, as I have said, A. suddenstarted, as if he had received a shock; in answer H.'s inquiries, he refused to explain himself, but ered his position, so as to face round. There was change in his manner noticeable through the whole ening; and when he bade H. good night, there s an earnestness in his tone that seemed to besen apprehension of a coming evil. H. had wished see him home, but this he refused. I can only ess at the rest. Some act of vengeance probably, long dread of which had always kept A. silent his foreign life."

But the police?” I said.

And Foschini, -— and the Waterloo Bridge busis?" replied Waitzen, shrugging his shoulders. The Waterloo Bridge affair?" I asked. "Yes, there was an Italian brain at the bottom that, as surely as Italians were concerned in the se of Foschini, whose habits, residence, and per1 were all known to the police, but who got off in te of them. It was well done that Bridge busis," he continued, half closing his eyes, and with tone of a critic who dilates on a masterpiece, talian beyond a doubt. A few months later, and e shells of the Orsini burst in front of the Opera Such plans did n't bear interruption. The lice are powerless before associations, where the Good day," he added, after a pause. f I don't call on you, as I hope you will permit to do at times, I think you will hear of my man the police reports in a few days." I did; Waitzen's "man was arrested a few days er, at Southampton, on board a boat which was the point of leaving for the West Indies, whence would no doubt have made his way to America. I never heard anything more of A. or of his mysious disappearance, on the story of which I had strangely stumbled. And here ends my history A Private Inquiry.

is strong.

THE EXHIBITION OF FISH. THE Emperor of the French has called on the vernments of Europe to help him in teaching They are all invited to send hermen to fish. ›mmissioners, next July, to Arcachon, the beauti

ful, soft-breezed bay which it is worth while to visit,
if only to learn the pleasure man may derive from
raw, preserved, and
perfect climate. There they are to exhibit speci-
mens of all manner of fish,
cured; all kinds of boats, nets, lines, dredges, and
other apparatus; schemes for the speedier catching
of fish, and plans for their artificial culture; and
finally, all marine products, from pearls and amber
and shells to whalebone and sea-weeds, from sea-
sand to cod-liver oil. Mr. Caird, who is always
turning up in some useful position or other, has
been appointed Commissioner for Great Britian, and
while it is certain that the collection will be a most
curious one, it is possible that it may produce some
The fish themselves probably will
valuable result.
not be entertaining. A cod has not eyes like a dog,
any more than a dog has eyes like a human being,
and there is a want of thought in a mackerel, a
deficiency of purpose in a pilchard, a feebleness of
expression about an oyster which will greatly de-
tract from the human character of the interest felt
in them. There will indeed be interest if the ich-
thyological aristocracy are exhibited alive, but one
feels a doubt whether even Imperial energy will go
that length, whether M. Fould will not shrink from
the cost of an aquarium for whales, and Mr. Buck-
land decline to wash the nose of a shark with a
sufficient assiduity of affection. The show of ap-
paratus will, however, be important. No craft has
remained more stationary than the fisherman's. If
St. Peter were to visit Newhaven, he would find
very few instruments in use of which he did not
know the meaning, and extremely little advance, if
any, in the modes of using them.

Of really original devices for catching fish there
have been, for two thousand years, very few, and
we do not recall one which has been absolutely suc-
cessful. The most promising, the use of the electric
light, which directed downwards brought the fish to
the top to see if the world was afire, seems not to
have been tried, except in experiments, which though
reported successful were not continued, and even the
boats have little improved. They have been made
a little bigger, but sails and oars are still the motors,
neither steam nor machinery being employed, ex-
cept to quicken delivery between the receiving and
the consuming ports. The occupation has indeed
been left mainly to a very laborious, very conserva-
tive, and very stolid caste of laborers, who in most
places live apart, and regard advice with dislike,
and interference with disgust. The sea in fact is
farmed on the system known on land as the petite
culture, and though the laborers combine better than
peasant proprietors can as yet be made to do, very
little real intellect or scientific knowledge has been
brought to bear upon the actual taking. There is
indeed a literature of salmon, Act after Act having
been passed for the preservation of the king of
fishes, and there are now in England, Ireland, and
Norway great salmon preserves, while the oyster
has been the object of some attention, but the com-
moner fishes have been neglected, and every group
of fishermen does very nearly what is right in its
own unscientific eyes. It is to that mistake the
world entirely owes the destruction of the pearl
fishery of Ceylon, and London partly owes the
The Exhi-
present preposterous price of oysters.
bition ought to bring out the dreamers, who have
done so much for all other occupations, and amidst
heaps of suggestive inutilities yield to fishermen at
all events the best shape of boat, a propeller which
can insure speed without great exertion or much

room lost in stowage, the best winch to add to the amount of hauling power, the best rope, a subject on which experiments seem to have been few, and the best net for cheapness, resistance, and durability, After all has been said and tried that can be said and tried, the fish must still be got out of the water by something with meshes, and as we already have something with meshes, invention must be limited to improvements in form and in material.

food.

Suppose herrings were sardinized, or may crel? Very few fish are dried in England, 6is not sold separately, it is in India, very d roes being made into compotes as good as caviar.pickling in oil, except for the purposes of chers: is almost unknown, and the only form of curr very much used has the fault that it over

The overcured fish, however, is universally pr lar, is eaten, for example, by country folk who not accept mackerel as a gift, and would bes credulous if told that any fish of moderate sea be cured as well as herring. Potted fish, like ted meat, though it ought to be one of the costly of luxuries, is in England prepared onl the rich, and consequently bears an artificial of a few hundreds per cent, and the poor ready tain fish only in the shape of red herrings, per and sometimes mackerel. Of these, even, the dom cook any properly, and we hope this d of the subject will have its notice in the exh at Arcachon. To spread the taste for fish the masses it is essential that it should be: which means in their mouths strong-flavored easy to cook, the last an attribute of fish almo known to the poor. It may be taken as a mar that any fish, from sturgeon to sprats, will well, without any worry of appliances; th would be nice, for example, if flung on to a fire, or roasted before a coal one, the former an

More can be done to secure the speedy transmission of the fish to market, the greatest of all the fisherman's difficulties, and possibly, though we have little hope, in the matter of keeping the fish alive after they are caught, which would be equivalent to greater speed in transmission. Twelve hours so gained would make all the difference, not only by reducing the average of loss from spoiled fish, but by immensely increasing the area of the fishinggrounds, enabling fishermen to go very much farther from the coast. It is, moreover, by no means certain that means may not exist of preserving fish after they are dead without pickling or curing them, and without any perceptible alteration of quality or flavor, a great discovery, if it could be made. Antiseptics are one of the wants of the age, and chemistry has as yet done very little either for the butcher or the dealer in fish. One race has indeed met the difficulty of keeping fish good by educating its stomach to like it best when it is bad; but then the Burmese have on such points exceptional per-pedient constantly adopted in America. A severance. After a few centuries of effort, originating in their dislike to take animal life, they have learnt honestly to prefer rotten fish, really rotten,-just as English squires like game a little high, and venison when its stench turns ordinary human beings sick; their waters therefore furnish an inexhaustible supply, even to the far interior. European taste is not, however, civilized up to that point, and probably will not be, ideas about hygiene gaining great popularity, and fishermen must look for greater profits to greater speed of transmission and changes in public taste. There seems in this last department to be a failure in the programme of the Exhibition.

-

any fish will bake well, and most fishes wou
well if poor cooks were only aware that som
sour wine is best, vinegar is good, but sorre
nothing should be put into the water, ani
fish can be boiled too much. When, however,
to be eaten as a condiment, broiled, roast, or bi
fish is much better than boiled, and preserve
better than either, and if the Exhibition mak
new form of preserving popular it will have
its cost. If it yields us a new and speedier ba
a net that will not break, or a mode of hauling
dependent of human sinews, it will have coté
an important advantage upon the entire cost?
ulation of all Europe. Science has done so * •
for mankind, but the saying that it has give
poor only the lucifer match has in it an unple
element of truth. If it can besides give L
new diet, or an additional diet, it will have a
plished something towards the only end worth
man effort, the diminution of the mass of him
misery.

The greatest obstacle in the way of the fish market is the difficulty of spreading a taste for it among the mass of the people. Catholics eat it once a week, because they otherwise affront the priests; but Protestants say, very justly, that it is not "filling," and do not recognize the truth, so thoroughly understood in Asia, that fish is not a food, but a condiment, intended by Providence not to nourish people, but to induce them to relish the A DAY IN BAD COMPANY. very tasteless cereals which will nourish them. Hindoos eat fish day by day for years on end; but they I AM a country gentleman, or, as that desert* eat it to make rice and scones more palatable, not of myself may perhaps be a little too ambit with the idea that they can perform hard labor on too vague, let me modify it by saying that I fish. Bread must for ages be the staple sustenance in shire, and have sufficient means to of Europe; but if the people could be induced to me to live without occupation. Owing proba appreciate fish, as, for instance, English hinds ap- this circumstance, I have acquired a certain preciate cheese, and Frenchmen cresses, and Austri-lence of disposition, which is shown in my cos ans cabbage, they would gain a most valuable addi- tion and bearing, even in my walk. I may tion to their luxuries. The Emperor, from this add that I am forty-eight years of age, of point of view, has done wisely in ordering an exhi- sturdy build, and with a ruddy complexion, de bition of preserved, cured, and pickled fish, for doubt to fresh air, regular habits, and a ent these varieties can be made much more flavorly mind. This ruddiness and the somewhat bot than plain fish; and we sincerely hope some specu- style in which I invariably dress give me a re lator will exhibit good and new specimens of those rural appearance, so that, in the eyes of the c arts. The rich, for example, enjoy sardines. There observer, I must seem to stand on a rather must be many fish, and much cheaper fish, which, step in the social scale than I really Occupy if cured in the same way, would be excellent eating too, I am told by my friends, that the expres after the same fashion, i. e. as a relish, and not as my face is dull, some say even stupid. Upar