Wife Finds Right Key to Hubby's Love Code

1916

His Clandestine Missives Then Read Like Open Book to Indignant Spouse.

SAN FRANCISCO, California — A code used by Chester J. Capps of this city in writing affectionate letters to other women fell into the hands of Mrs. Eunice Capps, his wife, and thereafter the little love missives became to his wife an open book. The letters written in the code language were introduced in evidence before Superior Judge Deasy when Mrs. Capps was granted a divorce on the ground of cruelty.

Capps, an employe of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company, invented his code to carry on a correspondence with Grace Durbrow of Fresno. The directions for its use are as follows:

"Write each word backward and add a letter both before and after, so when you read it, all you have to do is leave off the first and last letters of each word and read it backward, as follows:

"A-d-n-a-t spells and, with the first and last letters stricken out. "A-l-l-i-w-y, d-e-e-s-o, s-u-o-y-a, s-n-o-o-s-a."

The code fell into the hands of Mrs. Capps when the young woman to whom it was addressed found that Capps was a married man. Accompanying the letter addressed to Mrs. Capps and containing the code was a copy of a letter addressed to Capps which read:

"I have just heard that you have a wife with whom you are living in San Francisco. You are a liar and a scoundrel and tarring and feathering is too good for you."

Investigation started by Mrs. Capps brought to light letters which her husband had received and written to several other women and these were introduced in evidence. There was introduced in evidence also a lock of chestnut hair which Mrs. Capps found in a locket her husband wore as a watch charm, and a dainty handkerchief used by another woman.

Capps explained that the handkerchief was his sister's but had no explanation for the hair. The letters also, he told his wife, were merely such as might be written from a brother to a sister.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 4.

Boyhood Chum of Andy Carnegie Passes Away

1915

"Thirty" Comes to "Dode" Moreland, Veteran Telegrapher, Once Captured by Mosby.

PITTSBURGH, Pa., Dec. 16. — Theodore ("Dode") Moreland, aged 72, a patriarch among telegraphers here, and a boyhood friend and fellow-worker of Andrew Carnegie, the multi-millionaire, died in a hospital here as the result of an accident which occurred several weeks ago.

Mr. Moreland, like Carnegie, became an operator for the Western Union Telegraph Company and it was while following this work that the two renewed their boyhood friendship. Later they served as members of the Signal Corps during the Civil War.

At one time during the hostilities Mr. Moreland was captured by Mosby, the famous Confederate guerrilla leader. Mr. Moreland's mount was a better horse than that of Mosby, but the telegrapher was surrounded by rebels. Mosby, after detaining Mr. Moreland for some time, contented himself by "swapping" horses with the Northerner and then permitted him to ride his inferior mount back to the Federal lines.

After the war, Mr. Moreland and Mr. Carnegie drifted apart, Mr. Moreland continuing to make dots and dashes, while Mr. Carnegie made millions.

Several years ago, however, when Mr. Carnegie chanced to hear again of his erstwhile fellow-worker, he ordered that a pension of $50 a month be paid him. This was done for some time, tho the pension for some unknown reason ceased two years ago.

Mr. Moreland continued his work at the key until he had reached the maximum age of 70 years, when pensioned by the Western Union Company, being one of the first operators in Pittsburgh to be retired.

"Archie on Skids," Was Non-Coded Reply of U.S.

1920

This Time Uncle Sam Didn't Want to Use Cable Code.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 18. — The only instance during post-armistice days when an American mission in Europe dispensed with the code and sent a message "straight" to the State Department, came to light here a day or two ago.

It was during the trying days in Hungary when it appeared probable that a member of the Hapsburg family would regain the throne.

Several American Army officers were so impressed by the popular sentiment in favor of Archduke Joseph that they sent a message to the State Department in code asking whether the United States would recognize the archduke. An urgent cable was sent back in code, which read: "No, no, no."

A day passed, then another. Finally, the State Department received a message which was not in code. It read:

"Archie on the skids."

And joy reigned in the department where it was realized the cable sans code was a mystery to any one but a Yankee.

Dictaphone Used to Transcribe German Code During War

1922

SOLVED GERMAN RADIO SPEED

Operators' Ingenuity in Use of Dictaphone Aided in Intercepting Code Messages

On a bench in the Bois de Bologne in company with mademoiselle, or in running or crawling toward the Boche's trench, the American doughboy couldn't be equalled for speed When it came time, however, to pass secret radio messages, where no particular, danger was involved either for the sender or the receiver, the Germans seemed to be able to make it a trifle snappier.

The aforegoing is apropos of the statement that German code messages were sent so fast that radio operators of the allies, who weren't supposed to be playing, anyway, were not able to take them. It was not long, though, until what the allied operators lacked in speed they made up in ingenuity. A certain operator, by the triangulation method, found that messages were being sent from a station in Germany to another in German East Africa.

After several weeks of work, this operator took a dictaphone to his station and set the blank wax cylinder in motion at a rapid rate of speed while a German message was on its way to Africa. After the message had been "caught" in the wax cylinder the cylinder was placed on a transcribing machine and then run so slowly that the mysterious dots and dashes could be taken with ease. Later, the message was decoded and its secret known by the allies. The knowledge derived from this operator's experiment is now employed in transcribing press messages from Europe to America.

—The Pointer, Riverdale/Dolton, Illinois, July 21, 1922, page 7.