TIT-BITS. SOME GOOD SIMILES.

Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 143, 14 December 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

TIT-BITS. SOME GOOD SIMILES.

As wet as a fish — as dry as a bone; As live as a bird — as dead as a stone ; As plump as a partridge — as poor as a rat ; As strong as a horse — as weak as a cat ; As hard as a flint — as soft as a mole ; As white as a lily — as black as a coal ; As plain as a pike staff — as rough as a bear ; As tight as a drum — as free as the air ; As heavy as lead — as light as a feather ; As steady as time — uncertain as weather ; As hot as an oven — as cold as a frog; As gay as a lark — as sick as a dog. A happy phrase, an habitual precision in the choice of terms, are raro and shining ornaments of conversation ; but they do not for an instant supply the place of lively and interesting matter ; and an excessive care for them is apt to tell unfavourably on the substance of discourse. In conversation, as in literature, it is more necessary to have something to say than to say it well. Much boast, little roast ; They do least who talk the most. Economy ib of itself a great revenue — Cicero. Happiness is no other than Boundne?s and perfection of mind. I Punishment must be like salad that has more oil than vinegar in it. Truth and justice are the foundations of life — Palmer. A state of dejection is like a sponge; it increases with tears. Comparison, more than reality, makes men happy and can make them wretched. Life is a comedy to him who thinks, and a tragedy to him who feels. — Horace Walpole. Do not yield to misfortunes, but meet them with fortitude. — Virgil. The wit is in what you hear, not in what the speaker says. — Emerson. We swallow at one mouthful the lie that flatters, and drink drop by drop the truth that is bitter. The true manner of judging of the worth of amusements is to try them by their effects on the nerves and spirits the day after. True amusement ought to be, as the word indicates, recreation — something that refreshes, turns us out anew, rests the mind and body by change, and gives cheerfulness and alacrity to our return to duty. — Harriet Beecher Stowe. Love is the mind's light and heat ; it is that tenuous air in which all the other faculties exist in the atmosphere. A mind of the greatest stature without love is like the huge pyramid of Egypt, chill and cheerless in all its dark halls and passages ; a mind with love is a king's palace lighted for a royal festival. There are two ways of being happy — we may either diminish our wants or augment our means — either will do — the result is tho same ; and it is for each man to decide for himself, and do that which happens to be the easiest. The compassion of those who have not suffered comes to you like an iced breeze which cools the heat of the sun. The sympathy of those who have suffered is, like the sirocco, warm, even in winter ; but it only relaxes you. CRYPTOGRAPHY SIMPLIFIED. The art of secret writing, or cryptography as it is termed, was not unknown to the ancients. Ovid taught young women, in order to deceive their guardians, to write to their lovers in new milk, the writing to be made legible by means of coal-dust or soot. Ausonius (a.d. 315 — 392) gives similar advice. But old as the idea of secret writing is known to be, it has been left to the ingenuity of a latter-day inventor to simplify it, and at the same time render it more valuable as a confidential agency, by means of mechanism. Hitherto the necessity which has existed for absolutely private correspondence has been provided for by codes, cipher words and other preananged signals, to plan which has required an infinitude of thought, trouble, and ingenuity, with the final result after all, very often, of no great security against detection. Now, however, a means is available for ensuring perfect secresy, combined with econ- j omy of both time and brain-work. A demonstration took place on Saturday last with the apparatus in question, known as the "Wier Cryptograph," at the offices of the Eureka Mechanical AVriter Company, 9, Strand, London, at which it was shown to fully bear out the main claims put forward by its inventor. The following is a brief specification : The apparatus is only about 12in. long by 3in. wide and l^in. high. It consists of a type-carrier for ordinary letters and figures, which can be placed in any order that may be desired. There is also a moveable index plate, on which the letters and figures appear in the order in which they are placed in the typecarrier. On a small tablet in the centre of the machine are four white spaces and a central black one, and opposite these spaces is a moveable pointer. By setting the pointer to the black space the machine can be used as an ordinary typewriter. To work it the index plate is shifted to the right or left until each required letter is in front of a pointer connected with the printing key. By adjusting the plate and pressing the key an ordinary type-written letter can be prepared. For secret writing the moveable pointer is set, say, to the first white space, reading from left to right. A message can

then be written in an unintelligible cipher, which can be varied in its details as may be previously agreed upon by the parties corresponding. If so agreed the recipient of the message sets his moveable pointer to the fourth white apace, and then reproduces, as it would seem, the jumble of letters and figures in the communication before him. But on removing the printed paper from the machine ho will find that he has before him in clear and intelligible language the precise information the sender desired to convey. There are, of course, arrangements for spacing both words and lines, and for changing the places of the types if desired. There are a great many ways of using this ingenious mechanical apparatus so as to render it impossible for anyone other than the parties possessing the key to the secret code, and which is known only to each other, to decipher the writing. The system is already under the consideration of our naval and military authorities, as well as that of the head officials of the Post Office and of various Government departments, and has evidently a very useful future before it. The price for the double apparatus was stated to be ten guineas — a by no means prohibitive figure.