Show secret code in prison every prison has its secret telegraph for it was not to be expected that cunning offenders could be long confined together even on the sepa rate cell system without discovering a method of secret intercom munica alon prisoners rap their messages to each other and experience has shown that an attentive ear may re belve and understand a com munica alon thus made through the thickest prison the raps correspond regularly with the letters of the alphabet which Is arranged for the purpose into six rows the first beginning with a and the last beginning and ending the series with z the first rapping indicates the in which the letter is to be found one for first two tor second and so on the subsequent raps given after a slight pause show the number ot the letter in the row at first the table must be kept in mind but after a little practice the prisoner is en abbed to dispense with all conscious reference to it the message being real ly received as in the morse telegram phy in the form of symbols standing in place of letters in russia the clew Is not so much in the system itself as in the nihilistic method ol 01 manipulating language with a view to concealment this is clear f om what happened recently in one or the central prisons word had gone round to protest not only against an excess 0 heavy work but against the bad quality of food supplied to the prisoners and the protest was to take the form of a refusal to perform the usual tasks on the men being called together after breakfast somehow or other the governor ob bained the message as it had been rapped through all the walls but he took it literally as a plot to break prison by the whole of the convicts so be armed the whole of the warders to the teeth taking effective measures to prevent the assembly on the mor row this blunder had a highly bene fickal effect upon the discipline of the prison for the convicts obtained not only immediate immunity from the heavy tasks to which they had not been accustomed but afterward en joyed better food and more humane treatment |