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We have received the following note from our enigmatical friend J. H.
Mr. Editor, you have certainly fulfilled your promise to the very letter, and I hereby acknowledge that you did decypher my puzzle correctly in your last weekly paper. Pointing out the precise words by which I meant to convey my meaning. And moreover I am perfectly convinced from what I have seen, that you can decypher any piece of writing in which arbitrary signs are used instead of the letters of the alphabet. J. H.
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Our fair correspondent at the Metropolis, will find the solution of her puzzle in the following lines:
WASHINGTON CITY, D. C. }
Feb. 8th, 1840. }
Dear Sir — Having heard of your skill in interpreting letters written in arbitrary signs, we send you this, which, if translated by you, and published in the Messenger, will give much pleasure to MANY LADIES.
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T. S., of Boquet, N. Y. will find the solution of his cypher on the [[fo]]urth page.
We will reply to R.H. and our friend of Bedford, Lower Canada, in our next.
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To T. S. of Boquet, Essex, N. Y. — Your cypher is thus read:
TO CELIA.
When day declines, and sable night
Shall veil this hemisphere from sight,
I would, with no dull cares oppressed,
Spend each dark hour in quiet rest.
A rake and fool may drink and rove —
Night is the time which they improve
With such to walk I will refuse;
You are the company I choose.
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Notes:
These items were first attributed to Poe by Clarence S. Brigham in Edgar Allan Poe's Contributions to Alexander's Weekly Messenger, 1943, pp. 53-54.
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[S:0 - AWM, 1840] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Misc. - More of The Puzzles