Mystery Code Postcard

This one came out of a dollar box; there were several similar cards from the same sender. It's a common UX9 postcard, sent to Gageville, OH in 1887, with a nice St. Paul & Mandan RPO cancellation. But the message on the back is a mystery. What is this writing? A form of shorthand? Some kind of code? I've already held it up to a mirror, but that didn't seem to make a difference.

I have seen letters written like this as well. It might be an early form of Pittman shorthand.

Back in the day, lots of folks took shorthand training in high school.

As for identifying what you've got, try:

http://www.alysion.org/handy/althandwriting.htm

http://pitmanshorthand.homestead.co...tsample.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shorthand

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I've looked through Pitman and many of the other shorthand charts now and nothing really matches this lettering. I'm thinking it may be a cipher.

Here's the solution:
"Once more I come down to postal card…
…October twentyeth eighteen eighty seven.
Here I am at home once more. At all the home
that you and I will have. A nice comfortable
home of our own. Ohanna how I do love you. I am
thinking of you so much. I got here this a.m. (?)
+ have been busy visiting + packing.
I have all my packing done + am all ready
to start as far as that goes. But I want to
visit lots more + ….. to leave here
Saturday morning + go to Fargoston (?)
there… till Sunday evening at about
eighteen. Then I will get into St. Paul
Monday morning at seven fifty +
will leave at once for Cedar Rapids,
geting there between seven +
eight monday evening + then to
Mt. Vernon by eleven fifty. That
I think will be the plan I will carry
out if nothing happens. I am feeling
first class but I want to hear from you
tomorrow. That was forwarded to
me at Cavalier from Grafton.
I won´t be able to write my usual
sunday letter + perhaps I won´t
write again until I…
I wrote Frank that I was coming +
also my cousin to … professor
….. to have my room ready for my
….everything will be ok
for me. Well I must stop…."

The code was broken by reader Thomas on my Blog Klausis Krypto Kolumne: http://scienceblogs.de/klausis-kryp...mment-823504

Klaus,
Welcome and thank you, nicely done! Please pass our thanks on to your reader Thomas.
Don

Klaus, thank you for this!
One small item. In your quest you mentioned that you can not find St Paul & Mandan by Googling it.
St.Paul & Mandan was a railroad between St Paul and Mandan, North Dakota. This railroad was authorized to have an RPO, or Railroad Post Office in it's trains.

Peter

Don, Peter: You're welcome, it was my pleasure. If you know other encrypted postcards, feel free to contact me.

Klaus

Klaus:

Was this a simple substitution cipher, or was there some other elements involved?

Brilliant! I would also like to know the cipher.

.
Yes, I've PM'd Klaus (above) to ask for his help





I would dazzle y'all with my encyclopedic knowledge of ANGBATS PXP and UPSALA 3 TUR, but:

https://goscf.com/t/9771 ... Question about 1907 Swedish Postmark

So my postmark is 1890, not 1990, r-i-g-h-t ?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Just by comparing the first six words of the message, it seems pretty clear that it is just a simple substitution cipher.

I'm quite certain that ikeyPikey's Swedish card is in some form of shorthand, but I can't read it. I have this German and Volapük postcard in my own collection with a (Gabelsberger?) shorthand message that remains a complete mystery to me.

That's cool.
And I thought my handwriting was bad! :)

I've come across another coded postcard, this time from Canada. This one appears to be more complex. Perhaps Klaus is still around.

And another! I believe these are from the same writer and I also now think they are written upside down, so I have rotated them...

Apparently even back in the 'old days' some people simply had too much time on their hands.