An ongoing discussion about the Beale ciphers was begun in an older post. Those comments have been split off and moved to this new post.
Proceed at your own risk! Before you decide to take a shot at decrypting the Beale ciphers -- or even to post in the comments section below -- it might behoove you to read the following advisory, which the unknown author of the first published copy of the ciphers included in his pamphlet, after his own failed attempts at decipherment:
Proceed at your own risk! Before you decide to take a shot at decrypting the Beale ciphers -- or even to post in the comments section below -- it might behoove you to read the following advisory, which the unknown author of the first published copy of the ciphers included in his pamphlet, after his own failed attempts at decipherment:
“... [D]evote only such time as can be spared from your legitimate business to the task, and if you can spare no time, let the matter alone. Should you disregard my advice, do not hold me responsible that the poverty you have courted is more easily found than the accomplishment of your wishes, and I would avoid the sight of another reduced to my condition. Nor is it necessary to devote the time that I did to this matter, as accident alone, without the promised key, will ever develop the mystery. If revealed by accident, a few hours devoted to the subject may accomplish results which were denied to years of patient toil. Again, never, as I have done, sacrifice your own and your family’s interests to what may prove an illusion; but, as I have already said, when your day’s work is done, and you are comfortably seated by your good fire, a short time devoted to the subject can injure no one, and may bring its reward.”
