codes that only you and I know

["homo obsolescensis" <XB.K98@STANFORD.BITNET>]

THE MESSAGE
On New Year's Day, 1929, Bess, who had been ill with influenza,
fainted and fell down a flight of stairs in her home on Payson
Avenue.  Two days later a story by Rea jaure headed "Widow Ill,
Communes With Houdini," appeared in the New York Evening Graphic.
it reported that Bess, while in a "semidelirium," had called out:
"Harry, dear, why don't you ce to me from the other side?"  Then,
extending her arms as though to grasp him, sh cried: "I knew you
would come back to me, my dear."  since the accident, which
injured her spine, she had blacked out frequently and "was under
constant care of physicians."

Shortly past noon on January 8, a seance was held in mrs.
Houdini's living room.  The Rev. Arthur Ford arranged the
tapestry-backed chairs in a semicircle around the French gilt
sofa on which Bess, her head wrapped in bandages, lay covered
with sheets and a blanket.  Eleven months before, Ford had
succeeded in getting the word "forgive" from Houdini's mother in
the spirit world.  On January 5, just three days before the
seance and -- by the strangest of  coincidences -- just two days
after the story in the Graphic appeared, Ford had received
another message, this one consisting of ten words in code, "from
Houdini."  After being shown a letter containing the ten words,
Bess agreed to participate in a seance to be held in her home.

As Ford  lowered the blinds to shut out the noonday sun, three of
his followers -- John W. Stafford, an associate editor of the
Scientific American; Mrs. Stafford; and Francis R. Fast, a broker
-- took their seats along with reporters Rea Jaure, of the
Graphic, and Harry R. Zander of the United Press.  Mrs. Houdini's
press agent, Charles Williams, and her old friend Mrs. Minnie
Chester, who had been acting as her nurse, were also present.

Ford slumped back in his chair, relaxed and seemed to fall
asleep.  he began speaking in a voice that identified itself as
Fletcher, his spirit guide.  The Fletcher voice, like Ford's was
soft, Southern, and slightly lisping.  Then the Fletcher voice
gave way to another voice, which identified itself as that of
houdini, although it too spoke in the same manner as Ford and
Fletcher.  Soon the new voice gave the ten code words:
"Rosabelle, answer, tell, pray, answer, look, tell, answer,
answer, tell."  Then the Houdini voice asked if they were
correct.

   "Yes," Bess replied in a whisper.
   "Thank you, sweetheart," the voice replied.  "Now take off
your wedding ring and tell them what 'Rosabelle' means."

Bess forced herself up on one elbow and tugged off her wedding
ring.  Inside the extra-wide gold band was engraved a portrait of
her husband and the words of a song.  She began to sing:

   "Rosabelle, sweet Rosabelle,
    I love more than I can tell.
    Over me you cast a spell.
    I love you, my sweet Rosabelle."

Her voice broke on the last notes.

  "I thank you, darling," Houdini said though Ford.  "That was
the first song I ever heard you sing.  You sang it in our first
show, remember? -- What do you say now?"

Bess took the cue: "Je tire le rideau comme ca."  She had learned
this line -- "I draw the curtain so" -- when they played in
France.  It was what she sd as she moved the cloth cabinet
forward to hide the looked-and-roped trunk from the audience's view.

Fletcher was now speaking through Ford: "The message is a single
word from Houdini.  The word is 'believe.'"

But the seance was not over; the houdini voice had a closing
speech through the medium's lips:
   "Spare no time or money to undo my attitude of doubt while on
earth.  Now that I have found my way back I can come often,
sweetheart.  Give yourself to placing the truth before all those
who have lost faith and want to take hold again.
   "Believe me, life is continuous.  Tell the worldl there is no
death.  I will be close to you.  I expect to use this instrument
[Ford] many times in the future.  Tell the world,, sweetheart,
that Harry Houdini lives and prove it a thousand times."

The story broke in the afternoon edition of the Graphic that same
day, January 8, and was flashed around the world.  it also
appeared that day in the Brooklyn Daily Times, but every dispatch
this writer has seen quotes Rea Jaure from the Graphic and
ignores the unsigned Brooklyn account.  The Graphic story
explained that the first word of the message was "Rosabelle."
The other nine words spelled out "believe" in a code that the
Houdinis had used in their act.  The code was a relatively simple
one, involvingonly ten key words or phrases, each of which stood
for a number, which in turn represented the position of a letter
in the alphabet.  The word "pray" stood for '1'; 'answer' for
'2'; 'say' for '3'; 'now' for '4'; 'tell' for '5'; 'please' for
'6'; 'speak for' for '7'; 'quickly' for '8'; 'look' for '9'; and
'be quick' for '10'.  To convey B, the second letter of the
alphabet, the speaker saie 'answer'.  For 'E', the fifth letter,
the code was 'tell'.  And for L, the twelfth letter the cue words
were 'pray answer'.  Thus, the Ford message produced the word
"believe": answer=B; tell=E; pray answer=L; look=I; tell=E;
answer answer=V;tell=E.

Newsmen hurried to Payson Avenue for more details.  Bess said
that she had never met Ford before and that she had fainted after
the message had come through.  Only two people, her husband and
herself had known the code she declared.  There was only one copy
of the message in existence.  It was locked in a vault at the
Manufacturer's Bank on Fifth Avenue.  When her "sick brain: was
better, she would go to the bank and prove her statement.

Apparently overlooked in the furor of the moment -- and by later
researchers as well-- is a statement sh made in the January 9
World: "I had no idea what combination of words Harry would use
and when he sent 'believe' it was a surprise."

Margery, the medium, was quoted in a story from Boston: "Harry
Houdini, in death has furnished the world with evidence which
conclusively refutes the theories which he so vigorously defended
in life."

Theo Hardeen, Houdini's brother, denounced the seance as a
frame-up, an imposition on the public.  Joseph Dunninger, then as
now a great showman, went to Payson Avenue.  He reminded Mrs.
Houdini that the code had been printed on page 105 of the Kellock
biography of houdini, for which she had supplied the information.
Bess had forgotten it was there.  She told Dunninger that
stagehands who had seen their act repeated time and again had
known the words too.