Joseph Gilpin Pyle

“ Wheat has hitherto been the staple product of the State. Soil and climate are such as to ensure a large average yield, while the superior quality of the grain has given it a wide reputation. The other cereals are also cultivated with success. The tendency to diversify agriculture, especially in the southern part of the State, has been stimulated by several partial failures of the wheat crop, the locust invasions, and the competition of the farther north-west. The area of the State includes 39,791,265 acres surveyed, 10,968,575 acres not surveyed, and 2,700,000 acres of lake surface. ”

“ Complicated as is the work of reading this involved tale by the cipher’s help, it bears no comparison to the work of incorporating originally that story in the plays. To write the Donnelly memoirs first, and then so to write the dramas that each word of the one shall fit into its appropriate place in the other, by mathematical rule, would fall little short of miracle. From Archimedes to Olney, there has lived no man who would dare attempt this task. Admiration for Bacon the dramatist, is swallowed up in reverence for Bacon the mathematician, whose equal the world has never seen. ”

“ With the melting of the ice-sheet which once overspread Minnesota its innumerable lakes came into existence; and the gentle acclivity of its slopes, precluding rapid erosive action, has tended to give permanence to the depressions constituting their basins. The census returns give 4160 square miles of water surface within the State. Most of the lakes are exceedingly picturesque in their surroundings. Forests skirt their shores, which are seldom marshy ”

“ There is, as every literary man knows, a great deal of evidence that will pass muster under this head. There is an inconsistency between such fragments of a life of Shakespeare as have come down to us, and the experiences and the acquirements which we should declare indispensable to the writing of that matchless drama. ”

“ The fertile land comprises about three-fourths of the entire area of the State. The drift soil proper of the south and centre, including the Minnesota valley and the greater part of that of the Mississippi, contains silica and calcareous matter, and is interspersed with alluvial river bottoms. The limestone soil, in which there is a large calcareous element, lies chiefly on the western slope of the Mississippi. The Red River valley consists of an argillaceous mould, rich in organic deposits. Around Lake Superior, wherever arable land is to be found, it is marked by a rich trap soil. ”

“ The spectacle of Bacon, holding weary vigil to complete, at infinite labor, the cipher story, and devoting hours to the construction of a play in which the movement of the plot, the fate of the personæ and the majesty of the dialogue should be unconsidered trifles, subordinated to the all-important infolded chronicle of the fact that Shakespeare had the gout in his great toe, is one for gods to weep at. ”

“ The Mississippi affords continuous navigation to European ports during eight months of the year. From Duluth numerous lines of vessels traverse the chain of great lakes, and transport the products of the west to the eastern seaboard. Three great transcontinental railway lines are connected more or less directly with the railroad system of the State. Twelve lines of railway from every part of Minnesota converge at the contiguous cities of St Paul and Minneapolis, and three great trunk lines from these centres to Chicago secure the advantages of a lively competition. ”

“ Able to forget what does not accord with his preconceived theory, blessed with a memory as serviceable in dismissing as in retaining, and thoroughly possessed, for the time being, with a conviction that he is pursuing truth, he is the most dexterous of workmen. ”

“ Hot days and cool nights make the ideal weather for a good wheat crop; and the forcing heats of summer produce in luxuriant growth the vegetable life which belongs to the middle States. The Smithsonian chart assigns to Minnesota an average temperature for the hottest week in summer of from 85° to 90°, and for the coldest week in winter from 10° to 20° below zero. The mean annual average, for all below 47° of latitude, it gives as 40°. Observations at St Paul, extending over a period of more than thirty-five years, show the following mean temperatures:—spring, 45°.6 ”

“ He does not tell whence he derives his root numbers—and the world loses little by that—because he is informed by his publishers that there is nothing in our law of copyright to prevent some ingenious fellow, less conscientious than himself, from studying out his whole system, applying it to the rest of the plays, and bursting upon the world with the remainder of the story, which Mr. Donnelly wants to reserve for a future volume and future profits. ”

“ No moisture is lost in superfluous spring and autumn rains, or in the cold and non-producing part of the year, the precipitation, which in winter is less than 2 inches, increasing to about 12 for the summer. ”

“ Then, having five root numbers, ten or a dozen modifiers, the number of the page and the number of words on it, also the number of words in italics or connected by hyphens, you have studied addition and subtraction to little purpose if you can not so combine these various numbers that they shall furnish you, at last, with the number that you need to identify the particular word you have chosen. It is hard work. No wonder Mr. Donnelly covered, with figuring, a bundle of paper that a man can scarcely lift. The present writer consumed quires in a simple application of the cipher key to Hamlet. ”

“ In 1880 there were planted 25,331 acres of trees, exclusive of those bordering highways and the windbreaks along the railroad lines.
Manufactures.—The manufactures of Minnesota are yet in their infancy. The abundant water-power of the State, its proximity to the coal-fields of Iowa, its superior transportation facilities, and the large demand for manufactured commodities are, however, rapidly developing this branch of industry. The most important industries are the manufacture of flour and that of lumber. ”

“ Its area, including half of the lakes, straits, and rivers along its boundaries, except Rainy Lake and Lake of the Woods, amounts to 83,365 square miles.
The surface of Minnesota is diversified by few elevations of any great height. In general it is an undulating plain, breaking in some sections into rolling prairie, and traversed by belts of timber. It has an average elevation above sea-level of about 1000 feet. ”

“ And the passage itself contains matter which is more ridiculous than anything in Ophelia’s crazy words: “If the man go to the water and drown himself, it is will he nill he, he goes; mark you that; but [19] if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself.” What rot is this which the great Bacon utters? There is a rat behind this arras. But how to get at him! We turn for help to the cryptogram. We find, on page 555 of that volume, the account of Mr. Donnelly’s first discovery. ”

“ The change from winter to summer is rapid, vegetation sometimes seeming to leap into full and active growth within the space of a few weeks. The summer months bring days of intense heat, but, with comparatively rare exceptions, the nights are deliciously cool. ”

“ North of the central fertile area, and in the neighbourhood of the sources of the Mississippi, is much swampy land, susceptible of easy drainage, with a large tract of sand and other drift detritus, unfavourable to production. Maize and potatoes flourish, and the uplands, which support hardwood ridges, are suited to general agriculture. ”

“ During these local and national disturbances the material prosperity of the State was unabated. Notwithstanding the heavy cost of the civil war and the Sioux massacre, the census of 1865 showed a population of 250,099. Railroad construction began to be energetically carried forward; in 1870 329 miles were made and 1096 miles were in operation; a road to Lake Superior was completed, and the Northern Pacific was fairly under way. In 1873-76, and to some extent in 1877, successive visitations of locusts destroyed the crops of the south-western counties. ”

“ Here is matter senseless by itself. To introduce it, the writer was compelled to have Ophelia go mad and talk nonsense. And those stanzas beginning, “Then up he rose and donned his clothes,” are not only foolish but indelicate. Here was a suggestion. It warranted an experiment. It will be remembered that one of Mr. Donnelly’s root numbers is 523. This mad song occurs on page 273 of the folio. Subtracting 273 from 523, we get 250. Count from the top of the column on that page in which the song is found, and the 250th word is “donned,” [18] printed thus, “don’d.” ”

“ As a rule, the comparative dryness of the atmosphere neutralizes the severest effect of excessive cold. The snowfall is extremely light during most of the winter, but as spring approaches precipitation becomes greater, and there are frequently heavy snowfalls in February and March. ”

“ A few of the Donnelly numbers, and the numbers of pages and of words on a page were used, and no others. The cipher employed is the Donnelly cipher. The words on every page, the italicized words, the bracketed words and the hyphenated words were counted separately and numbered. The edition used is the fac-simile reproduction of the 1623 folio. Every computation has been carefully made. ”

“ Every encouragement is afforded, both by the railway corporations and the State, to tree-planting on the prairies. A quarter section is given to any one who will plant and keep in good condition 40 acres of timber for eight years. ”

“ It is found but three pages further on, in the absurd grave-diggers’ scene. This is preceded by the direction, “Enter two clowns.” Now clowns do not dig graves, and grave-diggers are not generally clowns. ”

“ The State requirements for citizenship are residence in the United States one year, in the State four months, and in the election district ten days preceding an election. Women are allowed to vote for school officers and upon questions relating to the management of schools, and are also eligible to such offices. No county can contain more than 400 square miles. ”

“ Overlying the deposits of sand, gravel, boulders, and clay is, in most portions of the State, a sandy loam, very finely divided, rich in organic matter, deep brown or black in colour, and of the greatest fertility. ”