news was
sent whereby the interests of the government or the safety of the army
might suffer.

The instructions I received were general in their nature and in all
specific cases arising, my judgment was to determine, and I want to
remark right here, the rapidity with which those specific cases would
arise was enough to make a man faint. The first rule made was that
cipher messages or those written in a foreign tongue were prohibited
unless sent by a government official on public business. There were a
few exceptions to this rule. For instance; many large business houses
have telegraphic cipher codes for the transaction of business, and it
was not the policy of the government to interfere in any manner with the
commercial affairs of the country, so these messages were allowed to
pass when the code book was presented to the censor and a sworn
translation made in his presence. Spanish messages were transmitted only
after being most carefully scanned and upon proof of the loyalty of the
sender or receiver and a sworn translation. Not a single private message
could be sent by any one, that in any way hinted at the time of the
departure or destination of any ship or body of troops. Even officers
about to sail away were not allowed to telegraph their wives and
families. If they had a pre-arranged code, whereby a message could be
written in plain English, there was no way to stop their transmission.
Foreign messages were watched with eagle eyes and many and many a one
was gently consigned to the pigeon hole, when the contents and meaning
were not plain.

From Key West (which was shortly afterwards placed in my charge) there
ran the cable to Havana, and this line was the subject of an
extraordinarily strict espionage; not a message being allowed to pass
over it that was not perfectly plain in its meaning. Mr. J. W. Atkins
was sworn in as my assistant at Key West, and thus I had the whole state
of Florida under my control. All the lines from the southern part of the
state converge to Jacksonville, and not a message could go from a point
within the state to one out of it without first passing under the
scrutiny of either myself or one of my sworn assistants.

My office was in H. B. Plant's Tampa Bay hotel, and there, every day,
from seven A. M. until twelve midnight, and sometimes one and two in the
morning, I did my work. My own long experience as a practical
telegrapher stood me in good stead and when any direct work was to