# The Dial (Third Series)/Volume 75/The Case of The Fairy Photographs

THE CASE OF THE FAIRY PHOTOGRAPHS
The Coming of the Fairies. By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 8vo. 196 pages. George H. Doran and Company. $2.50.
THE Great Detective and I had just finished breakfast in his study, when the maid announced Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I rose at once to go, but Holmes stopped me.
"Don't go," he said. "I was expecting Sir Arthur. He has come to consult me about the mystery of the Fairy Photographs."
A moment later Sir Arthur was ushered in, and Holmes greeted him warmly.
"I will come to the point at once," said Sir Arthur. "The fairy photographs, which I have presented to the public as genuine, have been attacked on all sides as fraudulent. I want you to make a complete investigation of the case and present a report. If there were any possibility of fraud, you of all men in the world would discover it. So if you report them genuine, as I am sure you will, the scoffers will be silenced."
"You flatter me," said Holmes, "but tell me the story."
Sir Arthur in answer presented a group of photographs. I looked at them in amazement. For the first time in human history, fairies had actually been photographed! There they were, exactly as we have pictured them in our imagination, with gossamer wings, tights, and ballet skirts. They were shown flitting about the head of the young girl in the photographs, sitting on little twigs before her, and one of them was even offering her a tiny flower.
"They were taken," said Sir Arthur, "by two young girls in the North of England. These children had often seen the fairies in the wood near their home, and one day they took a camera along, with the results you see. How the photographs came into my hands is a long story, and you will find it in detail in my book. When I first saw the photographs, I was sceptical, so I took them to the Kodak Company and asked their opinion. They replied that the photographs could have been produced by fraud. This seemed inconclusive to me, so I took them to another prominent photo​grapher, who gave the same irrelevant report. I had the identical experience with a third photographer. Desirous of learning the truth at all costs, I searched the United Kingdom, and my scientific spirit was finally rewarded. I discovered an out-of-the-way photographer named Snelling who pronounced the photos genuine! The evidence was thus irrefutable."
Holmes nodded, and then said, "One of these girls, I believe, worked in a Christmas card factory. And the other was assistant to a photographer. Am I correct in my deductions?"
"Yes," said Sir Arthur, astonished. "You are perfectly right. I included those facts in my book to prove that the girls had no training which would fit them for making fraudulent photographs."
"If you will leave the pictures with me till to-morrow," said Holmes, "I will then have a complete report ready for you."
As soon as Sir Arthur had gone, Holmes turned to me and said, "Watson, go to the Sharpe Christmas Card Company and get one sample of every card they manufacture." I did as he ordered, and soon returned with a hundred or more cards. Holmes spread them on the table and began examining them feverishly. After ten minutes he had pulled four or five from the group.
"Look!" said he. "There are your fairies!" I looked at them, and great was my amazement to see that the little figures on the cards were exact facsimiles of the fairies on the photographs!
"But—!" I cried. "But—!"
"I could tell from the photographs," said Holmes, "that the fairies had been pasted onto ordinary prints, which were then re-photographed. You will see that in comparison with the human figure in the pictures, the fairies are flat. Furthermore, the fairies are anatomically incorrect. I could tell at once that they were drawings, and were drawn by an artist without much knowledge of anatomy. So I knew they had been cut from Christmas cards. Evidently the girls made them for their own amusement, or for a joke on their friends, and when they obtained so much publicity, they were afraid to tell the truth. It’s perfectly simple."
"Marvellous!" said I. "But what will you tell Sir Arthur? His heart will be broken."
In answer Holmes took all the cards and threw them into the fire. "I will tell him nothing," he said. "After all, I owe him a great deal."
Patrick Kearney