The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-10-07
THE SALT

came home from the Arctic circle,
took his degree at Edinburgh. and at
once shipped for the west coast of
Africa.
Here is a tragedy of the sea which
occurred when Doyle was a boy. He
read an account of it at the time. and
it made a powerful impression on his
young mind. An American ship called
the Marie Celeste was found abandon
ed off the west coast Nothing on her
was disturbed and there were no signs
of a struggle. Her cargo was I'M
touched, and there was no evidence
that she had come through storm
On the cabin table was screwed sew
ing machine, and on the arm of the
sewing machine was a spool OF SILK
thread, which would have fallen OH IL
there had been any motion of the yes
sci. She was loaded with clocks, and
her papers showed that she had lett
Baltimore for Lisbon. She was taken
to Gibralter, but to this day no one
knows what became of the captain and
crew of the Marie Celeste.
This mystery of the sea set the fu-
ture Sherlock Holmes at work trying
to find a solution for it. There was no
clue to go on, except an old Spanish
showed signs of having been recently
cleaned. Doyle's solution of the prob
lem appeared in the form of story for
the Cornhill Magazine, entitled, y.
Habbakuk Jephson's Statement.
Jephson was supposed to be an Amerl-
can doctor who had taken passage on
the ship for his health. Shortly after
the story appeared the following
telegram was printed in the London
papers:
sssoily Flood, her majesty's advo-
cate-general at Gibraltar, telegraphs
that the statement of j. Habbakuk
Jephson is nothing less than fabrica-
ton"
So it was; but the telegram was a
to the realism of the story,
to say the least.
HIS METHODS OF WORK.
DR.. Conan Doyle is a methodical
worker. and a hard worker. He pastes
m over his mantel shelf a list of the
things he intends to do in the coming
six months, and he sticks to his task
until ii is done. He must be great
disappointmeat to his old teacher
when he had finished school the
teacher called the boy up before MIN
and said solemnly:
ssDoyle. | have known you now lol
seven years, and l know you tnor-
oughly. 1 am going to say sometnins
to YOU that you will remember IN aIter
life. Doyle, you will never come u
any goodp' , rove,
involves much hard reading. The re-
sniff of this hard reading Doyle sets
down in a note book. Sometimes all ne
gets out of several volumes is repre-
scented by a couple of pages IN thls
hook. For sometime past he has been
greatly interested in the Napoleonc re-
vival, and has recently written some
marvelously good short stories SET IN
the stormy period Of the first empire.
When asked by friend Tor MS oplii-
ion of the great Corsican, DR.. Doyle
replied:
ssHe was a wonderful man-perhaps
tbe most wonderful man who ever
lived. What strikes me is the lack OF
finality in his character. When you
make up your mind that he is a COM
plete villain. YOU come on some noble
trait. and then your admiration or TINS
is lost in some act of incred1ble mean
ness. But just think of it! Here was
a Young fellow of 80, a man who had
no social advantages and but slight ed
vocational training, a member OF pow
erty-stricken family, entering room
with a troop of kings at his heels, and
all the rest of them jealous if he spoke
a moment longer to one than to the
others. Then there must have been a
great personal charm about the man.
for some of those intimate with him
loved him."
LITERARY TASTES AND OPINIONS.
Conan Doyle takes very optimistic
view of the future of romantic litera-
ture. He says: Il think there never
was a time when there was better
promise. There are at least a dozen
men and women who have made a deep
mark. and who are still young. No one
can say how far they may go. Some of
them are sure to develop, for the past
shows us that fiction is an art which
improves up to the age of fifty or so.
With fuller knowledge of life comes
greater power in describing it. For eX-
ample there are more than a dozen
Barrier. Kipling, Oliver Schreiner,
Sarah Grand, Miss Harraden, Gilbert
Parker Quiller-Couch, Hall Game
Stevenson, Stanley Weyman, Anthony
Hope, Crockett, Rider Haggard, Jerome
Zingwill, Clark Russell, George Moore
many of them under thirty and few OF
them much over 1t. Then if a mar
keeps out of grooves and refuses to dc
| his work in a mechanical way he stead
| lily advances. Why, many of the great
est writers in our fiction did not begir
until after forty. Thackeray was abou