Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1894-09-27

u J
| TO- Plays the violin well.
| IL. Is an expert single-stick player,
! boxer and swordsman.
! II. Has Il good practical knowledge
of British law.
threw it into the fire in despair. IF
can only find what the fellow is driv-
ing at by reconciling all these accom-
plishments, and discovering a calling
which needs them ALL" 1 said to my
SELF Il may as we'll give up the at
tempt at once"
l see that 1 have alluded above to
his powers upon the violin. These are
very remarkable, but as eccentric as all
! his other accomplishments. That he
. could play pieces, and difficult pieces, /
knew well, because at my request he
has played me some of Mendelssohn's
'Lieder,' and other favorites. When
left to himself. however, he would sell
dom produce any music or attempt any
recognized air. Leaning back in his
ar IL. chair Of an evening, he would close
his eyes and scrape carelessly at the
fiddle which was thrown ,cross MS
knee. Sometimes the chords were SON
orous and melancholy. Occasi )lllly
they We're fantastic and cheerful.
Clearly they refected the thoughts
which possessed him, bit VIII .thcr the
music aided those thoughts, or wheth-
: er the playing was simply the result of
a within or fancy was more than I
could determine. might have rebelled
against these exasperating solos had
it not been that he usually termir ated
them by playing in quick Succession a
fp 70 .,;.
Slight compensation for the trial upOn
my patience.
During the first week or so we had no
callers, and 1 had begun to think that
my companion was as friendless q man
as was myself. Presently, however.
found that he had many acouaint.
ances. and those in the most different
classes Of society. There was Que lit
tie, sallow, rat-faced, dark-eyed fellow
who was introduced to me as Mr.. Lee
strade, and who came three Or four
times in u single week. One morning
young girl called, fashionably dress,
ed, and stayed for half an hour or
more. The same afternoon brought n
gray-headed, seedy visitor, looking like
Il jew peddler, who appeared to me to
DC much excited, and who was closely
followed by a slip-shod elderly woman.
On another occasion an old white-hair
ed gentleman had an interview with
| my companion, and on another a rail
| way porter in his velveteen uniform.
| When any of these nondescript individ-
uals put in an appearance Sherlock
Holmes used to beg for the use of the
slttlng-room. and l would retire to nv
| bedroom. He always apologizcd to me
for putting me to this inconvenience.
| II nave to use this room as a place of
business he said, land these people
are my clients" Again I had an on
portunity of asking him point blank
question, and again my delicacy pre-
vented me from forcing another man
to conf1de i'll me. l imagined at the
time that he had some strong reason
for not abiding to it, but he soon dis
PEELED the idea by coming round to
the subject Of his own accord.
1t was upon the fourth of March.
as l have good reason to remember.
that rose somewhat earlier than us,l-
al, and found that Sherlock Holmes
had not yet finished his breakfast, The
landlady had become so accustomed to
my late habits that my place had not
been laid nor my coffee prepared. With
the unreasonable petulance of mankind
l rang the bell an gave a curt int.ma-
ton that was ready. Then 1 picked
up magazine from tho table and at
tempted to while away the time While
my companion munched silently at his
toast One Of the articles had Il pen
Gil mark at the heading, and l naturally
began to 1un my eye through it. It's
somewhat ambitious title was "The
Book Of Life," and it attempted to
show how much al obser yant man NAV
learn by an accurate and systematic
examination Of all that came in his
way. 1t struck me as being a re-
markable mixture Of shrewdness and
of absurdity. The reasoning was close
and intense, but the deductions appear
ed to me to be far-fetched and exag-
| gerated. The writer claimed by mo-
mentary expression, twitch Of a
muscle or glance Of an eye, to fathom
a mans inmost thoughts. Deceit, ac-
cording to him, was an impossibility
in the case Of one trained to obserya-
ton and analysis His conclusions were
as infallible as so many propositions Of
Euclid. So startling would his re-
suits appear to the uninitiated that. I'M
til they learned the processes by which
he had arrived at them, they might
well consider him as q necroman.er.
From drop Of water" sad the
writer. ga lOgician could infer the oos-