The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1895-04-24

over 1t" SAID he lee cannon
congratulate you upon it Detection
is. or ought to be, an exact science, and
should be treated in the same cold and
Unconditional manner. You have at
tempted to tinge it with romanticism,
which produces much the same effect
as if you worked q love story or an
elopement into the 18th proposition Of
Euclid"
"But the romance was there" I re-
monstrated. 81 could not tamper with
the facts"
"Some facts shonld be suppressed, or
at least a just sense OF proportion
should be observed in treating them.
The only point in the case which de-
/ served mention was the curious ana
1ytical reasoning from effects to causes
by which I succeeded in unraveling 1t"
I was annoyed at this criticism OF a
work which had been specially de-
signed to please him. / confess, too,
that / was frr1tated by the egotism
which seemed to demand that every
line of my pamphlet should be devoted
to his own special doings. More than
once during tn years that had lived
with him in Baker street / had OBJ
served that a small vanity underlay my
companions quiet anddidactic manner.
I made no remark, however, but sat
nursing my wounded leg. had had a
Jezail bullet through it sometime be-
fore, and though it did not prevent me
from walking, it ached YEARLY at
every change of the weather.
my practice has extended recently
to the continent" said Holmes, after
awhile, filing up his old brier-root
pipe. Il was consulted last week by
Francois LIE Willard, who, as you PROB
ably know, has come rather to the
front lately in the French detective
service. He has all b sCeltic power of
quick intuition, but he is deficient in
the wide range Of exact knowledge
whichis essential to the higher devel-
.opments ofhis art The case wascon-
eerned with a will, and possessed some
features OF interest was able to re-
fer him to two parallel cases, the one
at Riga in 1857, and the other at st.
Louis in 1871, which have suggested to
him the true solution. Here is the let
ter which / hadthis morning, acknowl-
edging my assistance" He tossed over,
as be spoke, q crumpled sheet OF for
eign notepaper. I glanced my eyes
down it, catching q p~rofnsion Of notes
Of admiration, with stray "magni-
fqnes, s.coup de maitres" and tours
de force" all t~estifying to the ardent
admiration Of the Frenchman.
He speaks as q pupil to his master"
said L.
.Oh. be rates my assistance too high.
~" said Sherlock Holmes, lightly.
He, has considerable gifts himself. He
possesses two out Of the three quail
ties necessary for the ideal detective.
BE has the power of observation and
that of deduction. He is only wanting
in knowledge; and that may come IN
time. He is now t~ranslating my small
works into French"
"Your works."
sob, didn't you know" be cried,
laughing. Eyes, I have been guilty of
several monographs. They are all
upon technical subjects. Here, for ex-
ample, is one Upon the Distinction Be
tween the Ashes Of the Various Tobac-
Goes In it I enumerate a hundred
and forty forms of cigar, cigarette and
pipe tobacco, with colored plates illus
trating the difference in the ash. It
is a point which is continually turning
up in criminal trials, and which is
sometimes of supreme Importance as a
clew. If you can say defnitely,for ex-
ample. that some murder has been
done by a man who was smoking an
Indian 1unkah, it obviously narrows
your field of search. To the trained
eye there is as much difference be-
tween the black ash of a Trichinopoly
and the white fluff of bird's-eye as there
is between a cabbage and a potato"
"You have an extraordinary genius
for minutie," / remarked.
81 appreciate their Importance. Here
is my monograph upon the tracing of
footsteps, with some remarks upon the
Uses Of plaster Of Paris as a preserver
Of impresses. Here, too, is a curious
little work upon the influence of a
trade upon the form Of the hand, with
the lithotypes of the hands Of skaters,
sailors, c-ork-cutters, c~ompositors, weav-
ers and diamond polishers- That is a
matter Of great practical interest to the
scientific detective,-especially in cases
of unclaimed bodies, or in discovering
the antecedents of criminals. But /
weary you with my hobby"
Not at ALL" I answered, earnestly.
at is of the greatest interest to me, es-
peciauy since l have had the oppor-
tunity of observing your practical ap-
plication of it. But you spoke just
now Of observation and deduction
Surely the one to some extent implies
the other"
why. hardly" be answered, leaning
back luxuriously in his armchair, and
sending up thick blue wreaths from
MS pipe. For example, observation
shows N that you have been TO the