The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-09-10

''To the man who loves art for its
own sake" remarked Sherlock Holmes,
tossing aside the advertisement sheet
of The Daily Telegraph, 'it is frequent
ly I'm It's least important and lowi!eS,
manifestations that the !Seenest Pleas
ure is to be derived. 1t is pleasant 10
me to observe, Watson, that you have
so far grasped this truth that in these
little records of our cases which you
have been good enough to draw up,
and, l am bound to say, occasionally to
embellish, you have given prominence
not SO much to the many causes cele-
bres and sensational trials in which
have figured, but rather to those Incl
dents which may have been trivial in
themselves but which have given
room for those faculties of deduction
and of logical synthesis which L have
made my special province"
And yet" said /. smiling, Il can
not quite hold myself absolvcd from
the charge of sensationalism which
has been urged against my records.
You have erred, perhaps" he OBJ
served, taking up a glowing cinder with
the tongs, and lighting with it the long
cherry-wood pipe which was wont to
replace his clay when he was in
disputatious, rather than a medtative
mood-"you have erred perhaps in at
tempting to put color and life into
each of your statements, instead of
combining yourself to the task of plac-
ing upon record that severe reasoning
from cause to effect which is really
the only notable feature about the
thing
1t seems to me that 1 have done
you full justice i'm the natter l re-
marked, with some GOODNESS, for / was
repealed by the egotism which | had
more than once observed to be
strong factor in my friends singular
character
mo, it is not selfishness or conceit,''
said, he, answering, as was his wont.
my thoughts rather than my words.
"If / claim full justice for my art,
1t is because it is an impersonal thing
"a thing beyond myself. Crime is
common. Logic is rare. Therefore ii
is upon the logic rather than upon
the crime that you should dwell. You
have degraded what should have been
a course of lectures into series of
tales"
1t was a cold morning of the early
spring and we sat after breakfast on
/ either side of a cheery fire in the old
room at Baker Street. a thick fog
rolled down between the lines of dun
colored houses, and the opposing win
dows doomed like dark, shapeless blurs
through the heavy yellow wreaths.
Our gas was lit, and shone on the
white cloth and glimmer of china and
metal for the table had not been
cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had
been silent all the morning, dipping
continuously into the advertisement
columns of a succession of papers, un-
til at last, having apparently given up
his search he had emerged in no very
sweet temper to lecture me upon my
literary shortcomings.
AT the same time" he remarked,
SnI no l1a II
sat putting at his long pipe and gaz-
ing down into the fire, you can hard
ly be open to a charge of sensational
ISM for out of these cases in which you
have been so kind as to interest your
self a fair proportion do not treat OF
crime in it's legal sense, at all. The
small matter in which / endeavored to
help the King of Bohemia, the singular
experience of Miss Mary Sutherland,
the problem connected with the man
with the twisted lip, and the incident
of the noble bachelor were all mat
ters which are outside the pale of the
law But in avoiding the sensational.
/ fear that you may have bordered on
the trivial"
1.-The end may have been So" | an
swered, but the methods l hold to
have been novel and of interest.
"Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do
the public the great unobServant
public who could hardly tell weav-
er by his tooth or a compositor by his
left thumb, care about the finer shades
of analysis and deduction. But liz
deed, if you are trivial | cannot blame
you for the days of the great cases
are past Man, or at least criminal
man. has lost all enterprise and ori-
ginality. AS to my own little practice
it seems to be degenerating into an
agency for recovering lost lead pencils
and giving advice to young ladies from
neutrality-suspicious.. / think that / have
touched bottom at last, however. This
note | had this morning marks my
zero-point. / fancy. Read it," He
tossed a crumple letter across to me.
1t was dated from Montague Place
upon the preceding evening. and ran
thus:
Dear Mr. Holiness am very anxi-
Gus to consult you as to whether
should or should not accept a situa-
tItn wh'~n nlS been offered t" me as
governess. / shall call at half-past ten
tomorrow. if | do not Inconvenience
YOU. Yours faithfully,
VIOLET HUNTER"
''Do you know the young LADY," I
a-ked
Not t.
1T is half-past ten now"
!. YES. and l have no doubt that IS
her ring
1T may turn out to be of more in
terest than you think. You remember
that the affair of the blue carbuncle,
which appeared t mere whim at
fret, developed into q serious investi-