The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-03-18

To Sherlock Holmes she is always
the woman. I have seldom heard him
mention her under any other name. In
his ewes she eclipses and predominates
the whole OF her sex. 1t was not that
he felt any emotion akin to love for
Irene Adler. All emotions, and that
one particularly, were abhorrent to his
cold, precise, but admirably balanced
mind. He was, l take it, the most per
that the world has seen; but, as lover,
! he would have placed himself in false
position. He never spoke of the softer
passions, save with a gibe and sheer.
! They were admirable things for the
! observer-excelent for drawing the
veil from men s motives and actions.
I But for the trained reasoner to admit
such intrusions into his own delicate
/ and finely adjusted temperament was
! to introduce distracting factor which
might throw a doubt upon an has men
tai results. Grit in sensitive instru
ment, or crack in one of his own
high-power lenses, would not be more
disturbing than strong emotion in a
nature such as his: And yet there was
but one woman to him, and that woman
was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and
questionable memory.
[ had seen little of Holmes lately.
Ny marriage had drifted us away from
each other. My own complete happi-
ness, and the home-centered interests
which rise up around the man who first
lishment, were sufficient to absorb all
my attention; while Holmes, who loathed
every form of society with his whole
Bohemian soul, remained in our lodg-
ings in Baker street, buried among his
old books, and alternating from week to
week between cocaine and ambition,
the drowsiness of the drug and the
fierce energy of his own keen nature.
He was still, as ever, deeply attracted
by the study of crime, and occupied
his immense faculties and extraordinary
powers of observation in following out
teries which had been abandoned as
hopeless by the official police. From
time to time [ heard some vague ac-
count of his doings; of his summons
to Odessa in. the case of the Trepoff
gular tragedy Of the Atkinson brothers
t at Trincomalee, and finally of the mis-
sion which he had accomplished so del
icately and successfully for the reign
ing family Of Holland Beyond these
signs of his activity, however, which
I merely shared with all the rea ders
former friend and companion.
One night it was on the goth of
March, 1881 was returning from a
joarney to a patient (for l had now
J.,
way led me thru Baker street. AS I
passed the wellremembered door, which
must always be associated in my mind
with my wooing, and with the dark in
cidents of the Study in Scarlet, | was
seized with keen desire to see Holmes
ploying his extra ordinary powers. His
rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as
I looked up, saw his tall, spare figure
pass twice in dark silhouette against
. the blind. He was pacing the room
spon His e ees an Tt lis his hands ds'e ea se
behind him. To me, who knew his
every mood and habit, his attitude and
manner told their own story. He was
at work again. He had arisen out of
his drug-created dreams and was hot
upon the scent of some new problem.
a / rang the bell and was shown up to
l the chamber which had formerly been
in part my own.
! His manner was not effusive. It
seldom was; but he was, glad, ]
think, to see me. With hardly word
spoken, but with kindly eye, he waved
me to an armchair, threw across his
case Of cigars, and indicated a spirit
case and gasogene in the corner
Then he stood before the fire and looked
me over in his singular introspective
fashion.
"Wedlock suits you,' he remarked
y
on seven and half pounds since saw
you
"seven!" answered.
"Indeed, I should have thought lit
tie more. Just trife, more, I fancy
Watson. And in practice again, I OBJ
serve. You did not tell me that yol
- intended to go into harness.
"Then, how do you know7'
~ see it, I deduce it. How do
know that y on have been getting your
self very wet lately, and that you hav
a. most clumsy and careless servan
my dear Holmes, said !, this i
been burned had you lived a few cen
- turtles ago. It is true that I had coun
try walk on Thursday and came HON
e Changed a le my clothes ' I can't imagin
how you deduce it. As to Mary. Jane
she is incorrigible, and my wife ha
given her notice; burt there, again,
fail to see how you work it out. -
He chuckled to himself and rubbe
- cit is simplicity itself,' said he
"my eyes tell me that on the inside 0
your left shoe, just where the fireliGh
strikes it, the leather is scored by 81
almost paralleled cuts. Obviously the
have been caused by some one who ha
very carelessly scraped round the edge
VI Guo 5Olo LII OlNCl w AOihoNO ~ uooS
mud from it. Hence, you see, my doubI
deduction that you had been out in vii
~-e weather, and that you had a particula'
" malignant boot-slitting specimen c
the London slavey. AS to your practice
if a gentleman walks into my room
smelling of iodoform, with a blac
mark Of nitrate Of silver upon his rigE
forefnger, and a bulge on the side c
his top hat to show where he has 81
GREETED his stethoscope, I must be du
indeed if I do not pronounce him to t
- an active member Of the medical pr
fession.o
I could not help laughing at the cas-
with which he explained his process {
deduction. "When I hear you civ
your reasons,' I remarked, "the thin
always appears to me to be so ridic
lousy simple that I could easily do
myself, tho at each successive instan'
of your reasoning I am baffled unit
you explain your process. And yet
believe that my eyes are as good 1
yours
"Quite so,' he answered, lighting
cigarette, and throwing himself dow
into an armchair. You see, but W
do not observe. The distinction is clea
For example, you have frequently see
the steps which lead up from the he
to this ROOM
- FREQUENTLY
elbow often2' ..-,
"Well, some hundreds Of times.'
tThen how many are there?'
!Hov manv9 dom Il know