The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-17


 sheet of the Daily Tee-
 graph, "it is frequently in
 it's least important and low
 Hest manifestations that the
 keenest pleasure is to be de- rived. It is pleasant to me 10 opserNe' Watson that you have so far graspeu this truth that in these little records or our cases which you have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say. occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much to The many causes celebres and sensational trials in which l have figured, but rather t3 those incidents which may have been trivial in themselves, but which nave given room for those faculties of de- duetion and of logical synthess which have made my special province
 And yet said l. smiling, T cannot quite hold myself absolved from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my records
 You have erred, perhaps" he observ- ed, taking up a glowing cinder with the .ongs and lighting with it the long cherry wood aipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a disputatious rather than a meditative mood-"you have erred perhaps in attempting to put color and life into each of your statements in- stead of confining yourself to the task of placing upon record that severe reas- oning from cause to effect whlch IS really the only notable feature about the thing. "It seems to me that i have done you fuu justice in the natter l remarked, with some coldness, for l was repelled by the egotism which l had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my friends singular character.
 No, it is not seltshness or eonceit said he. answering, as was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "lt claim full justice for my art, it is be- cause it is an impersonal thing-a thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic IS rare Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell You have degraded what should have been q course of lectures into a series of tales"
 It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after breakfast on either side of a cherry fire in the old room at Baker street. thick fog rolled down between the lines of dun-colored houses and the opposing windows loomed like dark, shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit
  of china and metal, for the table had not heen cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been silent all the morning, dipping con tinuously into the advertisement columns of a succession of papers, until at last, having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary short Comngs.
 At the same time" he remarked, after a pause, during which he had sat puff ing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself in fair propor- ton do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, at all. The small matter in which I endeavored to help the King of Bohe- mia, 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 matters which are outside the pale of law. But in avoiding the sensational, l fear that you may have bordered on the tri- vial"
 ''The end may have been so." I answer ed, "but the methods I hold to have been novel and of interest"
 ''Pshaw my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a compositor by his left thumb care about the finer shades of analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trival, l cannot blame you, for the days or the great cases are past. Man, or at least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As to my own little practice, 1t seems to be degenerating into an agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to young ladies from boarding schools. I think that l have touched bot tom at last, however. This note l had this morning marks my zero-point, fancy. r1ead it!' He tossed a crumpled letter across to me.
 It was dated from Montague place upon the preceding evening. and ran thus:
 Dear MT. Holmes-I am very anxious to consult you as to whether l should or should not accept situation which has been offered to me as governess. shall call at 10:SO tomorrow, if l do not incon- yenience you. Yours faithfully,
 "VIOLET HUNTER"
 Do you know the young lady?" asked
 Not l."
 Ut is 10:30 now.'
 .Yes, and have no doubt that is her ring"
 than you think. You remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which ap- peared to be a mere whim at first, devel- oped into a serious investigation. It may be so in this case, also"
 well. let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved. for here, unless l am much mistaken, is the person in question"
 As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. She was plainly but neatly dressed, with bright quick face freckled like plover's egg and with the brisk manner of woman who has had her own way to make In the world.
 You will excuse my troubling you, l am sure," said she as my companion rose to greet her; 'but l have had q very strange experience, and as l have no parents or relatives of any sort from whom I could ask advice, thought that perhaps you would be kind enough to tell me what l should do."
 "Pray. take a seat. Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything l can to serve you"
 I could see that Holmes was favorably impressed by the manner and speech of his new client He looked her over in his searching fashion, and then composed himself with his lids dropping and his story.
 II have been a governess for five years" said she fin the family of Col. Spence Munro but two months ago the colonel received an appointment at Halifax. in Nova Scotia and took his children over to America with him. so that I found myself without a situation. I advertised and I answered advertisements, but with out success At last the little money which 1 had saved began to run short, and I was at my wits ends as to what l should do
 ..There is a we'll known agency for gov- f,, called