Greenfield Republican, Greenfield, Hancock County, 28 March 1895 — Page 2

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GREENFIELD REPUBLICAN

PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY. Entered at .the Postofficeas •0L. 16. No. 13 •OMd-cltuM mall matter.

W. S. MONTGOMERY, Publisher and Proprietor,

Circulation This

Week, I

Gov. McKinley, of Ohio, who is making tour through the South, is sick at a hotel an Thomasville, Ga.

S|ore than 3,000.bills have been introduced in the New York legislature, with more to follow. Great Soot!

IT IS said that President Cleveland was his younger days a teacher in a blind asylum. He is now as the leader of the Democratic party representing the "blind leading the blind."

Tsk Good Citizens' League of Indiana is JiiiitcitiJ: arrangernants tj make an aggressive fiuht all over the State this year. S. £. Nicholson, author of the Nicholson bill, is president of the League, and arranging for persons to work in each county in th.3 state to ^prevent t-aloin keepers gettiug license and to see ttiat drug stores and saloons that do get Lcense do not break the law.

We are indebted to ttiu Ise»v York Recorder for the followiug uteres ting historical itsm: "On the 12th day of April next, which is good Friday, the heavenly bodies which gravitate around the sun will be exactly in the same position they occupied in the firmament the day Christ died on the cross. It will' be the first time such a thing has occurred since the great day just 1862 years ago. That was the thirty-third *vear of the Christian era, which date3 from the birth of Christ. "4

A.N amendment to cue pension laws, ticked on to the appropriations bill by Senator Hawley, of Connecticut, increases pensiou-3 to $6 a montb. All pensioners who are receiving less than §8, will not be required to make a formal application for an increase- They will fee. paid on regular paydays by the execution of a newly prepared voucher sent out from the paying agencies. In time the old certificates may be called in and Btais-ped by the proper department showing the increase to §6. Arrears of Jjpensios. will be paid back to March 2 e.ich case.

JL Majoiuty of the mourners of the Professional Woman's] League who attended the waeklv masting at-New York declared at tte close of an.animated disass ion th?ir intention of arraying all their force against, the "wave of hypnotism which is swell'ng over the land." This determination was not reached without a, struggle. The members listened first to a favorite annalysis of the subject of hypnotism and itslphenomena, [presented in a paper written by Dr. R. Osgood BfasGn, a painstaking student of psychology, who represented the London Society for Phsychological Research. The paper was read by the presiding officer, Miss

Bleecker Winuie, and was termed "Eriiby, a Psychical Study." Many otfe.er speakers gave it as their opinion that hypnotism was dangerous and should be regulated by law.

Prof. W, Jay (iocs to ortville. fiProf. J. W. .Jay^and J. C. Beard, of MeOjrdsville, were in the city Saturday. an.1 made the Republican a pleas-tub csiL. Mr. Jay informed us that he hud been offered and accepted the principal' sfcij? of the public schools at- Fortville for the coming school year. Mrs. Jay is also offered a position there which she^jwill t&ke. We congratulate Fortville on sectoring such a live, active, progessive, energetic and successful principal as J. W. say. He is a magnificent school teacher aad a Christian gentleman whose influence for good in a community, bath as a teacher and a man of culture and refinement is very beneficial. He has been a power for good in and around McCordsvtlle, and we are sorry that the citizens of McCordsville are to lo3e the services of Prof. Jay and wife, but their schools are 11 such excellent condition that they can no doubt secure a good man and their schools continue in their present splendid •work. "Nine Eighty-live."

Is vi hat it cost Charles Lucas, who lives south of town, for th* pleasure of carrying a revolver yesterday. He was brought here by Marshal J. L. McCune, of New Palestine, this morning, and tatcen before Mayor Duncan, who assessed hfmt in the sum of $9.85. Lucas is only one among hundreds who carry concealed weapons, many of whom live in this city, sod should be arrested for *the violation of tfae law. Only cowards and fools carry revo!vers.

DEATHS.

As reported by C. W. Morrison & Son undertakers. Vrthur Jones, age 17 yrs., son of Mr. and Mrs. John E. Jones, near Morrhtown, of typhoid fever, Thursday night, March 21st, funeral at Christian church la Morristown, Saturday at 2 p. m., by Bev. Demundren. Interment at Asbury Cemetery.

Elizabeth Wray, aged 4 years, daughter of Edward Wray and wife, near Maxilla, of whooping coagh and lung fever, Sunday, March 24. Funeral at Arlington, Tuesday at 10 a. m.

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The Sunday Schools.

fSwtday, Mar. 24, 1895.

Attend'e.

Christian... 130 If-E. Church ..221 M.P. Chorob ....119 flwOytwton. ...... 4ll

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SILVER AN IDEAL MONEY

It Is the Best Continuous Measure of Values.

JUST TO DEBTOK AND CREDITOR.

Gold Shown to Be Four Times as Subject to Fluctuation—What Silver Has Done For Mexico—The Metals Compared on

Their Merits—Goldbug: Delusions.

Does justice require that silver be remonetized on tho old ratio of 16 to 1? Let us bring this issue to a plain test of facts right at the start, and to that end I beg leave to take a case in which I am personally interested and which is but a typo of many thousands. My home is in a town of some 2,000 people in the Wabash valley, in a region singularly blest by nature in climate, timber, coal, rock and water, and with a soil fruitful in all the products of the middle temperate zono. There I own a little real estate, and every fact herein given is within my personal knowledge and can be verified by the records. Several years ago the county bonded itself heavily to build a jail and courthouse and for other purposes, and some of the bonds are still due, and las a real estate owner must pay taxes thereon.

When this debt was contracted, a$l,000 bond would have bought in that town 952 bushels of wheat. It will today buy 2,320 bushels. It would then have bought 1,700 bushels of corn. It will today buy 8,000 bushels. It would then have bought eight good average farm horses. It will today buy 20. It would then have bought 10 acres of first class land within easy sound of the courthouse bell. It will today buy 20. And so I might go around the list, for of all farm staples pork is the only one sold at near the old price, and that, as everybody knows, is a purely accidental and temporary matter.

Now, I respectfully submit the question to any honest man as yet untainted by goldbug sophistry, Is not tho practical result just the same as if the government had sent the army there and compelled those farmers and owners of town property to pay §2 where they had agreed to pay $1? And if this be, as we believe, tho result of legislation, wherein is it morally one whit better than highway robbery? Nor is this an extreme case. We have the official facts in the federal census and the authorized statistics of tho nation and states.

Goldbug Sophistries.

I anticipate the answers. We are all familiar with them. Tho first is that invention has greatly cheapened production. This is a self evident falsehood. There is not an implement now in use on the farms of Indiana that was not then, save possibly the twine binder, then invented, but not in general use. The labor cost of farm produce has not decreased by so much as 2 per cent. But suppose it were true. Should the creditor have all the gain of an advancing civilization? Is not tho farmer entitled to at least one-half of it? The goldbug argument on this point is self destructive. They assert that invention and the consequently increased production have cheapened commodities 50 per cent. Thoy next assert that the enormous output of the mines has cheapened silver 50 per cent. Therefore, they say, silver is not "honest money." If the premises had smallpox, the conclusion would never catch it—so far are they apart. We know it to be true that "products have cheapened 50 per cent in terms of gold if it be also true that advancing civilization has cheapened silver in tho same ratio, is it not conclusive that silver is the best possible continuous measure of values? Is it not, our enemies themselves being judges, the ideal money for which economists have sighed so long—the money which will, through all the changes of years, buy most nearly the same amount of commodities? Is it not indeed the only money which works exact justice, enabling the creditor to buy as much aa did the money he lent and compelling the debtor to pay no more?

I maintain, however, that their contention as to silver is false. I insist that of all products of human labor Bilver is the most consistent in value—that is, it bears in purchasing power the least variable relation to other commodities —and that gold is, by natural law, as shown by geology and metallurgy, at least four times as subject to fluctuations in valuers silver. Of this I will treat later. Much is said of overproduction, especially in wheat, but it has repeatedly been proved that the world does not yet produce all tho wheat it wants. Our agricultural department shows that consumption of the grain has decreased in this country, cheaper stuffs being substituted, and in Europe there are still 100,000,000 people who can not afford wheaten bread, but use rye, oats and potatoes. Are we to suppose that they do thai for fun? No, the world's creditors have their grip on the throats of the world's producers, and the law is on their Ride. That claim of theirs we sadly admit

Strong Points For Silver.

We hear much alBO of the competition of Argentine and other lands, but the fact is skillfully evaded that it is the war on silverwhich has stimulated the oxport from these oountries. The Argentine minister, Dr. Zeballos, tells me that if the world's present policy be continued his country will shut out all American grain from the European markets within ten years, and Benor Romero, Mexican minister, in a written reply to my questions, says: "While it is

true that the Mexican coin when eonverted into foreign exchange has no other value than that of the silver bnllion contained in it, it is also a fact that the difference has greatly encouraged and increased the export of other products, and has also greatly favored manufacturing, in order to avmd the buying of exchange to pay for imports from countries having a gold standard. The purchasing power of the Mexican silver Mollwr has not been changed in Mexieot

.^GREENFIELD REPUBLICAN, THURSDAY, MARCH 28,1895

so there is more stability in prices and wages, which is also a great advantage. Our economic conditions are now better than those prevailing in gold countries. We have fewer failures, and the increase of traffic has prevented our railroads going into the hands of receivers." Will some one Jdndly mention a gold basis nation where the general condition is improving, exports increasing and no railroads going into the hands of receivers?/

Gold Appreciation.

Is it possible to dissociate silver from its traditionary cpnnection with gold, to divest'the mind of misleading impressions due to the long habit of quoting silver in terms of gold, and get a fair view of tho metal on its merits? On this point I first present a bit of history. In 1871 silver was as now a commodity, and gold was the same, for both were demonetized by the greenback. Near the close of that year a ten ounce silver bar (no fiat, no buying it up by government credit) sold in New York city for $13.10 in gold. Gold was at a lower premium than some years after, so the bar of silver was worth almost exactly $15 in greenbacks. This would then buy in New York city 9% bushels of wheat, 26 of oats, 15 of rye or 18 of corn, and likewise 80 pounds of cotton or 30 of wool or 361 of bar iron. Today that ten ounce bar of silver would sell, I believe, for $6.30, which would buy in New York city 11 bushels of wheat, or 112 pounds of cotton, nearly twice as much bar iron as in 1871, somewhat less of rye, oats and pork3 and somewhat more of other things. On the general average of 100 commodities the purchasing power of uncoined silver has declined, as near as I can estimate it, 10 per cent. Now, it is clear to my mind chat that 10 per oent is exactly equal to fche cheapening caused by increased invention in mining and reduction and by fche general demonetization. It would take columns of figures to prove it, but I also believe it to be true that the smaller cost of producing commodities, due to inventions since 1871, would with a stable money have been balanced, or nearly so, by increased consumption, and that as measured by an ideally perfect or absolutely invariable standard commodities have really cheapened bus tho merest trifle since 1871. All the rest which appears in the nominal quotations is due to the 40 per cent increase in the purchasing power of gold.

Blinded by Self Interest.

The cold hard truth is that on this particular point thegoldbugs are afflicted with a delusion like that which possesses a child or a green landsman voyaging down a very crooked river. Now the sun is on his right and now on his left, at one time in tho north and again in the southeast, while woods and hills move round him in a regular devil's dance, but to his eye the boat goes straight on. Tho landsman knows better, and the child can be taught better, and both will admit the truth because they gain nothing by self deception, but the goldbug's interest blinds him, and though convinced by unanswerable figures he would still deny the truth.

Our creditors have assumed, as if it were a primary truth, that while all other articles on earth are perpetually changing in value gold alone is gifted with the great attribute of God—immutability. They have asserted this so loud and long that they have come to believe it themselves, and this radical error has debauched all their political thinking. In vain do we point out to them that a bar of uncoined silver will exchange for nearly as much as 30 years ago, while uncoined gold will exchange for 40 per cent more. In vain do we prove the steady decline of all commodities in equal measure with silver, and that regardless of new inventions or relative production.

Silver the Most Constant Value. I would not rashly rush in where angels fear to tread and contradict scientific men who have made an exhaustive study of the subject, but certainly all the evidence in my possession goes to prove that silver is the most constant in value of all the precious metals, and that gold is extremely variable. I present a few reasons. Nearly all the silver is produced from deep lodes—great fissures extending to unknown depths in the earth, caused by primal convulsions and filled probably by mineral rising in a sublimated state. A true fissure vein once well opened is a permanent property, and the supply therefrom is, as a rule, tolerably regular. Such mining is in every sense a legitimate business, and even if there is an immense yield for a few years it makes but a trifling difference because of the vast stock already in the world.

Gold, on the other hand, is largely the product of placer, gulch and bar, of washing in gravel beds and picking nuggets from apparently accidental deposits. In such mining there is no certainty, and hence a gold famine like that in the early part of this century is followed by a gold glut like that of 1850-60, and that in turn by a geld famine. It is true that there are permanent and reliable lode mines of gold, but enough of the others to produce great variations. Let gold be quoted in terms of silver, and all men would soon recognize that it is the more variable in value.

And if any reader thinks that the gold basis will broaden to fit the needs of commerce let him consider these facts, given by the eminent statistician Mulhall: "In 1800 tha international commeroe of the world aggregated but $1 ,510,000,000, less than the exports land imports of the United States last year. In 1840 it was but $2,865 000,000, when all the world had but 4,515 miles of railway and ocean shipping of but 10, 482,000 tonnage. Today the world has 384,000 miles of railway, oyer 41,000,000 tonnage of ocean shipping, 14 intercontinental ocean cables and an "international commeroe a little in excess of $18,000,000,000. But credit currency supplies the deficiency." Unfortunately true. Credit.has expanded far beyond the sustaining power of the gold .basis. Andthat's what's the matter ,with the.

{Oountry.

J. H. Browning.

By A. 00MN DOYLE.

CHAPTER I.

Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantelpiece and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle and rolled back his left shirt cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon tho sinewy forearm and wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture marks. Finally he thrust the sharp point home, pressed clown the tiny piston and sank back into the velvet lined armchair with a long sigh of satisfaction.

Three times a day for many months I had witnessed this performance, but custom had not reconciled my mind to it. On the contrary, from day to day I had become more irritable at the sight, and my conscience swelled nightly within me at the thought that I had lacked the courage to protest. Again and again I had registered a vow that I should deliver my soul upon the subject, but there was that in the cool, nonchalant air of my companion which made him the last man with whom one would care to take anything approaching to a liberty. His great powers, his masterly manner and tho experience which I had had of his many extraordinary qualities, all made 1110 diffident and backward in crossing him.

Yet upon that afternoon, whether it was the Beaune which I had taken with my lunch or the additional exasperation produced by tho extremo deliberation of his manner, I suddenly felt that I could hold out no longer. "Which is it today," I asked, "morphino or cocaine?"

He raised his eyes languidly from the old black letter volumo which he had opened. "It is cocaine," he said, "a 7 per cent solution. Would you care to try iti"' ''No, indeed," I answered brusquely. "My constitution has not got over the Afghan campaign yet. I cannot afford to throw any extra strain upon it."

He smiled at my vehemence. ''Perhaps you arc right, Watson," ho said. "I suppose that its influence is physically a bad one. I find it, however, so transcendently stimulating and clarifying to the mitd that its secondary action is a matter of small moment." "But consider," I said earnestly. "Count the cost. Your brain may, as you say, bo roused and excited, but it is a pathological anft morbid process which involves increased tissue change and may at last leave a permanent weakness. You know, too, what a black reaction comcs upon you. Surely the game is hardly worth tho candle. Why should you, for a mere passing pleasure, risk the loss of those great powers with which you hare been endowed? Remember that I speak not only as one comrade to another, but as a medical man to one for whose constitution he is to some extent, answerable."

He did not seem offended. On the contrary, ho put his finger tips together and leaned his elbows on the arms of his chair, like one who has a relish for conversation. "My mind," he said, "rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me tho most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor tho dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I havo chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it, for I am the only ono in the world." "Tho only unofficial detective?" I said, raising my eyebrows. "The only unofficial consulting detective," he answered. "I am the last and highest court of appeal in detection. When Gregson and Lestrade and Athclney Jores I are out of their depths, which, by the way, is their normal state, the matter is laid before me. I examine the data as an expert and pronounce a specialist's opinion.

I claim no credit in such cases. My name figures in 110 newspaper. The work itself, the pleasure of finding a field for my peculiar powers, is my highest reward. But you have yourself had some experience of my methods of work in the Jefferson Hope case." "Yes, indeed," said I cordially. "I was never so struck by anything in my life. I even embodied it in a small brochure with the somewhat fantastic title of 'A Study In Scarlet.'

He shook his head sadly. "I glanced over it," said he. "Honestly I cannot congratulate you upon it. Detection is or ought to be an exact science and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional mannsr. You have attempted to tinge it with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid."

But the romance whs there," I remonstrated. "I could not tamper with the facts." "Some facts should be suppressed, or at least a just sense of proportion should be observed in treating them. Tho only point in the case which deserved mention was thq curious analytical reasoning from effects to causes by which 1 succeeded in unraveling it." 1 was annoyed at this criticism of a work which had been specially designed to please him. I confess, too, that I was Irritated by the egotism which seemed to domand that every line of my pamphlet should be devpted to his own special doings. More than once during the years that ]f|had lived with him in Baker street I had observed that a small vanity underlay my companion's quiet and didactic manner. I made no remark, however, but sat nursing my wounded leg. 1 had had a Jezail bullet through it some time before, and though it did not prevent me from walking it

ached wearily at every

change ot the weather. "My practice has extended recently to the continent," said Holmes after awhile, filling up his old brier root pipe. "I

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consulted last week by Francois le Villard, who as you probably know, has come rather to the front lately in the Frenoh detective service. He has all the Celtio power of quick intuition, but he is deficient in the wide range of exact knowledge eraenttal to the higher developments of his art. The case was concerned torith a Will and possessed some) features of interest. I was able to refer nlm to two parallel coses—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 letter which

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said Sherlock Holmes lightly. "Ho has considerable gifts himself. Ho possesses two out of the three qualities necessary for tho ideal detective. He has the power of observation and that of deduction. He is only wanting in knowledge, and that may come in time. He is now translating my small works into French." "Your works?" "Oh, didn't you know?" he cried, laughing. "Yes, I have been guilty of several monographs. They are all upon technical subjects. Here, for example, is one Upon the Distinction Between tho Ashes of the Various Tobaccos." In it I enumerate 140 forms of cigar, cigarette and pipe tobacco, with colored plates illustrating the difference in the ash. It is a point which in continually turning up in criminal trials, and which is sometimes of supreme importance as a clew. If you can say definitely, for example, that some murder has been done by a man who was smoking an Indian lunkah, it obviously narrows your field of search. To tho trained eye there is as much difference between the black ash of a Trichiuopoly and tho white fluff of birds' eye as there is between a cabbage and a potato." "You have an extraordinary genius for minutiie," 1 remarked. '•I appreciate their importance. Hero is my monograph upon the tracing of footsteps, with some remarks upon tho uses of plaster of paris as a preserver of impresses. Here, too, is a curious littlo work upon the influence of a trade upon the form of tho hand, with liihotypes of the hands of slaters, sailors, cork cutters, compositors, weavers and diamond polishers. That is a matter of great practical interest to tho scientific detective, especially in cases of unclaimed bodies or in discovering the antecedents of criminals. But I weary you with my hobby." "Not at all," I answered earnestly. "It is of the greatest interest to me, especially since I have had the opportunity of observing your practical application of it. But you spoke just now of observation 1 and deduction. Surely the one to some extent implies the other." "Why, hardly," he answered, leaning back luxuriously in his armchair and sending up thick blue wreaths from his pipe. "For example, observation shows me that you have been to tho Wigmoro street postoffico this morning, but deduction lets 1110 know that when there you dispatched a telegram. "Right," said I. "Righton both points. But I confess that I don't seo how you arrived at it. It was a sudden impulse upon my part, and I have mentioned it to no one." "It is simplicity itself," ho remarked, chuckling at my surprise, "so absurdly simple that an explanation is superfluous, and yet it may serve to define tho limits of observation and of deduction. Observation tells me that you have a little reddish mold adhering to your instep. Just opposite the Seymour street offico they havo taken up tho pavement and thrown up some earth, which lies in such away that it is difficult to avoid treading in it in entering. Tho earth is of that peculiar reddish tint which is found, as far as I know, nowhere elso in the neighborhood. So much is observation. Tho rest is deduction. "How, then, did you dcduco tho telegram?" "Why, of course I knew that you had not written a letter, since I sat opposite to you all morning. I seo also in your open desk there that you have a sheet of stamps and a thick bundle of postcards. What could you go into tho postoffico for thon but to send a wire? Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must bo the truth." "In this caso it certainly is so," I replied after a little thought. "Tho thing, however, is, as you say, of the simplest. Would you think me impertinent if I were to put your theories to a more severe test?" "On tho contrary," he answered, "it would prevent mo from taking a second dose of cocaine. I should bo delighted to look into any problem which you might submit to me." "I havo heard you say that it is difficult for a man to havo any object in daily use without leaving the impress of his individuality upon it in such away that a trained observer might read it. Now, I have here a watch which has recently come into my possession. Would you have the kindness to lot mo have an opinion upon the character or habits of the late owner?"

I handed him over tho watch, with some slight feeling of amusement in my heart, for the test was, as I thought, an impossible one, and I intended it as a lesson against the somewhat dogmatic toiie which he occasionally assumed. He balanced tho watch in his hand, gazed hard at the dial, opened the back and examined the works, first with his naked eyes and then with a powerful convex lens. I could hardly keep from smiling at his crestfallen face when he finally snapped the case to and handed it back. "There are hardly any data," he remarked. "The watch has been recently cleaned, which robs 1110 of my most sug- I gestivo facts." "You are right," I answered. "It was 1 cleaned bofco being sent to me." In my heart I accused my companion of putting forward a most lamo and impotent excuse to cover his failure. What data could be expect from an uncleaned watch? "Though unsatisfactory, my search has not been entirely barren," he observed, staring up at the ceiling with dreamy, lack luster eyes. "Subject to your correction, I should judge that tho watch belonged to your eldor brother, who inheritedit from your father." "That you gather no doubt from the H. W. upon the back?" "Quite so. The W suggests your own name. The date of the watch is nearly 60 years back, and the initials are as old as the watch, so it was made for the last generation. Jewelry usually descends to the eldest son, and he is most likely to have tho same name as the father. Your father has, if I remember right, been dead many years. It has therefore been in the hands of your eldest brothor." "Right so far," said I. "Anything else?" "He was a man of untidy habits—very untidy and careless. Ho wus left with good prospoots, but he threw away his chances, lived for some time in poverty, with occasional short Intervals of prosperity, and1 finally, taking to drink, he died. ?hnt ls

an

had this morn­

ing acknowledging my assistance." He tossed over as he spoke a crumpled sheet of foreign note paper. I glanced my eyes down it, catching a profusion of notes of admiration, with stray magniflques, coup de maitres and tours de force, all testifying to the ardent admiration -of the Frenchman. "He speaks as a pupil to his master,M sitol he rates my assistance too highly,"

1 can gather."

I sprang from my chair and limped impatiehtly about the room, with considerable bitteenbss in my hear|. .vortny ui you, uoimes," said. "I could not have believed that you would have descended to this. You have made inquiries into the history of my unhappy brother, and you now pretend to deduce this knowledge in some fanciful way. You cannot expect me to believe that you ha^f read all this from his old Watch. It is unkind, and, to speak plainly, has a touch of charlatanism in it."

My dear doctor' said h* kindly, "ptay •ooept my apologies* Viewing the matter

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as an abstract problem, I had forgotten how personal and painful a thing it might be to you. I assure you, however, that I never even knew that you had a brothez ur.al you handed me the watch." "Then how in tho name of all that is wonderful did you get these facts? They are absolutely correct in every particular." "Ah, that is good luck. I could only say what was tho balance of probability. I did not expect to bo so accurate." "But it was not mere guesswork?" "No, no. I never guess. It is a shocking habit—destructive to tho logical faculty. What seems strange to you is only so because you do not follow my train of thought or observe tho small facts upon which large inferences may depend. For example, I began by stating that your brothor was careless. When you observe the lower part of that watch case, you notice that it is not only dented in two places, but it is cut and marked all over from the habit of keeping other hard objects, such as coins or keys, in tho same pocket. .Surely it is no great feat to assume that a man who treats a 50 guinea watch so cavalierly must bo a careless man. Neither is it a very far fetched inferenco that a man who inherits 01.0 article of such value is pretty well provided for in other respects."

I nodded to show that I followed his reasoning. •'It is very customary for pawnbrokers in England when they take a watch to scratch the number of tho ticket with a pinpoint upon the insido of tho case. It is more handy than a label, as there is no risk of the numbers being lost or transposed. There arc 110 less than four numbers visible to my lens on the inside of this case. Inference—that your brother was often at low water. Secondary inference —that he had occasional bursts of prosperity, or ho could not have redeemed the pledge. Finally, I ask you to look at tho inner plate, which contains the keyhole. Look at the thousands of scratches all round the hole—marks where tho key had slipped. What sober man's key could havo scored those grooves? But you will never see a drunkard's watch without them. lie winds it at night, and ho leaves tlieso traces of his unsteady hand. Where is tho mystery in all this?" "It is as clear as daylight," I answered. "I regret tho injustice which I did you. I should havo had moro faith in your marvelous faculty. May I ask whether you havo any professional inquiry on foot at present?" "None hcnco tho cocaine. I cannot live without brain work. What elso is tliero to live for? Stand at tho window here. Was ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? Seo how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across dun colored houses. What could be moro hopelessly prosaic and material? What is tho use of having powers, doctor, wi .11 one has no field upon which to exert them? Crime is commonplace, and existence is commonplace, and 110 qualities save those which arc commonplace havo any function upon earth."

I had opened my mouth to reply to this tirade when, with a crisp knock, our landlady entered, bearing a card upon the brass salver. "A young lady for you, sir," she said, addressing my companion. -x^ "Miss Mary Morstan," he read. "Hunua? I have 110 recollection of the name. Ask the young

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to step up, Mrs. Hudson,

Don't go, doctor. I shall prefer that you: remain."

CHAPTER II.

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Miss Morstan entered the room with a firm step and an outward composure of manner. She was a blond young lady, small, dainty, well gloved and dressed in tho most perfect tasto. There was, however, a plainness and simplicity about her costume which bore with it a suggestion of limited means. The dress was a somber grayish beige, untrimmed and unbraided, and she wore a small turban of the same dull hue, relieved only by a suspicion of»^. white feather in tho side. Her face had. neither regularity of feature nor beauty of complexion, but her expression was •sweet and amiable, and her largo bli'O eyes wero singularly spiritual and sympa- obi thetic. In an experience of women which extends over many nations and three separate continents 1 have nover looked upon a face which gave a clearer promise of a refined and sensitive nature. I could not but observe that as she took the seat which Sherlock Holmes placed for her her lip trembled, her hand quivered, and sho showed every sign of intense inward agitation. "I have como to you, Mr. Holmes," she said, "because you once enabled my employer, Mrs. Cecil Forrester, to unravel a little domestic complication. She was much impressed by your kindness, and skill." "Mrs. Cecil Forrester," ho repeated thoughtfully "1 believe that I was of some slight service to her. Tho case, however, as I remember it, was a very simple one." "She did not think so. But at least you cajjnot say tho same of mine. I can hardly imagine anything moro 6trangc, more utterly inexnlicablc, than tho situation in which I find myself." 0

Holmes rubbed his hands, and his eyes glistened. Ko leaned forward in his chair with an expression of extraordinary concentration upon his clear cut, hawklike reatures. "Mate your caso," earn ne in brisk business tones.

I felt that my position was an embarrassing one. "You will, I am sure, excuse me," I said, rising from my chair.

To my surprise the young lady held up her glovod hand to detain 1110. "If your friend," she said, "would be good enough to stop, he might bo of inestimable service tome."

I relapsed into my chair. •.-¥ "Briefly," she continued, "the facts are these: My father was an officer in an Indian regiment who sent me home when I was quite a child. My mother was dead, and I had 110 relative in England. I was placed, however, in a comfortable boarding establishment at Edinburgh, and there I remained until I was 17 years of age. In the year 1878 my father, who was senior captain of his regiment, obtained 12 months' leave and camo home. He telegraphed to mo from London that he had arrived all safo and directed me to come down at onco, giving the Langham hotel as his address. His message, as I remember, was full of kindness and love On reaching London I drove to the Langham and was informed that Captain Morstan was staying there, but that he had gone out the night before and had not returned. I waited all day without news of him. That night, on tho advice of the manager of the hotel, I communicated with the police, and next morning we advertised in all the papers. Our inquiries led to no result, and from that day to this no word has ever been heard of my unfortunate father. He came home with his heart full of hope to find some peace, some comfort, and instead"— She put her hand to her throat, and a ehoklng Hob cut short the sentence. -1

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