Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1894 — Page 6

A STUDY IN SCARLET.

PART L [Being a reprint from the reminiscences of John H. Watson, M. D., late of the Army Medical Department.] CHAPTER I. & MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES.

In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the Universityof London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army. Having completed my studies there. I was duly attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as assistant surgeon. The regiment was stationed iir India at the time, and before I could join it the second Afghan war had broken out. On landing at Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced through the passes, and was already deep in the enemy’s country. I followed, however, with many other officers who were in the &ame situation as mysetf, and siTccer'ded in reaehing Can ■ dahar in safetyvwhere I found my regiment, and at once entered upon my new duties. The campaign brought honors and promotion to many, but for me it had nothing but disaster and misfortune. Twas removed from my brigade and attached to the Berkshires, with whom I served at the fata', battle of Maiwand. There I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery. I should have fallen into the hands of the murderous Ghazis had it not been for the devotion and courage shown by Murray, my orderly, who threw me across a pack-horse and succeeded in bringing me safely to the British lines. Worn with pain, and weak from the prolonged hardships which I had undergone, I was removed, with a great train of wounded sufferers, to the base hospital at Peshawur. Here I rallied, and had already improved so far as to be able walk about the wards, and even to bask a little upon the veranda, when I was struck down by enteric fever, that curse of our Indian possessions. For mouths my life was despaired of, and when at last I came to myself and became convalescent, I was so weak and emaciated that a medical board determined that not a day should be lost in sending me back to England. I was dispatched, accordingly, in the troop-ship “Orontes.” and landed a month later on Portsmouth jetty, with my health' irretrievably ruined, but with permission from a paternal government to spend the next nine months in attempting to improve it. 1 had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air—or as free as an income of eleven • shillings and sixpence a day will-per-mit men to be. Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the empire are irresistibly drained. There I stayed for some time at a private hotel in the Strand, leading a comfortless, inca n ingloss existence, and spending such money as I had considerably more freely than I ought. So alarming did the state of my finances become, that I soon realized that I must either leave the metropolis and Tirsticatesomewherc - in the country, or that I must make a complete alteration in my style of living. Choosing the lattet alternative, I began by-making up my mind to leave the hotel, and to take up my quarters in some less pretentious and less expensive domicile. On the very day that I had come to this conclusion. I was standing at the Criterion bar, when some one tapped me on the shoulder, and turning round 1 recognized young Stamford, who had been a dresser under me at Bart's. The sight of a friendly face in the great wilderness of London is a pleasant thing indeed to a lonely man. In old days Stamford had never been a particular crony of mine, but now I hailed him with enthusiasm, and he. in his turn, appeared to be delighted to see me. In the exuberance of my joy, 1 asked him to lunch with me at the Holborn, and we started off together in a hansom. “Whatever have you been doing with yourself, Watson?" he asked, in undisguised wonder, as we rattled HirouglFthc crowded London streets. “You are as thin as a lath and as brown nut.’’ I gave him a short sketch of my adventures, and had hardly concluded it by the time that we reached our destination. devil!" he said, commiseratingly, after he had listened to my misfortunes. “What are you up to now?" “Looking for lodgings,” I answered. “Trying to solve the problem as to whether it is possible to get comfortable rooms at a reasonable price." * “That’s a thing,” remarked my companion; “you are the second man today that has used that expression to me." “And who wasithe first?" I asked. “A fellow who is working at the chemical laboratory up at the hospital. He was bemoaning himself this morning because he could not get some one to go halves with him in some njee rooms which he had found, and which were too much for bis purse.” “By Jove!" I cried, “if he reallv wants some one to share the rooms and the expense, I am the very man

_foy him. I should prefer having a partner to being alone.” Young- Stamford looked rather strangely at me over his wine-glass. “You don’t know Sherlock Holmes yet," he said; “perhaps you would not care for him as a constant companion." ‘ ‘ Why. what is there against him?” “Oh, I didn’t say there was anything agaihst him. He is a little qubgr in bis ideas —an enthusiast in some branches of science. As far as I know, he"is au econ tfeiiow enough. ’ ’ ;. “A medical ‘ student. I suppose?” said I. “No; I have no idea what he in - tends to go in for. I believe he is well up in anatomy, and he is a first-class .chemist; but, as far as I know.: lie has never taken out any systematic medical classes. His studies are very desultory and eccentric, but he has amassed a lot of out-of-the-way knowledge which would astonish his professors.” “Did you never ask him what he was going in for?" I asked. “No; he is not a man that is easy to draw out, though he can be communicative enough when the fancy seizes him.” “I should like to meet him,” I said. “If I am to lodge with any on£, I should prefer a man of quiet and studious habits. I am not strong enough yet to stand much noise or excitement. I had enough of both in Afghanistan to last me for the remainder of my natural existence. How could I meet this friend of yours?” “He is sure to be at the laboratory. He either avoids the place for weeks, or else he works there from morning to night. If you like, we shall drive round together after luncheon.” “Certainly,” T answered; and the conversation drifted away into other channels. As we made our way to the hospital after leaving the Holborn, Stamford gave me a few more particulars about the gentleman whom I proposed to take as a fellowlodger. “You mustn’t blame me if you don't, get on with him,” he said. “I know nothing more of him than I have learned from meeting him occasionally in the laboratory. You proposed this arrangement, so you must not hold me responsible.” “If we don’t get on it will be easy to part company,” I answered. “It seems to me, Stamford,” I added, looking hard at my companion, “that you have some reason for washing your hands of the matter. Is this fellow’s temper so formidable, or what is it? Don’t be mealymouthed about it.” “It is not easy to express the inexpressible,” he answered, with a laugh. ’‘Holmes is a little too scientific for my tastes —it approaches to cold-bloodedness. I could imagine his giving a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetable alkaloid, not out of malevoleence, but simply out of a spirit of inquiry in order to have an accurate idea of the effects. To do him justice. I think he would take it himself with the same readiness. He appears to have a passion for definite and ejiact knowledge.” “Very right, too.X-Ag “Yes; but it may feOfnshed to excess. When it comesHo beating the subjects in the dissecting rooms -with a stick it is certainly taking a bizarre shape.” “Boating the subjects?” “Yes, to verify how far bruises may be produced after death. I saw him at it with my own eyes.” “And yet you say he is not a medical student?” “No. Heaven knows what the object of his studies i re. But here we are, and you mjust form your own impressions about him.” As he spoke, we turned down a narrow lane and passed through a small side door, which opened into a wing of the great hospital. It was familiar ground, and I needed no guiding as we ascended the bleak „st2n£_s tairgase_an,d ... made our wax down the long corridor with its vista of whitewashey wall and dun-colored doors. Near the further end a low, arched passage branched away from it and led to the chemical laboratory. This was a lofty chamber, lined and littered with countless hotties. Broad, low tables were scattered about, which bristled with retorts, test-tubes, and little Bunsen lamps, with their flickering flames. There was only one student in the room, who was bending over a distant table absorbed in his work. At the sound of our steps he glanced’’Found and sprung to his feet with a cry of pleasure. “I’ve found it! I’ve found it!” he shouted to my companion, running toward us with a test tube in his hand. “I have found a reagent which is precipitated by haemoglobin, and by nothing elsq.” Hlid|he discovered a gold mine, greater delight could not have shown upon nis features. “Dr. Watson Mr. Sherlock Holmes,” said Stamford, introducing us. “How are you?” he said, cordially, gripping my hand with a strength for which I should hardly have given

him credit. “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.” “How on earth did you know that?” I asked, in astonishment. “Never mind. ' said he, chuckling to himself. “The question now is about hgemoglobin. No doubt you see the significance of this discovery of mine?” ■ “It is interesting chemically, no doubt, ”1 answered;“but practically-” “Why, man, it is the most practical medico-legal discovery for years. Don’t you see that it gives us an infallible test for blood stains? Come over here, now!” He seized me by the coat sleeve in his eagerness, and drew me over to the table at which he had been working. “Let us have some fresh blood,” lie said, digging a long bodkin into his finger, and drawing off the resulting drop of blood in a chemical pipette. “Now, I add this small quantity of blood to a liter of water. You perceive the resulting mixture has the appearance of true water. The proportion of blood cannofrbe more than one in a'million. 1 have no doubt, however, that we shall be able to obtain the characteristic reaction.” - As he spoke, he threw into the vessel a few white crystals, and then added some drops of a transparent fluid. In an .instant the conten ts assumed a dull mahogany color, and a brownish dust was precipitated to the bottom of the> gl assjar? 7 “Ha! ha!” he cried, clapping his hands and looking as delighted as a child with a new toy. “What do you think of that?” “It seems to be a very delicate test,” I remarked. “Beautiful! beautiful! The old guaiacum test was very clumsy and uncertain."” The latter is valueless if the stains are a few hours gid. Now, this appears to act as well w’hether the blood is old or new. Had this test been invented there are hundreds of men now walking the earth who would long ago have paid the penalty of their crimes.” “Indeed!” I murmured.

“Criminal cases are continually hinging upon that one point. A man is suspected of a crime months perhaps after it was committed. His linen or clothes are examined and brownish stains discovered upon them. Are they blood stains, or mud stains, or rust stains, or fruit stains, or what are they? That is a question which has puzzled many an expert, and why? Because there was no reliable test. Now we have the Sherlock Holmes test and there will no longer be any difficulty.” His eyes fairly glittered as he spoke, and he put his hand over his heart and bowed as if to some applauding crowd conjured up by his imagination. “You are to be congratulated,” I remarked, considerably surprised at his enthusiasm. “There was the case of Von Bischoff at Frankfort last year. He would certainly have been hung had this test been in existence. Then there was Mason, of Bradford, and the notorious Muller, and Lefevre, of Montpelier, and Samson, of New Orleans. I could name a score of cases in which it would have been decisive.” “You seem to be a walking calendar of crime,” said Stamford, with a laugh. “You might start a paper on those lines. Call it the ‘Police News of the Past.’” “Very interesting reading might be made, too,” remarked Slierlock Holmes, sticking a small piece of plaster over the prick of his finger. “I have to be careful,” he continued, turning to me with a smile, “for I dabble with poisons a good deal.” He held out his hand as he spoke and I noticed that it was mottled over with similar pieces of plaster and discolored with strong acids. “We came here on business,” said Stamford, sitting down on a three legged stool and pushing another one in my direction with his foot. “My friend here wants to take diggings, and as you are complaining that you can get no one to go halves with you 1 thought that 1 had better bring you together.” Sherlock Holmes seemed delighted at the idea of sharing his rooms with me.

“I have my eye on a suite in Baker street,” he said, “which would suit us down to the ground. You don’t mind the smell of strong tobacco, i hope?” “I always smoke ‘ship’s’ myself,” I answered. “That’s good enough. I generally have chemicals about and occasionally do experiments. Would that _amiQxyou?” “By no means." “Let me see —what are my other shortcomings? I get inthedumjis at times and don’t open my mouth for days on end. You must not think lam sulky when Ido that. Just let me alone and I’ll soon be all right. What have you to confess now? It s just as well for two fellows to know the worst of each other before they begin to live together.” I laughed at this cross-examina-tion. “I keep a bull pup,” I said, “and to rows, becausp my nerves are shaken, and I get up at all sorts of ungodly hours, and lain extrmely lazy. I have another set of vices when I’m well, but those are the the principal ones at present." “Do you include violin playing in your category of rows?” he asked, anxiously. “It depends on the player," I answered. A well played violin is a treat for the gods; a badly played one ” “Oh, that’s all right,” he cried, with a merry laugh. “I think we may consider the thing as settled — that is, if the rooms are agreeable to you.”

“When shall we see them?” “Call for me here at noon tomorrow, and we’ll go together and settle everything,” he answered. “All right, noon exactly,” said I, shaking his hand. We left him working among his chemicals, and we walked together toward my hotel. “By the way,’’ I asked, suddenly, stopping and turning upon Stamford, “how in the deuce did he know that I had come from Afghanistan?” My companion smiled an enigmatical smile. 5 “That’s just his little peculiarity,” he said. “A good many people have wanted to liiiow how he finds. thiugS out.” “Oh, a mystery, is it?” I cried, rubbing iny hands. “This is very piquant, lam much obliged to you for bringing us together. ‘The proper study of mankind is man,’ you know.” “You must study him, then,” Stamford said, as he bid me goodby. “You’ll find him a knotty problem, though. I’ll wager he learns more about you than you about him. Good-by.” answered:—and strolled on to my hotel, considerably interested in my new acquaintance. CHAPTER 11. THE SCIENCE OF DEDUCTION. We met next day, as he had arranged, and inspected the rooms at No. 221 b Baker street, of which he had spoken at our meeting. They consisted of a couple of comfortable bedrooms and a single, large, airy sitting-room, cheerfully furnished, and illuminated by two broad windows. So desirable in every way were the apartments, and so moderate did the terms seem when divided between us, that the bargain was concluded upon the spot, and we at once entered into possession, That very evening I moved my things round from the hotel, and on the following morning Sherlock Holmes followed me with several boxes and portmanteaus. For a day or two we were busily employed in unpacking and laying out our property to the best advantage. That done, we gradually began to settle down and to accommodate ourselves to our new surrounding. Holmes was certainly not a difficult man to live with. He was quiet in his ways, and his habits were regular. It was rare for him to be up after ten at night, and he had invariably breakfasted and gone out before I rose in the morning. Sometimes he spent his day at the chemical laboratory, sometimes in the dissecting room,andoccasionally in long walks, which appeared to take him into the lowest portions of the city. Nothing could exceed his energy when the working fit was upon him; but now and again a reaction would seize him, and for days on end he would lie upon the sofa in the sitting room, hardly uttering a word or moving a muscle from -morning to night. On these occasions I have noticed such a dreamy, vacant expression in his eyes that I might have suspected him of being addicted to The u#e of some narcotic, had not the temperance and clean jinesa of his whole life forbidden such a notion. (to be continued.)

A GIRL WHO HUNTS RATTLERS.

She Has Killed Twenty-Eight Snakes So Far This Season. Philadelphia Times. The town of Liberty, N. Y., claims the champion rattlesnake hunter in the person of sixteen-year-old Mary Burton. Early in the season she killed a rattlesnake in her father's yard and cut off the rattles. Since then she has developed a craze for collecting the rattles of these snakes, and spends her time in hunting the venomous reptiles. Up to date she has killed twenty-eight rattlesnakes and from them has obtained twenty perfectly matched sets of rattles. Each set has nine rattlqs or segments. The other eight sots are odd ones, ranging from four to ten rattles in a set. The women in this part of the State seem to have taken an amazing courage in dealing with snakes this season. A report from Hancock says that Mrs. Frank Tower of that place was on her way home after dark the other evening when she heard a rattlesnake sound its rattles in the weeds at the roadside. She hurried home, said nothing to anyone, got a lantern anil a cTuB an 3 returned to the spot where she had beard the rattle. It was there still, and sprang its rattles as soon as Mrs. Tower approached. She turned her light on it, saw it lying coiled ready to strike, and smashed its head with the club. The snake was an immense fellow, measuring over five feet, but it carried only nine rattles. A young girl named Henrietta Quick, across the Delaware in Laxa waxen, Pa., heard a noise among her chickens. She went out and saw a rattlesnake maneuvering to capture one. She cut its head v with a hoe. This one had thirteen rattles. Farmers on Long Island have some of their lighter work done by children. Peas, beans and berries are thus picked, the youngsters being paid for the amount of work they do. Sometimes a farmer drives to the nearest village with a hay wagon provided with temporary seats, takes on a load of children, drhes back to the farm, sets his passengers to work and at the end of the day takes them home with money is their pockets.

FIVE MEN AND AN OCTOPUS.

Desperate Fight with a Sea Monster NeartheGolUeiri&aTte. San Francisco Examiner. The largest octopus ever caught in the vicinity of the Golden Gate was brought in by Nicholas Panay ind his crew of four men in the fishing boat Alexandria. They had been fishing near the Duxbury reef since last Monday morning, and they were meeting with fair success. On Thursday they hooked this monster and a battle was the result. Gustav Antani was pulling the long line with its many hooks, while his companions were taking off the fish and rebaiting the hooks. Suddenly there came a strong, sullen pull at the line, and the fishermen thought it had become entangled in the rocks of the reef. The hooks used by the fishermen are yielding and easily bent, so that they can be dislodged should they become caught, and Gustave gave a pull on the line to loosen it. It gave wav, but there was a dead weight on

it, and the astonished fishermen began- taking in the line slowly, wondering what made it drag so heavily. He soon discovered a long arm shoot up from the surface of the ocean only a few feet away from the boat, and others soon followed it. The water seemed full of the terrible snake like limbs, and the fishermen knew they had an octopus to deal with. The tentacles of the sea monster reached higher than the mast of their little vessel as it floundered about in the water, endeavoring seemingly to reach out for its captors. The sea was lashed into foam, and the little boat reeled and careened in the swirl and threatened every moment to lose its terrified occupants into the arms of the the monster. Gustav forgot all about his line. He let it go and reached for a hatchet with which to defend himself. The line paid out a few yards and the octopus sank, but the myriads of hooks caught on the gunwale of the craft as they flew -aver and the fish was held. The capture of such a fish is lucrative, and the fishermen determined to add it to their boat load. Chinamen are yery fond of the tentacles, and they eagerly purchase all that are caught. Gustav hauled again on the line, and for a few moments he wished that he had cut it instead. As the octopus was drawn nearer, it suddenly opened out its loilg arms and reached for the fishermen. One of its tentacles fell across the deck of the boat and its suckers gained a good hold. Others went around the keel, and almost instantly it had the boat in its embrace. A few welldirected blows of a hatchet freed the boat from immediate danger and several feet of one of the long feelers lay on the deck. Nicholas Panay stood ready with a sharp boat hook to give the death blow should the chance occur. Fishermen who have battled with this fish say the most vital spot in its ill-shapen body is just behind and between the eyes. The smallest weapon thrust into that spot will end the life of the most formidable of the sea horrors. Their long, sucker-like arms can be chopped off inch by inch without producing any apparent effect, and the advantage gained by the fishermen is small. So far in the battle the octopus had kept under the boat and the fishermen had been unable to get in the death blow. After a feeler had been chopped off, the octopus somewhat released his hold and the strong pull on the line by Gustav hauled the body of the fish up on that side of the boat. Still the vital spot could not be reached; slowly all the remaining tentacles of the creature began to encircle the boat and the position of the fishermen became serious. Art extra boat hook was reached over the side and it caught in the flesh of the octopus. A long, hard, steady pull brought the vital spot nearer the surface, and, with a swift blow, the weapon wielded by Panay was plunged deep between the eyes of the terror of the seas. Slowly the dreadful tentacles unfolded and the dreaded fish relaxed his hold on the boat. It took all hands to haul him on board and they exulting by exhibited their capture at the fishermen’s market. The huge fish was hoisted to the roof of the market, fully thirty feet high, and its long arms swept the floor. It had not been hanging long before a crowd they soon struck a bargain with the plucky fishermen and carried it off.

JAMES III. OF SCOTLAND, SLAIN WHILE FLEEING FROM BANNOCKBURN, 1488.

At the Butcher's.

Flleuende Blatter, “Why did vou put that large mirror near the door?” ‘‘To prevent the servant girl from watching the scales.” Times is Ktttin’ better; there's promise in th air: Men a set in* down ter work and glltln' cash to spare; They're havin' the policemen all converted in New York, And Chicago s bracin' up agin on palace can and pork.

A Great Carving Fork.

Every one who visits the old castle of Pau, in France, is shown the oldest and biggest carving fork in the world. It is the one once used by King Henry the Fourth, of'France, King Henry of Navarre, as he is better known, and is a great two ] r >nged affair of st' 1 strong enough and la - ge enougti to hold up a baron of beef. In King Henry’s day tjjiat giant fork was considered a great curiosity and remarkable piece of table furniture, for, excepting in Italy, forks were very 1 ittie used, and in some parts of Europe not known at all. It was just about the time of Queen Elizabeth of England that an English gentleman traveling through Italy wrote to a friend he had found the Italians using little silver forks at their meals. He thought it the queerest custom, and laughed at the way Italians; had of cutting off a piece of ineut . every person for himself, from one dish on the table, and eating the meat with a fork from his own plate. -

ANCIENT FRENCH AND ITALIAN FORKS.

Just about that time some Italian forks were brought to France and England and certain persons began to use them at the table, but it was considered a very unfashionable and silly habit. All her life Queen Elizabeth ate with her Augers, picking out nice bits of meats or vegetables from the dishes about her and putting them directly into her mouth. When in those days people wished to eat their food very hot, so hot they could scarcely bear to put their hands to it, buckskin gloves were worn at the table to protect their Angers; Although in some places the use of forks was forbidden by law, as a useless affectation and luxury, and though on the stage some very sharp jests were made at the expense of those who ate with forks, from the Afteenth century they began to grow in fashion. Even the i only two or three forks were owned in a family, and by aid of a knife and Angers the people of simple ways and means ate their meals. It was when a countess or a prince died and the list of their possessions left by will was published, one reads they bequeathed to their heirs one, two, or maybe three gold or silver forks. As time went . on. however, even the plain people used forks of steel and iron at table. Odd forks they were, with two long prongs set wide apart and short bone handles, for forks of silver were a sign ol riches in'a family. Not a great many forks came over in the Mayffower, but plenty of knives, both silver and steel, and our Puritan ancestors thought it not in the least vulgar to eat their food with a knife until somebody added a third prong to the forks in use. It is only in the last seventy-Ave years that all forks have been made with four prongs, and every one has learned to consider it a sign of bad manners fora boy or girl to shovel pease into his or her mouth with a knife, as, no doubt, Queen Elizabeth and King Henry did about four centuries ago.

What Is the Sun?

Chicago Tribune. Nicola Tesla is reported as saying that “the light of the sun is the result of electric vibrations in the ether that separates us from that luminary and does not proceed from a great central fire,as the scientists have all along held.” To this it may be remarked that the said vibrations “TTTCBTlravb some cause,and that coni' mensurate with the effect, so that if the sun were only half as powerful as now he would not excite more than half the total of energy that now is expressed in vibrations between him and must be quoted incorrectly as saying the earth. Fnrthenrtkre, Tesla the scientists have all along held the sum to be a great central fire. About the time Tesla was born it was pointed out that the material composing the sum is too hot to burn.and this statement is not gainsaid by any astronomer who studies the chemistry of the sun. One of the experiments made by those whose business it is to test the strength of dynamite, gun cotton and other explosives is to place fresh plucked leaves between two plates of panel steel and explode cartridges on the upper plate. The recoil in such cases is so great and sudden that the upper plate is driven downward with such force and rapidity as to catch the exact impression of the leaves before their delicate ribs have time to give way before the force of the blow.. This novel method of engraving is one of the wonders of the cetrfCrj