SHERLOCK HOLMES.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 January 1921, Page 9

SHERLOCK HOLMES.

WHA’ HE WAS KILLED. In the volunteer days of Si» Arthur Ccnan Doyle he had occasion to parade before an officer young enough to 'be bis son. This officer said to Sir Arthur: “You have seen service in Africa, my man ?” “Yes, sir,” replied Sir Arthur. The youngster then went up io his captain and asked. “Who is that big chap?” “That,’ said the captain, “is Sherlock Holmes.” “Good Lord,” said the crestfallen adjutant, “I hope he won’t mind my speaking to him like that” “He just loves it,” said the captain.

This was told by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at the Millions Club luncheon in Sydney recently, and the roars of laughter which followed were repeated later when he told more of his Sherlock Holmes experiences. Determined to embark on other forms of literary work, and ’being greatly worried by his publisher to continue Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur launched a sort of Declaration of Independence by throwing Sherlock Holmes over a precipice. (Laughter.) That was in order to show that he was finished and done with. He did not realise what a grip that creation had on the English public. In Sir Arthur’s words: “I received one letter from an indignant old lady whiich began, ‘You beast.* (Lajighter.) “In fact. I discovered, tq my surprise, that a great number of people really thought this invention of mine existed. I received quite a number of letters addressed to Sherlock Holmes, care of me. (Laughter.) One curious example of how personal he had become was that, after I resuscitated him, and finally put him to live a quiet country life on the South Downs, and said he had gone in for bee-keeping, I received letter? from two or three women saying they thought they would make excellent housekeepers for Mr. Holmes. (Laughter ) One said she was particularly well fitted, because she was able to segregate the Queen. (Laughter.) What it means T don’t pretend to know. (Renewed laughter.)

“The most severe criticism on Sherlock Holmes -.vas from a boatman, who told me that he did not know’ whether Holmes was kil'id or injured when he was thrown over the cliff. ‘I think,’ the boatman, ‘that he was badly injured, as he never wrote quite the same afterwards.* ” (Laughter and applause.) More laughter followed when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said® he was suffering from clergyman’s sore throat, “the only 'bond between himself and the clergy.” And thus he contended.