April 19, 1888: Holmes, Watson, and Athelney Jones chased the launch Aurora down the river Thames (SIGN)
April 19, 1888: Tonga was shot and killed by Holmes or Watson or both (SIGN)
On April 18th…
April 18, 1887: Action’s house in Reigate was broken into (REIG)
April 18, 1887: Holmes and Watson arrived home from Lyons (REIG)
April 18, 1888: The Baker Street Irregulars started their search for the launch Aurora (SIGN)
April 18, 1897: Dr. Leon Sterndale murdered Mortimer Tregennis (DEVI)
On April 17th…
April 17, 1897: Dr. Leon Sterndale abandoned his trip to Africa (DEVI)
April 17, 1888: Toby led Holmes and Watson on a creosote trail (SIGN)
April 17, 1888: the launch Aurora disappeared (SIGN)
On April 16th…
April 16, 1888: Holmes, Watson and Mary Morstan went to Pondicherry lodge (SIGN)
April 16, 1897: Brenda Tregennis was murdered and her two brothers lost their sanity (DEVI)
April 16, 1898: Violet Smith was followed by the solitary cyclist for the second time (SOLI)
On April 15th…
April 15, 1887: Watson arrived at Holmes’s bedside in Lyons (REIG)
April 15, 1888: Tonga killed Bartholomew Sholto with a poison dart (SIGN)
April 15, 1890: Violet Hunter sat in the window seat for the third time (COPP)
A poem to John Watson and his Mary forever
(Based on SIGN)
Tune: Fascination by F. D. Marchetti, arranged and sequenced by Jim Bottorff
When she said, “The treasure is gone,”
I then realized that I now could gain one.
With the gems and gold
Sunken through the cold
Nothing could prevent my heart from saying, “Thank God!”
When she asked me, “Why so say you?”
I confessed my love for her now shown as true.
Drawn against my side without slightest resistance,
Mary whispered, “Thank God,” too!
On October 10th…
October 10, 1855: Relief of Agra by Col. Greathed. (SIGN)
October 10, 1889: Holmes confronts James Windibank aka Hosmer Angel. (IDEN)
On May 4th…
May 4th 1847: John Ferrier and his daughter, Lucy, where rescued by the Mormons. (STUD)
May 4th 1882: Ad asking for Mary Morstan’s address appeared in the Times (SIGN)
Excitement!
To All:
The following are my most exiting sequences in the Canon in The Sign of Four:
“Fire if he raises his hand,” said Holmes, quietly. We were within a boat’s-length by this time, and almost within touch of our quarry. I can see the two men now as they stood: the white man with his legs far apart, shrieking out curses, and the unhallowed dwarf with his hideous face and his strong, yellow teeth gnashing at us in the light of our lantern. It was well that we had so clear a view of him. Even as we looked he plucked out from under his covering a short, round piece of wood, like a school-ruler, and clapped it to his lips. Our pistols rang out together. He whirled round, threw his arms in the air, and, with a kind of choking cough, fell sideways into the stream. I caught one glimpse of his venomous, menacing eyes amid the white swirl of the waters.
And this one:
“See here,” said Holmes, pointing to the wooden hatchway. “We were hardly quick enough with our pistols.” There, sure enough, just behind where we had been standing, stuck one of those murderous darts which we knew so well. It must have whizzed between us just at the instant we fired. Holmes smiled at it and shrugged his shoulders in his easy fashion, but I confess it turned me sick to think of the horrible death which had passed so close to us that night.”
Anyone have a favorite you would care to share?
“Chips” aka Ron
Weekly Limerick: “Chipping” Away at the Humorous Art
Ron Lies “Chips” gives us these two delightful limericks this week. Thank you, as always.
“I have wrought my simple plan if I give one hour of joy to the boy who’s half a man, or the man who’s half a boy.”
— Doyle, Arthur Conan; The Lost World
That dedication describes me to a “T.” That is why my favourite story from the Canon is The Sign of the Four. These limericks are my favourites of them all.
All my best, Chips
The Sign of the Four
Miss Morstan was quite a nice doll,
for her good old Watson did fall,
but with feelings hid,
he joined Holmes and did
down The Thames chase Tonga and Small.
Author: William S Dorn, BSI, from his book, The Limericks of Sherlock Holmes, produced by Pencil Productions, 2005.
I am adding a limerick from that noted Sherlockian, Isaac Asimov, that describes my romantic love affair with my wife Mary for forty-one years and forever.
The Sign of the Four
Muttered Holmes, “Never mind cocaine’s pleasure,
let us seek out the famed Agra Treasure.”
Answered Watson, “No pearls
for myself—only girls;
and it’s Mary that’s made to my measure. “
Author: Isaac Asimov, BSI, from his book, Asimov’s Sherlockian Limericks, published by The Mysterious Press New York, 1978.
New Data From Alexis Barquin, JHWS “Olivier”
Alexis Barquin, Co-Founder of La Societe Sherlock Holmes de France and JHWS “Olivier” sends the following discovery for our members’ enlightenment. We wish to thank “Olivier” for sending this most interesting new fact to us and for including the original illustrations below.
Alexis writes:
“Dear Members:
Best wishes for 2014. I hope that this new year will bring you many new sherlockian discoveries. Here is one you maybe don’t know:
Sidney Paget was not the first one to draw Sherlock Holmes with a deerstalker (BOSC in The Strand Magazine in October 1891). Thirteen months earlier, the Bristol Observer was publishing The Sign of Four in 8 issues between 17 May and 5 July 1890 with 24 illustrations. The illustrator has depicted 2 times Sherlock Holmes with a deerstalker… and a moustache.”
