There was a brief discussion about Netflix's "The Irregulars." Rob reported that news outlets had originally reported that the show had been renewed for a second season and that its viewership had surpassed the other hot show of the week, "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier." But news broke last week that Netflix has cancelled the show. Arthur said that the show had failed to bring in new subscribers and that shows as expensive as "The Irregulars" probably won't be happening on Netflix again because they won't be able to generate new subscribers.
Nancy shared that Under a Raven's Wing by Steven Volk has recently come out and Madeline reported that David Stuart Davies just got the rights back to his Jeremy Brett biography, Bending the Willow, and it will be reissued for wide release.
Steve announced that the latest edition of "Sherlock's Spotlight" went out last week and The Beacon Society will be launching a new site soon connecting and sharing information about Sherlockian societies across America.
Karen talked about The Tea Brokers of Mincing Lane society which reminded us of Stacey's blog post about tea. Timothy mentioned The Sign of the Flour that just launched as well as Sherlock Holmes of Baking Street. Rob wondered if all of this will lead to a new society for Sherlockians who need larger pants.
Madeline told us that a new podcast would be coming out soon focusing on Professor Moriarty.
Sandy announced that a new website is available that breaks the Canon into chapter and verse, aptly titled Chapter and Verse Holmes.
And there are plenty of Zoom sessions to check out in the next few weeks:
The Sherlockians of Baltimore will celebrate their fifth anniversary Saturday, May 15.
The Harpooners of the Sea Unicorn will meet on Friday, May 21.
The Crew of the Barque Lone Star will meet on June 6.
And now, on to The Golden Pince-Nez!
Watson starts the tale off by telling us about so many cases from 1894: the red leech, Crosby the banker, the Addleton tragedy, the contents of an ancient British barrow, Huret the boulevard assassin (which won Holmes a letter from the French president), and the Smith-Mortimer succession case. Randy wondered if this story name drops the most unpublished cases.
Rob noted that the gardener in GOLD was named Mortimer and the murdered secretary was named Smith. Was it a coincidence that the Smith-Mortimer succession case was mentioned in this story? Everyone decided it probably was. John deadpanned that this was probably from the hours, days, weeks, and months that Doyle spent in his research for his Sherlock Holmes stories.
Stanley Hopkins arrives at Baker Street, making his second of four appearances in the Canon, to ask for Holmes's assistance with a murder at Yoxley Old Place down in Kent. The house is owned by a Professor Coram, who is an old invalided man. His secretary, Willoughby Smith, was helping the professor write a book and was murdered in the study. Smith was a good fellow with no known enemies or even know acquaintances in the area.
The household is self-contained and no one comes or goes for weeks on end. The only other people living in the house are the elderly housekeeper and a maid. A gardener also lives on the property, but in a cottage.
Between 11 and 12 this afternoon, the maid heard Smith go into the study. A minute later, he cried out and there was a heavy thud. She ran down and found Smith with a wound gushing on his neck from a sealing wax knife, and this always made Steve think of the line from Puff the Magic Dragon.
The maid poured water on Smith's face, and he can to just long enough to say, "The professor - it was she," before dying. Sonia wondered if this neck wound would allow for Smith to say his dying words and Nancy pointed out that it would have been in the side of the neck which probably wouldn't have interfered with his speech.
The housekeeper arrived in the room and went to tell the professor, who was still in bed. When told of Smith's dying words, the old man didn't have any insight into what it could have meant.
Hopkins arrived soon after and ordered no one to walk on the paths. Being proud of himself, he reported to Holmes that "[i]t was a splendid chance of putting your theories into practice, Mr. Sherlock Holmes. There was really nothing wanting." To which Holmes replied bitterly, "Except Mr. Sherlock Holmes."
Hopkins has a chart of the murder scene showing that the study had three entrances, but the murderer had to have come in from the garden path. The two other exits either lead to the professor's bedroom, or straight into the hallway where the maid would have been. Hopkins reported that the garden path showed no prints but there were tracks in the grass border off to the side, but he could get no information from them.
Holmes asks, "What did you do, Hopkins, after you had made certain that you had made certain of nothing?" Rob noted Holmes's bitterness in this early exchange, but at least Watson isn't getting the brunt of it this time.
Hopkins defends himself to Holmes and unveils his big evidence: a golden pince-nez. Willoughby Smith had excellent sight, so these must belong to the man's murderer.
Holmes looks over the glasses, even trying them on. He writes his deductions down instead of stating them, though as he usually does. Madeline offered that Holmes's writing sounds like it started out as a newspaper advertisement but wasn't published. Robin thought that Holmes changed gears halfway through his writing. Sonia said it sounded like a profile and Hopkins could use it to share with people.
Since the majority of people in our meeting were wearing glasses, we took a few minutes to look at our own spectacles and see if they gave away any telltale signs about us. Madeline talked about the different prescription strengths in her lenses and Heather thought it could reveal the size of someone's head. Sonia pointed out the cost of the frames could give insight to their wearer and their demeanor based off of how scratched the lenses are. Steve's nose pieces aren't symmetrical which could help someone describe his nose.
Hopkins sleeps over at Baker Street, and the next morning our trio is off to Kent. On the way, they pass the Thames, and Watson gives a nice callback to The Sign of Four, which doesn't happen too much after Holmes's hiatus. As readers, we mostly get references to unpublished cases, so it was nice to get a shoutout to one we are actually familiar with. Bill mentioned that if you look at the chronology of the cases, this would have taken place shortly after Mary Watson would have died, making the mention of SIGN even more important to Watson.
When they arrive at Yoxley Old Place, Holmes looks over the garden path and then into the study. There he notes that the keyhole in the bureau has scratch marks all around it. Hopkins dismisses this, saying all keyholes have scratches around them, but Holmes states that these are new.
GOLD takes place in 1894, and it's nice to see that Hopkins hasn't forgotten this lesson in the following year when he and Holmes are investigating Black Peter, where another lock has been tampered with.
Holmes says that these scratches show that the woman was trying to open the bureau, got caught, and killed Smith. He also found it very instructive that coconut matting led from the study to the garden AND to the professor's bedroom. We spent some time talking about coconut matting and how it's still used today.
Professor Coram is described as having a gaunt, aquiline face with piercing dark eyes overhung with tufted brows. He has white hair and a beard, which is stained yellow, with a cigarette glowing amid the tangle of facial hair. In a bit of foreshadowing, Coram sounds a lot like the Russian author Leo Tolstoy.
Coram offers his visitor cigarettes made by Ionides of Alexandria. This led to a short discussion on where these cigarettes were actually from. Many folks just assume that the cigarettes are from Egypt, but Rob pointed out that Ionides was a dealer in London and that Alexandria, Virginia had a large tobacco crop, while Egypt didn't grow tobacco. Bill noted that in this case, Alexandria, Egypt could be like the goose in The Blue Carbuncle: it had no crop.
While Coram talks about his studies, Holmes is pacing and smoking around the room. We discussed Coram's smoking habits and wondered how large his ashtray must have been.
Holmes redirects Coram to the murder and asks him about Smith's dying words and if he was trying to identify someone. Coram says, "Susan is a country girl and you know the incredible stupidity of that class." We discussed if this was more foreshadowing to show that Coram is a despicable person and it is glaring to modern day readers, but would it have stood out to the original audience? Sandy said probably not because the majority of Strand readers would have been middle class and they felt higher up than the servant class.
Out in the garden, the housekeeper tells Holmes that despite all of his smoking and yesterday's scandal, the professor has had quite a good appetite. Hopkins comes back from town and announces that a woman matching Holmes's description was seen in town yesterday and the maid says that Smith was also in town yesterday morning before he was killed. But none of this information gets much of a rise from Holmes. In fact, Watson is disturbed by this, saying "I had never known him to handle a case in such a halfhearted fashion."
2:00 arrives and it's time to visit again with the professor. Once again he offers his visitors cigarettes and Holmes knocks them over like they are a bowl of oranges in The Reigate Squire. Everyone is on the floor, looking everywhere for where they rolled to, but Holmes is interested in something else on the floor.
He explains to everyone that a woman came to the house to get some documents out of the bureau in the study. She had her own key, but was interrupted by Smith and he was killed by accident. She lost her glasses and followed the coconut matting to what she thought was the garden but ended up in Coram's bedroom. Coram hid the woman behind a bookcase, and she comes out of hiding right on cue.
Hopkins grabs the woman's arm to arrest her but she waves him aside. Nobody respects Stanley Hopkins in this story!
The lady's name is Anna, and she says that everything Holmes reported is true. She is Coram's wife from Russia. They were Nihilists and long ago, a police officer was killed due to their actions. Coram turned in his wife and other comrades in exchange for his own freedom and a reward. She has finally been released from her imprisonment in Siberia, but Anna wanted the papers that Coram had that would prove a friend of hers was innocent to free him as well.
We discussed what an amazing detective Anna would have had to have been to track down a husband in a different country under his new name while he never leaves his house. Very impressive! Arthur said there is a great backstory with Anna that could be turned into its own story-within-a-story like Doyle did with some of his novels. And Andrew pointed out that after her time in Siberia, Anna proved that revenge really was a dish best served cold.
Anna finishes her story and dies from the poison she swallowed before appearing to tell her story. Rob cited a passage from Brad Keefauver's book, Sherlock Holmes and the Ladies, where he argues that Anna faked her death and Holmes let her get away with the ruse.
Holmes explains that he used the cigarette ashes in front of one of the bookcases that didn't have any piles in front of it as he expected there to be a hiding spot behind such a bookcase. We all wondered if Shana's room had hiding spots behind her bookcases because her room is a bibliophile's dream, but she showed us that all of her bookcase do in fact have piles of books in front of them. So she wasn't hiding any Russian Nihilists this weekend.
Sonia pointed out that Professor Coram was never punished for his actions as long as we know. It was also noted that Holmes's deductions were similar to the biblically apocryphal story of Bel and the Dragon, where David used a similar method to prove that a brass idol was not really a god.
Holmes and Watson deliver Anna's papers to the Russian Embassy as promised. Stacey and Michael doubted that the new Russian Czar would care much about Anna's diary entries though. Sonia pointed out that this story is ultimately a tragedy.
Reminder, there will not be a meeting in July as The Noble Bachelors of St. Louis will be hosting their Victorian picnic. We will see everyone in September!
