The resuscitation of Sherlock Holmes is an accomplished fact — vide the August Strand. In view of the reappearance of this distinguished character I submit the following documents and correspondence in the case:
From the London "Daily Mail," 19th July. Zermatt, Friday. An extraordinary rumor is circulating here that Mr. Sherlock Holmes, the eminent criminal investigator, whose tragic death in a crevasse was reported circumstantially several years ago, creating a great sensation all over the world, has recently been seen in Zermatt. A well-known guide, Andrew Breen, has made affidavit before a notary that on Thursday last he saw Mr. Holmes in a café. Breen maintains that there could be no mistake about his identity, though he was obviously taking every precaution to keep himself as much out of the public gaze as possible. It may be remembered that when Mr. Holmes and Professor Moriarty were first reported to have fallen Into the crevasse, the story was received with incredulity, and the suggestion made that it was merely a ruse on Mr. Holmes's part with some ulterior object. This was denied at the time, but Breen's story now justifies the scepticism of several years ago.
From the London "Daily Express," 20th July. As our Mr. Hesketh Pritchard has just returned from his search for the Giant Sloth, which he was unfortunately unable to discover, though he met with indubitable traces of its existence, we have determined, regardless of expense, to despatch him forthwith to Switzerland, where the reappearance of Sherlock Holmes is reported. Holmes is said to have been seen as late as last week at Zermatt. We always suspected that he was not really dead, and venture an hypothesis that he did not fall to the bottom of the precipice when he fell over the ledge with Professor Moriarty. He was doubtless caught by a clump of trees twenty or thirty feet below, and, fearing pursuit some other of the Moriarty he report death 3 unchallenged, himself for that time under another name in one of the Cantons. It our Ste. Pritchard is as successful as he hopes to be, he will bring the Great Investigator back to Lon-don to score greater triumphs than ever in the interest of truth and justice.
From "Le Journal de Geneve," 19th July. What we maintained in face of the whole world's press some years ago has at last been proved correct, and the notorious Sherlock Holmes is proved a greater liar and fraud than even we ventured to suggest he was. It will be remembered by our readers that Holmes while on a wild-goose chase over the Continent, found his way to Switzerland, and was stated (with ma, plausible details) to have fallen from the ledge of an Alpine pass along with a scoundrel of the Dynamite English party named Moriarty. The story was circulated everywhere, and the result was that Alpine-climbing was rendered very unpopular for two seasons. From the very first we disbelieved the story, which had many suspicions elements in it. The only witness of the extraordinary and in-explicable accident whereby the two men were said to have lost their lives was one Watson, friend of Holmes, who, so far as we have been able to ascertain, earned his living by narrating the exploits of Holmes. That Watson was in a state of intoxication when he returned from the mountain to ask for a search expedition was well known at the time, though delicacy prevented us from mentioning the fact. The .arch party, consigning of nineteen guides, went all over the pass, and left not a yard of it unexplored, but they failed to find a scrap of evidence in sup-port of Watson's story. This of itself would have been sufficient to throw grave doubts upon the story, but two days later, Watson, pretending to go out for a tooth-brush, eluded the vigilance of the genial proprietor of The Bear of Berne Hotel (whose advertisement will be found on page 4), and decamped from the district, leaving his bill unpaid. Influenced by the serious injury which was done to the popularity of mountaineering by the narratives of Holmes's death, we boldly expressed a doubt of the whole affair, and were threatened with an action for damages by the English canon named Doyle. who appeared to be a relative either of Watson or Holmes. At the time we apologized to Conan Doyle for suggesting that the story was false, but now we withdraw our apology, and brand Holmes and Watson as unprincipled ruffians. We hope soon to be able to lay bare the plot where of this cock-and-bull story was an essential part.
Letter from Holmes to Watson. Zermatt, 5th May. Don't you think it is about time I was permitted to leave this confounded place? I'm sick of it. It is all very well to maintain that the longer I stay away the keener will be the interest in my return to active work again; but I am not blind to the possibilities of a generation rising "who know not Joseph." I hear about a new fellow called Captain Kettle, who seems to be a little in our line. I hope you are not ass enough to let him get a position we cannot easily bounce him out of. But, first and last. I'm sick of this d——— place. And the fleas!