Mail News.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7400, 16 September 1902, Page 2

Mail News.

i " SIR SHERLOCK HOLMES." Sir A. Coaaa Doyle never thought a title could give such pleasure to a. man till ho found every post brought him letters of congratulation from more friends than he had ever dreamt of. So he told his colleagues at the Authors' Club at a complimentary ■ncr given to Sir Gilbert Parker, .Jr Henry Bergnc, and himself. His audience were vastly amused, and their mirth was much increased when he informed them that almost the first Intimation he received that a knighthood had been conferred upon him was in an account which he received from his gunsmith addressed to " Sir Sherlock Holmes." This same gunsmith '" a most melancholy man," told Sir Arthur i ih^tS a r^»;vf^ STtTciS To* SH^E " Sir Sherlock Holmes." Moreover he had seen it stated in a newsNews of a disgraceful outrage, of which two English ladies travelling In Switzerland have been the victims, has just reached Pans. Hie names of the ladies are Miss £eecn, matron of the Hertford British Hospital in Paris, and Miss Ritchie, i well-known for her philanthropic I work in this city. They left Pans about ten days ago for Bex-les-Bains, a email town near Lausanne, Shortly after their arrival there a watch was picked up iv the marketplace by a little girl nine years of age, who informed the police that a lady who was passinE said :" That, watch is mine," and took it from her. Subsequently the girl pointed out Miss Ritchie as the lady who had taken the watch. That lady, however, had never been near the place. Notwithstanding this she and Miss Neech were both arrested by the police on a charge of theft and taken to the Hotel de Ville. By the merest chance, when the ladies were i"n" the custody of the police they recognised a lady from Paris known to both of them, and to her they hurriedly detailed the circumstances of their arbitrary arrest. She at once telegraphed to the British Ambassador in Paris, and to the Rev. Dr. Noyes, British chaplain here, both of whom immediately wired in reply that there must be some mistake, as the ladies were incapable of any action of the kind. But it was not until the British Consul at Lausannn iaterfered in person that the ladies were liberated after being in prison for thirty hours, during which time they were not allowed to communicate with each other or their friends, and their release was only agreed to on their depositing £20 each as bail. Miss Ritchie, was just out of the doctor's hands, and is in delicate health, and had gone to Bex-les-Bains to recuperate. So great was the shock to her nerves that while in prison she utterly broke down and cried bitterly. The girl who informed the police was afterwards examined by the British Consul, and entirely contra, dieted her first statement, giving a totally different description of the lady who took the watch.