SHERLOCK HOLMES IN THE FLESH.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13648, 16 July 1908, Page 7

SHERLOCK HOLMES IN THE FLESH.

Monsieur Claude, wnose '" Memoirs" have just b.-en itsued by Messrs l_on>tabk>, was chief of police iii Fiance under tho Second Empire. rlis oltice brought him into constant contact with notable people, his stories are vivid and entertaining, and his criticism often very acute. We givo today :.>oiiie passages from his- book.

M. Claude became a police official, to a i-ertaiii extent, by accident, and yet there was not mucli accident in it; for he revealed to another police official uio.se gifts which are tho inborn inheritance of the tme detective. Coming to J'aris from the provinces when he was only nineteen and poor, lie was giad, through a wealthy patron, to get nis first chance in life as an attorney's clerk : and ...m he might have remained to tho end of Irs days if it had not, been for a dinner party. The. dinner was given by a. young man of fashion who, having spent all the- money left to him by his fiu-ucr. «as about to bid farewell to his old me, and start again as an - -.i.uy's derK, M. Claude himself. lu the couise ol the dinner M. Claude made two discoveries; iirsf, his host was nono other than the man who had excioed all rails by killing in a duel a nephew of the celebrated Benjamin Constant; and, secondly, that Urn youth had a strange double nature ai> he had two names. The htt-.t was the embodiment of the flesh of ihe idea which Stevenson inimorUiliscd in .lekyll and Jlydc ; and the Jekyll of the. early part, of t.he e\ening was replaced by the Uvde in tin: lavr:

"1 then perceived thai his gentle, almond shaped eyes, tho pupils of which bad hitherto In oil bat lied in a sort. »f magnetic fluid were now shining with the brilliancy of sU<l. His hrnus were knit and havered in a. ihivatening manner. His lip? had a savage grin : and tin; young man, who. ,iu ill'; beginning; ol" i lie im-al. wore tlf head of an angel, at its close had the face of a hyena. A strange thing now happened to me. .-\r> the man became transformed, or, rather, as the mask fell from him, I b'caine. consciou.-. that 1 myself was no longer the same. An evil influence acted upon me. This man. who had been depicted to me. as a hero, I now saw for what lie was—a criminal: The odour of blood that, exhaled from all his poj.s intoxicated me far more l„jd

,!,,, , v i„e 1 1.a.l -Irmik. . I fit .tirred by au instinct aganist that maU « nature, is - shepherd's Jug smells he wolf that, is roaming round the itot.k. These magnetic impressions, the.se liwi.ii„us perceptions, have, since then, °t"» come t" mo at- Mi« sigbl or the contact of au evildoer; in fact, without dep.Miilr.js upon them, lli-y liavn 1. n a great. It. I). to me in my delicate and diflieult invest i cations.*' The other guests were delighted «iMi their entertainment ; but M. Claude, as tle-y left (lie restaurant, gave an analysis of hit; host's character, v hich was afterwards justified in so remarkable a mannei wlicii Lacenaxe became known as « thief and assassin—that Claude's |KT.spieaciiy icached tho ears of (he head clerk of the Criminal Court of the Tribunal ul the Seine, who ottered him a post in thai department, which ho accepted. There for years—drawing up ...ose doss. v. which tell the whole, story of tho career ol the criminal standing his trial—those terrible dossiers which are used with such efficacy by the examining judge and the prosecutor—M. Claude remained ; changing but slightly his work wiUi the many

changes in tho dynasties. '"I saw the Emperor Uay:- the audior) anil his son very elose'r as ,!i y go: into their carriage and sli . i !:■: a war full of the most teiriWe \i- i\i'3.ti i curded in history. 'J he lad v. as g;.v. caielc.-:.. alums* joyous, as children u, thai age ale wont to be. Tins old man mis ta.ilurn and dreamy. When the steam u nisi le sounded and the vapour putted into theair, I saw his impassive face lontract, as if the sinister chuckle of that vapour had irritated his nerves. What thought he as the train started Did ho think he waa going to disaster? that he was taking his boy to exile —that boy, so unconscious of danger, who, during his short' life was 'o know nothing of war but. defeat, or grandeur but the heroism of death V After the defeat at Sedan came revolutions in Paris :—• " When I reached the Tu.ileries with my agents I found 1 had no police work to do in protecting the palace from ihe invadeis. The dramatic author, Hardou, had taken that care himself. When 1 entered the. garden tilled with au immense ciowd, 1 heard, mingled with cries of "Vive lo Rcpublique!" shouts of 'Vive Sardou !' I own that in I tie gravity of events, in the terrible situations of Fiance, the apparition of this dramatic writer seemed lome a. little anomaloiir; ; it gave me a sad sense of the levity- of Parisians, who carry the burlesque even in'o solemn drama—for the Parisian amuses himself, and would for ever amuse himself, had he his feet in blood ! Did he not dance round the guillotne of '93? Did he not, give concerts in the palace of the. Xuileries the night before the day on which the commune burned it in 1871? The crowd applauded thts dramatic writer, who, they said, had led with .-..red head and naked breast, the Guard against the Imperial Guard. Possibly they applauded because the author's protije bore jiKeness to the Bonaparte ... the great days, and the sight came lo them at the moment when they were driving from the Tuileries the man who was but, a caricature of the great .Bonaparte. "However that may have been, JSardou'« initiative in occupying the Tuikries the instant the Empress left it wat> a good thing. He, who did not aspire to en.er the Government, was prompted to play the pari of hero on the barricades by the same object that I had namely, to protect tho luileriets from thieves and incendiaries. His act was, as I suppose, a, drama.ic scene which that witty mind thought opportune and useful to introduce into the great drama of Paris. Sardou transformed himtelf on this occasion into a lightning-rod. His presence sufficed to ward off ihe thunderbolt that threatened the old palace of our kingb—the burning of the luilcrks was postponed for eight months!

'•When I tnU.-n.-il tin: ai>artmcnt« of the ]i:i];ice, already guarded uy th« National Guard, 1 found iJk-jii exactly as the J-,m pte->« had loft, them an hour or Inu earlier. Like King Louis Philippe, she. did not abandon tin: Tuilerieci until'compelled .in do why those who surrounded her. Like the ex-King, the fled ;it her breafclasthour, but not tinlil her' regency was no longer a possible thing. I saw tho table as she hacl left it, (he egg-cup overturned which had contained the boiled egg of her simple meal."