Data! Data! Data! – The Speckled Band

“‘Data! Data! Data!‘ he cried impatiently. ‘I can’t make bricks without clay.’”

– The Adventures of the Copper Beeches (COPP)

This column is composed of material (Data!) developed for a short course called Appreciating Sherlock Holmes that I teach twice a year in the Community Education Life Enrichment Program for a local community college. It is composed of “points of information” that are common to many / most / all of the 60 Canonical stories.
The information here has been researched by me or borrowed / stolen from many efforts of other Sherlockians.

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! I really got carried away this month, so get a cold beverage and a comfortable chair.

HERE GOES       This month’s story The Adventure of the Speckled Band.

CHRISTOPHER MORLEY SAID . . .
One of the most famous cases, in which the brutal Dr. Roylott terrorizes his twin stepdaughters and twists Holmes’s poker into a curve with his bare hands. Why did the smoke of Dr. Roylott’s strong cigar bother his stepdaughter in another room and why was the bed clamped to the floor?

DUMMIES SHORT SUMMARY (From Sherlock Holmes for Dummies by Steven Doyle & David Crowder)
For those in this group who are new to Sherlock, Dummies should be part of your library as required reading.

“One of the spookiest and best-known tales in the canon. What killed Julia Stoner as she lay in bed behind her locked bedroom door? What was the mysterious whistle in the night? And what did she mean by, “It was the band! The speckled band”? This story is one of the canon’s best locked-room mysteries.”

PUBLISHING HISTORY
This is the 10th of the 60 stories published. It was first published in The Strand Magazine, in February, 1892. It is part of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes collection published by George Newnes, Ltd., London, 1892 and Harper Bros., New York, 1892.

HOW MANY WORDS?
According to C. E. Lauderback, 1960 – – found on SHERLOCKIAN.NET website of Chris Redmond
At 9,880 words, The Speckled Band has  the 50th most words (#1 is The Veiled Lodger – 4,499, #56 is The Naval Treaty – 12,701)

THE BEST OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (How do Sherlockians rate this story?)
This is the top rated tale every time on every significant list.
1927 – Arthur Conan Doyle – 1 on list of 12 favorites
1944 – Baker Street Irregulars voted it as #1 on their top 12 favorites
1954 – Baker Street Irregulars voted it as #1 on their top 12 favorites
1959 – Baker Street Irregulars – 1 on list of 10
1999 – Baker Street Irregulars Invested Members – 1 of 56
1999 – Sherlock Holmes Society of London – 1 of 56
1999 – USA only – 1 of 56
1999 – U.K. only – 1 of 56

CLASSIFYING THE CASE (From the Wandering Gipsies of Grimpen Mire of Decatur, Alabama)
This case is one of 23 classified as a MURDER and one of 14 where the perpetrator was either killed, arrested, or otherwise satisfactorily handled. And the murderer killed with a snake.

CHRONOLOGICALLY SPEAKING
Doyle was often very vague about stating WHEN the tale took place and included few contemporary references to help. Whether this was done intentionally or unthinkingly, the dating of events in the Canon is a very popular pastime pursued by several of our “scholars” researching and justifying their results to no end. We will again default to William Baring-Gould’s dating of Friday, April 6, 1883. In 1883 Holmes is 29 and Watson is 31.

WHAT ELSE HAPPENED IN 1883?
It is always interesting to see what else in happening at the same time as the stories.
• Britain Evacuated The Sudan

• The Orient Express began service from Paris to Istanbul
• Buffalo Bill started his Wild West Show
• Life Magazine began
• Robert Louis Stevens published Treasure Island
• First “skyscraper” built in Chicago – – Ten stories tall

HOLMES AND WATSON – PERSONAL INFO
The pair again share their famous bachelor quarters at 221B Baker Street.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

• Dr. Grimsby Roylott of Stoke Moran is one the “archest” of arch villians in the Canon.
• Helen Stoner, brave young step daughter of Dr. Roylott who consulted Holmes.
• Julia Stoner, deceased twin of Helen.
• Percy Armitage, betrothed of Helen.
• The swamp adder, “The deadliest snake in India.” The murderer? It was capable of doing things that no other snakes can’t do.

“QUOTABLE SHERLOCK”
This month’s tale has several quotable moments. Here are the best:
• Holmes to Watson for early awakening – “Mrs. Hudson on has been knocked up.” (see “Annotated” section)
• Holmes to Helen Stoner – “This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as freely as before myself.”
• Holmes to Helen Stoner – “As to reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which suits you best.”
• Julia Stoner to Helen Stoner while dying – “Oh, my God! Helen! It was the band! The speckled band!’
• Holmes to Watson about Dr. Roylott – “An Eley’s No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen who can twist steel pokers into knots.”
• Holmes to Watson about Dr. Roylott & the case – “When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge.”
But my favorite bit of repartee is –
– – Holmes and Roylott upon meeting – –
“You are Holmes, the meddler.”
My friend smiled.
“Holmes, the busybody!”
His smile broadened.
“Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!”
Holmes chuckled heartily.

HOLMES’ FEE
Helen Stoner states “in a month or six weeks I shall be married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you shall not find me ungrateful”. Holmes replies “I shall be happy to devote the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which suits you best”.

SHERLOCK ON THE BIG SCREEN & THE LITTLE SCREEN
This is one of the stories with the most adaptions for the screen. No story comes even close to the many occurrences of The Hound of the Baskervilles, but this one is in the top 5.
• 1923 Eille Norwood was first but the British Film Institute has yet to restore it for the world.
• 1931 The Immortal Raymond Massey did it as a theater movie.
• 1949 Alan Napier (remember Batman’s butler?) did it as an episode on the Your Show Time TV series.
• 1964 Douglas Wilmer did it as part of the BBC Sherlock Holmes series for TV.
• 1967 Eric Schellow performed the story on German TV as part of a 6 episode series. It is not available in English.
• 1979 Vasily Livanov’s Russian series had the tale as part of an episode, also including A Study In Scarlet, entitled Acquaintance.
• 1980 Geoffrey Whitehead did it as one of 23 stories in the series Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.
• 1984 Jeremy Brett played it on the 10th episode of the Granada Sherlock Holmes series.
• 1999 It was an episode of Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century animated series
• Cumberbatch, Downey, and Miller have yet to tackle the task.

SHERLOCK HOLMES IN DISGUISE
The Master of disguise used the deception of being disguised 14 times in 11 of the 60 stories.
But not in this story.

UNRECORDED CASES (That involved Holmes)
Watson would tease / torture his readers with “I know something you don’t.” Oh my, how Sherlockians love this category. I have in excess of over 150 examples in my collection.
• Holmes assisted Mrs. Farintosh in a matter concerning an opal tiara
• Palmer and Pritchard – two doctors gone bad

FAINTING IN THE CANON (courtesy of Sherlockian Karen Murdock)
Fainting is extremely common in the Canon, appearing, in some form, in 37 of the 60 tales. In 21 cases someone actually faints. In 22 cases someone almost faints. And in 5 cases someone pretends to faint. In this month’s story “Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened” (read: she almost fainted.)

HOLMES’S PUBLISHED & PROJECTED WORKS
Sherlockians love this topic and are regularly searching for these items. Holmes mentions published or projected works in 11 of the stories: None in this tale.

NEWSPAPERS (Real and Fictional)
Though included in only 20 tales, some of our more obsessed Sherlockians love this one.
No mention of the press by name in this tale.

ANNOTATED SHERLOCK
The 60 Sherlock Holmes stories used English as spoken in England from the 1880’s until the 1910’s. Some words are foreign to us today and need a “contemporary translation.”. For example:
• “the Regency” – The last nine years (1811-1820) of the reign of George III when, due to his insanity, the government was conducted in the name of the Prince of Wales, later George IV.
• “ a trap” – Colloquial English for a one-horse, two-wheeled carriage on springs.
• “a pair of high gaiters” – Coverings of cloth or leather (as contrasted to “regular” gaiter which cover on the ankle—called “spats,” short for “splatterdashes,’ by Americans) High gaiters were favored by farmers and country landowners.
• “knocked up” – Before everyone had alarm clocks, people could be hired to rap on you window and the given time you wished to be awakened.

WEAPONS (from A Compendium of Canonical Weaponry by Dettman and Bedford)
So many things can be considered “weapons” that only 2 or 3 tales fail to have at least one. Since this column is running long, here is a list of “weapons” with no explanation. See if you can find them in the story.
• Service Revolver
• Hunting Crop
• Long Thin Cane
• Hands.
• Cheetah and Baboon
• Swamp Adder

ODD STUFF
I just had to make some “comments” on some things in the tale…
• Holmes the strongman. Roylott bent the poker and Holmes “unbent” it. Wow. A few years ago, I bought a nice iron fireplace poker to recreate this so I could add it to an “evidence box” (A long story) for the story. It took me 3 hours, made my back hurt for days, and took a chip out of a concrete step.

• Snakes don’t. The are no adders in India. Snakes can’t hear whistles, or anything for that matter. Snakes don’t drink milk. Snakes can’t be trained. Snakes can’t live in a safe. This is one talented swamp adder.
• A baboon and a cheetah. They are loose on the property? Really, how do you keep them there? Would they not mix well with the Gypsies camping there?

. . . there are more categories of Data! but you have suffered enough by now.

Frank Mentzel, aka Merridew of Abominable Memory, is the current Gasogene of the Six Napoleons of Baltimore. His Appreciating Sherlock Holmes classes for the Community Colleges of Baltimore County, MD meet four times each during the spring and fall semesters, which would make it the second most active Sherlockian group in Maryland.