Burns Tells of Visit to Doyle
Burns Tells of Visit to Doyle is an article published in The Berkshire Evening Eagle on 6 march 1925.
Burns Tells of Visit to Doyle
American Detective Meets the Creator of Sherlock Holmes.
Finds Him a Cultured Gentleman Who Asks Many Questions.
There was as American "detectophone" working for a few minutes in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's study at Windlesham, his home near Crowborough, in Essex, last "week-end," and one wishes that it had been kept going straight on "from Saturday afternoon till Monday morning," as a popular ditty says, and that the record thus made was available for publication, for one of Sir Arthur's two week-end guests was William J. Burns, the famous American detective, and the other M. Stefansson, the Arctic explorer, says Hayden Church's London special to the Kansas City Star.
No detectophone or other record of the great talk that must have been exchanged between these three celebrities existing, however, I did the next best thing by catching W. J. Burns within a couple of hours after his return from Windlesham to the Savoy hotel, which he is making his headquarters while here, and garnering all that he would say about his visit to the creator of "Sherlock Holmes" which, it seems, was the fulfilment of a desire of long standing on the American sleuth's part.
"I always have been one of the keenest admirers of the Sherlock Holmes stories," said Burns, "and I was anxious to meet Sir Arthur when I first came over here, two years ago, but he then was in Germany on a visit to Prince Henry of Prussia, the Kaiser's brother. This time, however, on hearing that I was here, Sir Arthur called on me and we had a fine talk, lasting a couple of hours, at the end of which he invited me to spend the week-end with him which, of course. I was delighted to do.
"I hardly know which impressed me the more about Sir Arthur," the detective went on, "his astonishing store of information upon every possible subject, or his quiet modesty. Most men who had created a character like Sherlock Holmes, whom I consider the greatest detective in fiction (let alone the other things Doyle has done), would be so swelled up that you couldn't hand them a peach on the end of a fish pole, but there isn't the slightest indication in Sir Arthur's manner that he realizes that he is a big man. Nevertheless, without knowing who or what he was, I could have picked him out in any surroundings whatever for exactly the man he is, and in Lady Doyle he has a charming wife who makes a delightful hostess. Windlesham is a fine house, cram full of interesting things, and standing is the midst of the most beautiful country I ever saw. It is several miles from the railway station at Crowborough, and Sir Arthur drove M. Stefansson, another remarkable man, and myself both ways in his big automobile. He is only a few miles, by the way, from Burwash, the home of Rudyard Kipling, whom I met on my former visit over here.
"I often have been asked," Burns went on, "if the principles outlined by Conan Doyle in the Sherlock Holmes stories could be applied is real detective work, and my reply to this question is, decidedly 'yes.' The two great qualities necessary in successful sleuthing are imagination and resourcefulness, added to an expert knowledge of human nature, and exactly those three qualities characterize Sir Arthur.
"We talked quite a lot about 'Sherlock Holmes' — as a matter of fact I did most of the talking and I was surprised to discover that the person who apparently is least impressed with those wonderful stories is the man who wrote them."
"Did he say anything about writing any more?" I asked hoping that Sir Arthur might have had a change of heart since he wrote to me on the subject a couple of months ago.
"No," said Burns, "he didn't, unfortunately. He was intensely interested, by the by, in the workings of the detectophone, a specimen of which I took down to Windlesham, and when we returned to London he went with me to see the motion pictures, which were made in America and are to be shown over here in which I play a modest part. Of course, too, he made me tell him the stories of all my biggest cases, and his comments and the questions he put were exactly what I should have expected from the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
"Incidently he showed us a mightily interesting invention of his own which seems likely to be a great big thing commercially. This is a mechanical device that can be fitted to an ordinary bicycle and will drive it at a speed of from eight to 15 miles an hour, or a bit more. The thing is on the market already, it seems, and the two big factories which have been started to make the contrivance have more orders than they can fill. Of course, the device is rather a small thing, and probably never will take the place of the motorcycle, but it is well suited to a woman's bicycle, and from the present demand it looks as if it would make Sir Arthur a lot richer even than be is already.
"And that's about all," concluded Burns, "that I can tell you about my visit to Conan Doyle, except that all his talk to me showed that he feels a very real friendship for Americans, and no end of good will toward our country."
