TCDE-Team: Created page with " ''The Roundabout Papers'' is an unfinished article (not signed) published in the Arthur Conan Doyle handwritten magazine The Feldkirchian Gazette (Vol. II, november 1875). == The Roundabout Papers == ''From an obsolete Journal.'' My readers must excuse my laying before them the second volume of this interesting narrative of personal experiences; but as my friend the indian chief, in a fit of abstraction, swallowed the first, we must of course do as best we c..."

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Created page with " ''The Roundabout Papers'' is an unfinished article (not signed) published in the Arthur Conan Doyle handwritten magazine The Feldkirchian Gazette (Vol. II, november 1875). == The Roundabout Papers == ''From an obsolete Journal.'' My readers must excuse my laying before them the second volume of this interesting narrative of personal experiences; but as my friend the indian chief, in a fit of abstraction, swallowed the first, we must of course do as best we c..."

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''The Roundabout Papers'' is an unfinished article (not signed) published in the [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] handwritten magazine [[The Feldkirchian Gazette]] (Vol. II, november 1875).

== The Roundabout Papers ==

''From an obsolete Journal.''

My readers must excuse my laying before them the second volume of this interesting narrative of personal experiences; but as my friend the indian chief, in a fit of abstraction, swallowed the first, we must of course do as best we can. But before proceeding further it would be well to explain who I am, and who the Indian chief is, and how I came into possession of that rare speciman of the genus homo. It was in the summer that my friend Spanker and I went out to see the opening of the Suez canal, that he conceived the insane project of teaching eleven Indians cricket, and causing a sensation in England, by playing some team. He at last succeeded in teaching them the elements of the game, by giving them a war club for a bat, and bowling with a human skull, at three thigh bones as wickets. In a fit of a rash generosity I offered to take over to England with me, the chief of the scalp-his-head Indians to act as umpire for them, and at the moment when my journal begins I had succeeded in getting him as far as Paris.

(Extracts from my journal)

10 A.M. July 5th - Came down to the dining room in the hotel where I found the chief sitting on the mantle-piece. He had torn down the window curtains and tied them round his neck, he had also knocked the bottom out of a foot-bath, and was using it as a kettle drum, and he had four spittoons slung round his waist, but otherwise I never saw him in so quiet and meek a humour.

12 A.M. I have taken the chief out for a walk; unfortunately he saw a boy blackening my shoes, and he insisted on having his whole person polished in the same manner. I was lucky enough to coax him away when he had only had his shirtfront, face, neck, and legs blackened. I thought I knew what would please him, so I took him to the „morgue”, where the dead bodies found in the Seine are exposed. The chief was greatly pleased on finding six putrid bodies there; he laughed for a long time, and I may mention that I have only seen him laugh once before, and that was when he saw an old woman run over by an omnibus in Vienna. He examined the dead bodies with great interest, and then remarked to me, that it reminded him of a scene in a farce he had written for the theatre Royal in Pokeyland, which is his native abode.

6 P.M. Table d'hote at the hotel. I got the chief up very satisfactorily, and tried to persuade him to behave well as it

''[The article was unfinished]''

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* [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:Complete Works|Back to Complete Works]]
* [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle|Back to Conan Doyle]]

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