Turf Cigarettes: Conan Doyle Characters (1923)

Turf Cigarettes, Conan Doyle Characters (1923)

Turf Cigarettes, Conan Doyle Characters (1923) was a set of 25 cigarette cards connected with Arthur Conan Doyle. The set is devoted to his fictional characters, with a strong Sherlock Holmes focus: Holmes, Watson, Lestrade, Moriarty, Mary Morstan, Helen Stoner, and others appear alongside figures from Conan Doyle's non-Sherlock Holmes fiction : Sir Nigel Loring, Brigadier Gerard, Polly Hinton (Rodney Stone) and Rebecca Taylforth (The Firm of Girdlestone). Each card combines a color portrait on the front with a short identification and plot summary on the back. Note that the backs were printed black, grey or green.

The cards are labelled Alexander Bogulavsky Ltd., but Bogulavsky had been bought by Carreras in 1913. It is not known why Bogulavsky still appear 10 years later.

© Photo credits : Mark Chadderton Collection.

Card List

Front	Back	Text
		1. — Sherlock Holmes. The nature of a detective's work makes it essential that he should avoid publicity. Perhaps that is why no "real life detective has won the notoriety of Sherlock Holmes, the hero of so many of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's tales. One cannot help wondering, however, if there exists, outside the pages of history, anyone quite so clever at unravelling mysteries as this remarkable man, with his ingenious methods of work and extraordinary powers of observation.
		2. — Sherlock Holmes in disguise. Besides hoodwinking criminals whom he wished to track, Sherlock Holmes used to get fun out of the way in which his disguises deceived even his intimate friends. In "The Sign of Four" he appeared as an aged man, clad in seafaring garb, with an old peajacket buttoned up to his throat," and until he resumed his natural voice Dr. Watson had no suspicion that he was anything but "a respectable master mariner who had fallen into years and poverty."
		3. — Dr. Watson. Dr. Watson, Sherlock Holmes' friend, often appears unobservant, and even a little stupid, in contrast with the famous detective. Those who are inclined to despise him, however, should try their own hand at playing the part of Sherlock Holmes and learn humility! Holmes was lucky in having a friend who was willing to play second fiddle, yet always ready with his help when required, even if he knew it meant risking his life.
		4. — Lestrade. It is hardly surprising that Sherlock Holmes' success in clearing up mysteries which they had failed to elucidate sometimes aroused the jealousy of professional detectives. And he had an irritating way of talking as if everybody ought to be capable of acquiring his almost uncanny powers of observation. Lestrade, the Scotland Yard detective, was often reluctantly compelled to seek the help of Sherlock Holmes, though the latter accused him of readiness to "pocket all the credit."
		5. — Miss Mary Morstan. "The Sign of Four." Dr. Watson owed his happy marriage to the fact that Mary Morstan called to consult the great detective. Sherlock Holmes refused to congratulate his friend on his engagement, remarking characteristically that "love is an emotional thing, and whatever is emotional is opposed to that true cold reason which I place above all things." He admitted, however, that Miss Morstan was one of the most charming young ladies he had ever met.
		6. — Tonga. "The Sign of Four." The murder of Bartholomew Sholto presented many mysterious features, but Sherlock Holmes discovered that it had been accomplished by means of a poisoned dart. The murderer was Tonga, a little black man, the imprint of whose tiny feet had led Dr. Watson to the horrified conclusion that the criminal was a child. Tonga was one of the aborigines of the Andaman Islands, who are described as "naturally hideous, having large mis-shapen heads, small fierce eyes and distorted features."
		7. — Professor Moriarty. "Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes." Professor Moriarty was Sherlock Holmes' arch-enemy, whom the latter once described as "the Napoleon of crime" and recognised as his intellectual equal. A life-and-death struggle between the two men took place on the edge of a precipice, and in order to mislead the members of Dr. Moriarty's gang who were seeking his life, Sherlock Holmes let people go on for several years thinking that he, as well as his enemy, had been killed.
		8. — Lucy Ferrier. "A Study in Scarlet." John Ferrier and little Lucy, the five-year-old child whom he afterwards adopted, were on the point of perishing from thirst and hunger in the desert when they were rescued by a party of Mormons. Poor Lucy, however, met with a still more tragic fate in after years. After the murder of her adopted father, separation from her lover and her forced marriage with one of the Mormons, the unfortunate girl died of a broken heart.
		9. — Jefferson Hope. "A Study in Scarlet." Jefferson Hope devoted his life to avenging the death of Lucy Ferrier, the girl he loved, but more than twenty years passed before his revenge was accomplished. Whatever one may think of the way in which Hope took the law into his own hands, few readers of his story would deny that his two victims deserved their fate or regret that Jefferson Hope did not live to be tried as a murderer.
		10. — Dame Ermyntrude Loring. "Sir Nigel." Dame Ermyntrude, "daughter, wife and mother of warriors," was, we are told, herself a formidable figure. Fierce and stern with others, she lavished the tenderness and love of her nature on her grand-son Nigel, whom she brought up. She was, however, greatly respected, and in an age when books were few and readers scarce, the young Squires of Surrey and Hampshire would go to this old woman to hear tales of their grandfathers and their battles.
		11. — Sir Nigel Loring. "Sir Nigel" and "The White Company." Sir Nigel lived in the picturesque days of the reign of King Edward III., when England was at war with France. He was a fearless and honourable knight, who rode to battle on his "great yellow horse," Pommers. We are told that the story of Nigel's first ride on the back of his wild steed still lingers in the gossip of the lowly country folk, and is com- memorated in the refrain of an old, Surrey ballad.
		12. — Miss Helen Stoner. "The Speckled Band." ("Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.") When Helen Stoner went to ask the advice of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson noticed that she was "in a pitiable state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless, frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal." But her condition of terror can hardly have surprised those who listened to the story of her sister's tragic fate and the danger which she herself had reason to fear.
		13. — Dr. Grimesby Roylott. "The Speckled Band." ("Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.") If "truth is stranger than fiction," one feels, after reading "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," that it must be very strange indeed! Who, for instance, ever thought out such a plan as Dr. Grimesby Roylott evolved to prevent the marriage of his stepdaughter, Helen Stoner? This tale of a bed clamped to the floor, a poisonous snake and a wandering cheetah and baboon can safely be recommended to all who love a creepy yarn.
		14. — Mother Superior. "How the Brigadier Captured Saragossa." ("Adventures of Gerard.") Brigadier — or Captain Gerard, as he then was — was disguised as a monk in order to gain access to the Convent of the Madonna during the siege of Saragossa. His object was to explode the powder stored there and thus enable the French army to enter the City. His plans were nearly frustrated by the Mother Superior, who noticed that he was wearing a gold ring, which no friar — vowed to absolute poverty — would do.
		15. — Brigadier Gerard. "Exploits of Brigadier Gerard" and "Adventures of Gerard." Brigadier Gerard was not a modest man, but his stories of his exciting adventures and hair-breadth escapes prove that he had some reason to be proud of his bravery. In these two books the old man — who boasts that he has "fought the men and kissed the women in fourteen separate kingdoms" — relates the exploits of his youth, from the time when he was a young lieutenant in the French army in the days of Napoleon.
		16. — The Hound of the Baskervilles. "The Hound of the Baskervilles." When Sherlock Holmes succeeded in "laying the family ghost," it was discovered that the terrifying appearance of the Hound of the Baskervilles was due to the use of phosphorus. Although Holmes' assistants were not superstitious men, their nerves were severely tried as the gigantic beast sprang into view from the fog, fire bursting from its open mouth, its eyes glowing with a smouldering glare, its muzzle and hackles and dew-lap outlined in flickering flame!
		17. — "Miss Stapleton." "The Hound of the Baskervilles." "Miss Stapleton" posed as the sister of the man who was known locally — although it was not his real name — as "Mr. Stapleton, the naturalist," but in fact she was his wife. She was his unwilling accomplice in his plans for destroying the heir of the Baskervilles and was used as a decoy. Having reason to suspect that she might betray his evil deeds, Stapleton did not hesitate to treat her with cruel violence.
		18. — "The Man with the Twisted Lip". ("Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.") Relentless as Sherlock Holmes was in tracking down the murderer, the blackmailer, and criminals who preyed upon the weak and helpless, there were occasions when he would "hush up a breach of the law. The case of "the man with the twisted lip" is an example. But Sherlock Holmes exacted from Mr. Neville St. Clair a solemn oath that his double life — every morning a squalid beggar, every evening a well-dressed man-about-town — should cease.
		19. — Polly Hinton. "Rodney Stone." Polly Hinton, "the play-actress of Anstey Cross," was a very queer-looking person when first she made the acquaintance of little Rodney Stone and his friend "Boy Jim." As she was then under the influence of drink, it is no wonder that Rodney's mother called her a dreadful sight." How startled the boys would have been had they heard the story of her past, and how little they suspected her relationship to Jim!
		20. — King of Bohemia. "A Scandal in Bohemia." ("Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.") Wilhelm Gottreich Sigismund von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein and hereditary King of Bohemia, wore a mask and adopted an assumed name when visiting Sherlock Holmes, and was therefore startled when the latter addressed him as "Your Majesty." This was one of the very few cases in which Holmes was outwitted. Fortunately, however, Irene Adler, for reasons of her own, decided not to make use of the incriminating photograph which was the cause of the trouble.
		21. — Mr. Jabez Wilson. "The Red-Headed League." ("Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.") Mr. Jabez Wilson seems to have been of the type of those men who are victims of "the confidence trick." One feels that he ought to have guessed there was something rather "fishy" about the advertisement which he answered. But perhaps there are others among us who would not ask too many questions if they were offered £4 a week for merely copying matter from the Encyclopaedia Britannica during four hours a day!
		22. — Irene Adler. "A Scandal in Bohemia." ("Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.") To Sherlock Holmes, Irene Adler was always "the woman" — not because he had fallen in love with her — that emotion being "abhorrent to his cold, precise, but admirably balanced mind" — but because she had seen through his plan of campaign and frustrated it. After meeting this woman whose brains were a match for his own, we are told that Sherlock Holmes ceased to make merry over the cleverness of women.
		23. — Miss Violet Hunter. "The Copper Beeches." ("Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.") Violet Hunter was engaged, nominally, to act as governess to Mr. Rucastle's little boy, but actually to impersonate his daughter, in order that it should not be suspected that he had the latter imprisoned. Miss Hunter was selected owing to her striking likeness to the imprisoned girl, and went through some very painful experiences before Sherlock Holmes cleared up the mystery of the Copper Beeches and rescued the unhappy girl who had been shut up there.
		24. — Rebecca Taylforth. "The Firm of Girdlestone." Among other villainies planned by John Girdlestone and his son Ezra was the murder of Kate Harston, the orphan girl who had been entrusted to the care of Mr. Girdlestone, Sen. Kate was rescued from her enemies, but Rebecca, her maid (who had dressed up in Kate's coat and skirt in order to impersonate her) was killed by a blow from the ruffian who had been hired to attack her mistress.
		25. — Miss Hatty Doran. "The Noble Bachelor." ("Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.") Sherlock Holmes was certainly right in describing the disappearance of Lord St. Simon's bride as quite dramatic." He added that "they often vanish before the ceremony and occasionally during the honeymoon, but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt as this." For Miss Hatty Doran — the fascinating daughter of a Californian millionaire — disappeared while her wedding breakfast was in progress!

---

• Back to Cigarette Cards
• Back to Collectibles
• Back to Adaptations
• Back to Conan Doyle