World
Long-lost Sherlock Holmes story discovered
London: A a long-lost Sherlock Holmes story written by Arthur Conan Doyle for a fundraiser has been unearthed after lying in an attic for almost 50 years, a media report said.
The 1,300-word tale starring the famous detective is part of a book of short stories created to help raise money to build a new bridge in the Scottish town of Selkirk after it was destroyed in 1902, the Daily Mail reported.
The famous author, who visited the area often, decided to help locals by contributing to the ‘Book o’ the Brig’ – ‘Brig’ meaning bridge – which was sold at the three-day bazaar two years later.
Selkirk-based retired woodcutter Walter Elliot, 80, was given the 48-page pamphlet by a friend more than 50 years ago and had forgotten about it until recently after looking in his attic, the Mail report said.
The two-and-a-half page story, titled “Sherlock Homes: Discovering the Border Burghs and, by deduction, the Brig Bazaar”, is about the detective and his partner Watson’s trip to the town.
It is believed the story – about Holmes deducing Watson is going on a trip to Selkirk – is the first unseen Holmes story by Doyle since the last was published over 80 years ago.
He was prompted to write the tale after the town was struck by a great flood in 1902 and the town’s wooden bridge crossing the Ettrick river was washed away.
“In Selkirk there was a wooden bridge that was put up some time before it was flooded in 1902,” Elliot was quoted as saying.
According to him. the town did not have enough money to replace it and so it was decided decided to have a bazaar in 1904 raise funds.
“I can’t remember how much they raised but they wanted it to be a carriage bridge but they didn’t get quite enough for that, but they built an iron bridge and it’s still there today,” Elliot said.
“He (Doyle) really must have thought enough of the town to come down and take part and contribute a story to the book. It’s a great little story.”
The book — around ten inches long and three inches wide with a soft brown paper cover — contained stories from local people, as well as the famous author.
The back cover details a programme of events and proudly states “the famous litterateur” was due to open the day before the ladies orchestra performed and local piano recitals.
“It was a varied book with lots of bits and pieces and stories,” Elliott said.
Elliot, who has no idea how many copies were made and sold, says that he had this book “for about 40 or 50 years”.
“I must have got it from a friend because I can’t remember buying it from anyone,” he said.
“Usually people would throw out these books or sell them off. It has been in my family for quite a while now.”
The booklet will be on show at the Cross Keys Selkirk Pop-up Community Museum from Saturday, along with Elliot’s painting of the replaced bridge.
Shanghai’s rich middle class is leading a wave of online dissent over the strict and prolonged lockdowns imposed in various parts of the country. Chinese internet censorship is struggling as patience is wearing thin in many urban centers, coming up with creative forms of online protests.
Social Media Posts Revealing Lockdown Tension in Shanghai
Drawn-out lockdowns are nothing new in China as authorities insist with the nation’s zero-Covid policy since the start of the pandemic. Currently over This time around, however, metropolitan areas like Shanghai are increasingly difficult to keep quiet, given that its more than 25 million residents have seen weeks of total isolation along with food shortages and many other service interruptions.
Dozens of towns and reportedly over 300 million Chinese citizens have been affected by lockdowns of different severity. As expected, urban netizens have been most outspoken over their difficulties by finding creative ways to get around state censorship and bans placed on topics, news comments and spontaneous campaigns.
Shanghai residents have been using mobile proxies and hijacking seemingly unrelated hashtags to talk about healthcare issues, delivery failures and the overall severity of their situation. The “positive energy” that the Chinese government wants to transmit during the recent prolonged series of lockdowns does not come naturally to those counting food supplies and online censors are working hard to filter words, trending topics and undesired social media sharing.
WeChat groups and message threads are under constant monitoring. Posts questioning the zero-Covid approach have been quickly deleted, including by leading Chinese health experts like Dr. Zhong Nanshan. Video footage is soon censored and protests and investigations are quickly made to disappear.
Where this has not worked, officials have exposed banners with warnings and outright threats like “watch your own mouth or face punishment”, while drones have been patrolling the city skies. Yet, if anything, this has led to further tensions and unspoken confrontation with Shanghai’s educated and affluent middle class.
Creative Online Solutions Harnessing Civic Energy
Announcements by Chinese social media that they would be publishing the IP addresses of users who “spread rumors” have not helped either. Tech industry research has shown that much of Asia’s tech-savvy population has a habit of using mobile proxies and other privacy tools, quickly finding workarounds to browse the internet freely and talk to the world about the hottest topics.
The sheer volume of forbidden posts is already a challenge for the very censorship system, experts explain. Unable to track all trending hashtags, state workers overlook topics that speak about the US, Ukraine or other popular news. Linking human rights elsewhere to their situation, Chinese online dissidents establish their informal channels and “hijack” the conversation to share personal or publicly relevant information about the Covid suppression in their town.
Sarcastic and satirical posts still dominate. Others hope to evade the censors by replacing words from famous poems or the national anthem. One thing is certain – social media, when harnessed with the right creativity, has proven its ability to mount pressure on the government in even some of the most strictly controlled tech environments like China.
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