“There’s an east wind coming, Watson” [LAST]
In "A Case of Identity," Sherlock Holmes demonstrated to Dr. Watson that “life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.”
Throughout human history, our species seems to have been at war with itself constantly. Indeed, there is no recorded year in which a war has not taken place.
As we look across the Sherlock Holmes stories chronologically, beginning with "The Gloria Scott," dated by various chronologists between 1872 and 1876, and ending with "His Last Bow" in 1914, we find that wars provide bookends for the Canon.
From 1873–1875, the British were involved in the Third Anglo-Ashanti War in West Africa. And in 1914, as Holmes and Watson stood outside on the terrace, they contemplated what was the beginning of the Great War (later known as World War I).
And let's not forget that Watson himself was wounded during the Second Anglo-Afghan War at the Battle of Maiwand. Without war, we might never have learned of Sherlock Holmes.
Will human warfare ever cease? Sadly, that seems unlikely. And students at schools everywhere, even at Baker Street Elementary, contemplate its futility...
Baker Street Elementary follows the original adventures of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, as they and their friends work through the issues of elementary school in Victorian London. An archive of all previous episodes can be viewed at www.bakerstreetelementary.org.
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