Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual labor, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of writing lately, I can deduce nothing else.
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) British writer and physician
Story (1891-08), “The Red-Headed League,” [Holmes], The Strand Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 2
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