Monthly Meeting Minutes - 23rd February 2023

 Date of Meeting: 23rd February 2023

 

Location of Meeting:

The Sherloft, My House, Portsmouth, UK

 

Attendees:

"The Entire Canon" (Paul Thomas Miller)

 

Apologies:

"The Entire Canon" (Paul Thomas Miller) apologised for leaving his paper until the last minute and therefore presenting a very rushed piece.

 

Motions:

"The Entire Canon" (Paul Thomas Miller) moved for all hostilities to cease immediately. Then "The Entire Canon" (Paul Thomas Miller) poked him in the eye.

Presentation:

"The Entire Canon" (Paul Thomas Miller) presented the following paper on putting the "Ho" in "Holmes":

How Did Holmes Really Make His Money? 

On a recent rereading of A Study in Scarlet, I was struck by Holmes’s selective secrecy when talking to Stamford. Holmes keeps his reason for being at St. Bart's hidden from the fellows around him, as we can see from Stamford’s comments to Watson:

“No—I have no idea what he intends to go in for. I believe he is well up in anatomy, and he is a first-class chemist; but, as far as I know, he has never taken out any systematic medical classes. His studies are very desultory and eccentric, but he has amassed a lot of out-of-the way knowledge which would astonish his professors.”

“Did you never ask him what he was going in for?” I asked.

“No; he is not a man that it is easy to draw out...”

And yet, Holmes is not very secretive about other issues, such as the state of his finances:

“He was bemoaning himself this morning because he could not get someone to go halves with him in some nice rooms which he had found, and which were too much for his purse.”

This seems to be around the wrong way. The young men at St. Bart's could reasonably be expected to discuss what they were studying and experimenting on, whereas such personal information as your financial situation would be forthcoming only to very close chums. We can surmise then that Holmes was fairly close to Stamford, to have been discussing the state of his purse. Which makes his reluctance to talk about what he is studying all the more puzzling.

From here I began to consider the experiment Stamford had witnessed Holmes conducting:

“When it comes to beating the subjects in the dissecting-rooms with a stick, it is certainly taking rather a bizarre shape.”

“Beating the subjects!”

“Yes, to verify how far bruises may be produced after death. I saw him at it with my own eyes.”

Stamford has already painted a picture of Holmes as someone who is usually cagey about his studies. Why then did he break this silence and offer this implausible explanation on this occassion? I suspect it’s because he wanted to divert Stamford from the truth. Stamford had walked in on something he wasn’t supposed to see and was given a quickly conjured lie to cover Holmes’s true motives. What was Holmes doing, then? My suggestion is that Holmes was, in reality, practicing his spanking technique.

Naturally, my next question had to be: why was he practicing his spanking technique? The immediate and obvious response was that Holmes was honing his skills as a BDSM Dom. Clearly Holmes was offering niche male prostitute services. This was not something he could be open about in Victorian society, so we immediately come to understand why Stamford and the others at St. Bart's were left in the dark about Holmes’s studies.

At this point I should make my thoughts clear: I’m not suggesting that Holmes didn’t work as a consulting detective, I am suggesting that he supplemented his income with his sex work. Clearly, his work with Scotland Yard was above board. I also believe the adventures Watson had with Holmes all took place as described. But these adventures never really seemed to generate the money Holmes had accumulated by the end of his career. This is because the real money came from the sex work Holmes supplemented his income with.

So now we know what Holmes was really up to at St. Bart's – he was honing his BDSM skills. No doubt, had we been able to see him studying, we would have seen him researching human pleasure receptors and the nervous system. The dissecting rooms would have served him well for bodies on which he could practice all manner of bondage and sadomasochistic techniques. Certainly, in a medical institution, he could have gathered valuable information about human anatomy that might have been difficult to come by elsewhere. All of these skills would lead to Holmes becoming one of the most well-paid Dom sex workers in London.

 

There is some further evidence in A Study in Scarlet to support this theory. Once Watson and Holmes were living together, Watson began watching and recording Holmes’s behaviour. Some of his observations are rather telling:

Sometimes he spent his day at the chemical laboratory, sometimes in the dissecting-rooms, and occasionally in long walks, which appeared to take him into the lowest portions of the City.

Now we can see the reason for his visits to “the lowest portions of the City”. He was learning from the existing sex workers of Whitechapel, Limehouse and similar areas.

Watson also notices that Holmes “…was possessed of extraordinary delicacy of touch…”. No doubt this delicate touch was useful for someone who wanted to be able to tease, titillate and torture their submissive clients.

Perhaps the most telling passage is found towards the end of chapter two:

…I found that he had many acquaintances, and those in the most different classes of society. There was one little sallow rat-faced, dark-eyed fellow who was introduced to me as Mr. Lestrade, and who came three or four times in a single week. One morning a young girl called, fashionably dressed, and stayed for half an hour or more. The same afternoon brought a grey-headed, seedy visitor, looking like a Jew pedlar, who appeared to me to be much excited, and who was closely followed by a slipshod elderly woman. On another occasion an old white-haired gentleman had an interview with my companion; and on another a railway porter in his velveteen uniform. When any of these nondescript individuals put in an appearance, Sherlock Holmes used to beg for the use of the sitting-room, and I would retire to my bed-room. He always apologized to me for putting me to this inconvenience. “I have to use this room as a place of business,” he said, “and these people are my clients.” Again I had an opportunity of asking him a point blank question, and again my delicacy prevented me from forcing another man to confide in me. I imagined at the time that he had some strong reason for not alluding to it, but he soon dispelled the idea by coming round to the subject of his own accord.

There are several parts of this paragraph which now appear in a different light.

Watson speaks of visitors from “…different classes of society…” suggesting that he found some of Holmes’s clients suspiciously different from the norm. Following this he mentions a “…grey-headed, seedy visitor… who appeared to me to be much excited…” That word “seedy” suddenly makes more sense. As does the fact that he is “excited”. One would expect someone consulting a detective to be distraught, “excited” makes far more sense for a submissive visiting their favourite dom.

The need for Holmes to use the large airy sitting room to conduct his business also makes more sense to me now. Holmes very clearly states “I have to use this room as a place of business… and these people are my clients.” If all Holmes was doing (as he later claimed) was having a chat with them, why did he “have to use” so much space? Whereas a sex-worker with an exotic repertoire might well find all that room useful as a makeshift dungeon.

I think Watson might actually have had some suspicions. He says: “my delicacy prevented me from forcing another man to confide in me”. All he is talking about is Holmes’s occupation. In normal human interaction this is not considered a delicate question. Indeed, it is often one of the first things we ask each other when we are getting to know new people. It is as if Watson is subconsciously aware of the potential delicacy in asking this particular person such a question.

Again, to be clear, I don’t think ALL of Holmes’s clients were for his sex-work, but I’m convinced at least SOME of them were. Certainly, I feel we can trust that Lestrade was only there for the consulting detective. But that porter in velveteen or the fashionably dressed young lady could easily have been there for more kinky reasons.

 

All of the above information came from the period during which Watson was snooping into Holmes’s business. Holmes must have become aware of this and would surely have wanted to divert Watson’s attention elsewhere. It is notable that around this time, Holmes voluntarily “outed” himself to Watson as a consulting detective. He even unnecessarily took Watson along to investigate the “The Lauriston Garden Mystery”. No doubt, this was a distraction technique. By showing Watson his hobby of detective work, he avoided scandalising the young Victorian doctor with his true profession, that of a high-class niche sex-worker.

While Holmes and Watson became very close friends, I don’t believe Holmes ever confided his true vocation. Indeed, it was possibly because he wanted to keep his sex-worker status secret that he went on to embark upon so many adventures with Watson.

 

I have really only considered the evidence found in A Study In Scarlet in composing this paper. I feel certain supporting evidence could probably be found in many of the other adventures Watson recorded, but I have yet to track it down. I will remark, though, that one example does occur to me. Much later in their friendship, Holmes and Watson were involved in the business of “His Last Bow”. This ends with the capture of Von Bork – the German agent:

The German lay upon the sofa sleeping stertorously with a strap round his upper arms and another round his legs.

Holmes certainly seems to have known how to quickly and effectively place another person in a state of bondage…

Any other business:

"The Entire Canon" (Paul Thomas Miller) asked if anyone would like to accompany him the 221BCon in April. No one wants to accompany "The Entire Canon" (Paul Thomas Miller) to 221BCon in April.