Sherlockian travels can take all sorts of forms. The big weekends, the special events, and even just going to see what regular Sherlockian life is like in a given city. As my wife and I were looking for somewhere to go for the weekend for a quiet celebration of something I won't ballyhoo here, and the Illustrious Clients of Indianapolis were having a meeting a few hours down the road, we chose Indy as our destination of choice, and had dinner with the Clients Saturday night.
The Illustrious Clients of Indianapolis like their dinner meetings, something like eight times a year. In my various visits to that city, I've gotten to see the insides of at least five different country clubs, as those tend to be their venue of choice lately (though I do remember one fabulous Greek restaurant years in the past, and a German one as well). Saturday's meeting had about forty people show up at the Country Club of Indianapolis, a fine venue with a lovely large bar in the banquet room.
The story for the night was "The Adventure of the Naval Treaty," and each table had a covered dish in the center, which we were eventually told to uncover to discover our own naval treaty as disguised in the story, all written in French, just like in the story. The difference, however, was that our treaty was not about naval defense but about what order we'd get to go to the dinner buffet in. Our table got "cinq" which was basically French for "last," in this case. No worries there, though, as we had an excellent table company with the Aults from Valparaiso, and Kelly Hodges from Kokomo. (The Indiana Kokomo, not the Beach Boys one.)
One thing you notice immediately about the Illustrious Clients en masse is their club tie, worn as a normal necktie with a jacket by some, but creatively redesigned for a less masculine piece of apparel by others. The Clients fly their colours, and it's quite a thing to see. As I said, they like a banquet meeting, and their normal banquet meetings look like the annual dinner banquet from the heyday of Peoria's Hansoms of John Clayton, so their "normal" is a nice evening for myself and the good Carter.
While we ate, they had their toasts -- based on the story of the evening, which was nice -- and we rolled through toasts to Percy Phelps by Alan Schweitzer, Annie Harrison by Ann Lewis, Dr. Watson by Shelly Gage, Mrs. Hudson by Regina Stinson (via Zoom) annnnd Joseph Harrison by Steve Doyle. If you thought that last one sounds like a dangerous combination, you would be right, as Steve came up with a clever defense of Percy Phelps's brother-in-law that haunted later discussions that evening.
The Clients have an interesting show and tell segment, which other scions have borrowed to some success, in which unique items of Sherlockian interest get explained and shown. I'd try to explain them here but probably fail to do them justice. Sherlock Holmes has inspired such an incredible variety of artifacts that it boggles the imagination sometimes.
A quiz on "Naval Treaty" had been put on the tables early on, and quizmistress Kira Settingsgaard provided the answers. Out of twenty-four possible point, I got fourteen, but a good share of the Clients seemed better prepared and did much better. The quiz was followed by a story discussion led by Mark Walters, going through several key points of the tale, and trying to discourage negative comments about Percy Phelps, the client and victim of the tale, which might have been inspired by a certain Joseph Harrison toast earlier. Personally, I came away from the evening with much less respect for Percy Phelps than I had begun with.
I mean, think about it, this guy was entrusted with a highly, highly, HIGHLY secret government treaty, loses it, then after a curiously convenient bout of "brain fever," thinks, "Oh, I'll write a boy I knew at school who is publishing stories in The Strand Magazine to get his famous friend to find the TOP SECRET document." Sure, Percy. Sure.
The evening closed with Kelly Hodges, a newly minted Client and recent Irene Adler on the Kokomo stage, reading Vincent Starrett's poem 221B, which is the classic way to finish any Sherlockian evening.
All in all, the Illustrious Clients of Indianapolis do a well organized, very nice meeting, and have for quite a long time. You don't have to wait for a special event to have a nice evening there. But as bad evenings, afternoons, mornings, or what have you are rare amongst all of the Sherlockian societies I've ever visited, so I'd encourage looking for convenient opportunities down the road from wherever you are. Eventually you have to drive home, but you'll get a lot to think about on the way and probably come away inspired for future Sherlockian adventures.
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