About the only time it is good to be “irregular”is when it has to do with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his super sleuth, Sherlock Holmes. Holmes, from time to time, would employ the services of the street urchins, from London’s lower rungs of society to perform small but important tasks in his quest to unravel the deepest mysteries . This little impromptu brigade became known as the “Baker Street Irregulars”, and were praised by the Master Holmes himself, - for every person, even a child, can be sharp, observant and useful – and indispensible in helping to solve a crime.
Watson first encountered the Irregulars in A Study in Scarlet, describing them as “six dirty little scoundrels [who] stood in line like so many disreptuable statuettes.” Their chief was the energetic and inventive Wiggins. Holmes said to Watson about them: “There’s more work to be gotten out of one of those little beggars than out of a dozen of the force…The mere sight of an official looking person seals men’s lips. These youngsters, however, go everywhere and hear everything. They are as sharp as needles, too; all they want is organization.”
The original Second Street Irregulars also began with six “urchins” in 1993, borrowing their title from Conan Doyle’s little sleuths. And so, the new band of Second Street Irregulars can take a page, literally from their book!
