Dancing Suite, part 2: The Consequences of Flight, 8/?

August 07, 2018 by Tournevis

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The Consequences of Flight (8647 words) by Tournevis
Chapters: 8/?
Fandom: Murdoch Mysteries
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: William Murdoch/James Pendrick
Characters: William Murdoch, James Pendrick, Julia Ogden, Inspector Brackenreid, Georges Crabtree, James Gillies, Dr. Roberts (Murdoch Mysteries), Thomas Edison, Auguste Lumière, Gustave Eiffel, Marcel Guillaume, Antoine Lumière, Alphonse Bertillon
Additional Tags: A host of OCs - Freeform, A host of historical figures, Diary/Journal, Fake Academic Essay, Historically Accurate, Bycicles
Series: Part 2 of The Dancing Suite
Summary:

The following is taken from a recently defended Master’s cognate in History entitled « The Consequences of Flight : The Rediscovered Diary of a Canadian Homosexual in the Late-Victorian Era. »

The Murdoch Diary, part 2:

Paris

10 and 15 April, 1900

10 April, Tuesday.

The World Exhibition opens to the public on Sunday and we are very much looking forward to it. The city is teaming with scientists and inventors, many of James's acquaintance. Tickets for the Fair are 1 franc each. We are working on a budget to allow us 4 francs a week to visit as much as we can cover during the summer. We obtained an interesting touring guide, published by the pneumatic tire maker Michelin^1^. It is bright red and well done but of little use to us without a motor car. Hachette publishes a better guide that is much more complete^2^.

The Exhibition site is still closed, there are already many fine lectures being presented. Last night, we sat in the main hall of the Académie des Sciences where Paul Villard presented a fine paper on the rays emitted by radium and the use of cathode rays in their analysis^3^. James mused that we may have lost our lives this year but we did not lose knowledge. It is a bitter thought.

I continue à the Banque and have fallen into a useful routine. James has found a pupil, a young boy, son of an Italian.

War against the Boers again^4^. Famine in India^5^. With of our Science, why do we still kill eachother [sic.]?

15^th^ April, Easter Sunday.

Exposition Universelle opens today.

I met James at the Porte Binet exhibition entrance after Mass. It is the most monumental entrance to the Exhibition grounds. He had gone there to be among the first in.

Easter mass was soothing. Saint Denis church^6^ -- from the 13^th^ century! -- was resplendent as it should be on the most Blessed day of the Sacred year. Yet it was rather empty, on account of the Exhibition I gather. I did not take Communion, since I cannot make confession. I am broken-hearted, but I cannot imagine finding a priest here as understanding as Father Lanahan^7^. Confessing in the silence of my heart is all I can hope for. Perhaps I could find absolution in the Reformed Church, but this would be a greater betrayal than I am willing to make.

The Exposition is beyond description. Pavillions [sic.] and exhibit halls rival the most grandiose architecture in the world, but they were built of wood, concrete and plastered jute! They will be torn down in the Fall.

Today we tried the mechanical sidewalk^8^, "the street of the Future" where the sidewalks move for us. The circuit is a little over a miles and a half long and stands above ground, giving us an excellent view of the whole site. We made a list of the bigger marvels we wish to visit most urgently.

the Grand roue^9^
the Sidérostat^10^
the Celestial Globe^11^

James is also making a list of the most promising demonstrations and lectures. There are quite a few national exhibits I wish to see as well. It is a fortuitous time to live in Paris.

Michelin published its first guide in 1900, which was given for free at garages, tire and petrol sellers.
Murdoch may be referring toParis Exposition 1900. Guide Pratique de l'Exposition Universelle de Paris 1900 (Paris, Hachette, 1900), 486p. Hachette also published that year Paul Joanne, Paris et ses environs et un appendice sur l'exposition universelle (Paris, Hachette, 1900). 500p.
Villard was presenting on what would later be identified as gamma rays. Paul Villard, "Sur la réflexion et la réfraction des rayons cathodiques et des rayons déviables du radium," presented 9 April 1900, Académie des Sciences, Paris.
The Second Boer War, 11 October 1899 -- 31 May 1902.
The famine in the north on India, in 1899 and 1900, killed between 1 and 4.5 millions individuals, and garnered an unprecedented international relief effort.
Saint-Denys-de-la-Chapelle was built in 1240 on the site of a roman temple dedicated to Bacchus. Joan of Arc is said to have spent a night of prayer there in 1429. Still situated at 16, rue de la Chapelle today, we can posit that if this was Murdoch's parish church, he lived within a few blocks from it. Later mentions of businesses tend to confirm this hypothesis.
A Father Roan Lanahan was one of the priests serving at the semi-rural St. Joseph parish of Leslieville, east of Toronto, from 1890 to 1901. Father Hugh Joseph Canning was pastor in 1899 at the time of the men's disappearance. We can posit that this was Murdoch's preferred place of worship in Toronto, despite the fact it stood nearly 35 km from Rosedale; Murdoch implies that Lanahan knew of his sexual orientation. Further, following the church building's destruction by arson in 1898, Murdoch was put in charge on the investigation and no other than James Pendrick spearheaded the reconstruction project. Their disappearance in 1899 put a temporary stop to the project, but the new building was finally inaugurated in 1909. The building was replaced with the current church in 1958.
The "Rue de l'Avenir" was a wooden rolling sidewalk three kilometres long circulating the Exhibition grounds between the Les Invalides palace and the Seine river.
This ferris wheel was a 100 metres in diameter and stood on de Suffren street until 1922, when it was disassembled. It was the tallest of its kind at the time.
Also known as La Grande lunette, it was a large optical instrument invented by astronomer Léon Foucault (best-known for the eponymous pendulum). It consisted of a flat mirror that was turned slowly by a motor to reflect a given region of the sky continuously into a fixed telescope. It housed two 1.25 metre lenses. It was dismantled in 1909.
Le Globe céleste was a large sphere 45 metre in diameter with a walkway circling its top. It sat on an 18 meter high base with four pillars that housed stairways and elevators. Outside, it represented constellations and the zodiac. Inside, visitors could sit to watch astronomical panoramas on its inner surface.

Dancing Suite, part 2: The Consequences of Flight, 7/?

August 01, 2018 by Tournevis in English, Création

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The Consequences of Flight (7618 words) by Tournevis
Chapters: 7/?
Fandom: Murdoch Mysteries
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: William Murdoch/James Pendrick
Characters: William Murdoch, James Pendrick, Julia Ogden, Inspector Brackenreid, Georges Crabtree, James Gillies, Dr. Roberts (Murdoch Mysteries), Thomas Edison, Auguste Lumière, Gustave Eiffel, Marcel Guillaume, Antoine Lumière, Alphonse Bertillon
Additional Tags: A host of OCs - Freeform, A host of historical figures, Diary/Journal, Fake Academic Essay, Historically Accurate, Bycicles
Series: Part 2 of The Dancing Suite
Summary:

The following is taken from a recently defended Master’s cognate in History entitled « The Consequences of Flight : The Rediscovered Diary of a Canadian Homosexual in the Late-Victorian Era. »

The Murdoch Diary, part 2:

Paris

29 March and 2^nd^ April 1900

29^th^ March, Thursday.

The last 13 days have been hectic. As planned, we stayed in Cherbourg over night in a very modest hotel where we took two rooms. Cherbourg is lovely once outside the Harbour (which is massive for such a small town) and its industrial quarter (which is as dirty as anywhere). James spent most of the night and the next day there on the telephone while I took the sights. The Basilica is a lovely but timeworn 15^th^ century building^1^. So many buildings here are twice, thrice as old as anything in Canada. It is humbling.

James busied himself telephoning with brokers of his acquaintance. He worked to divest himself of his Paris apartment near the Jardins du Luxenburg^2^ [sic.] and to transfer the account he held there under his there and move the money to another under our new identity. His plan was for us to secure a small apartment for us in a more modest arrondissement giving us anonymity. It was good plan, which unfolded without problem, though it took more time than we were comfortable with. His apartment was sold in eight days, and the next day we took possession of a small 3^rd^ floor apartment in a 4-floor building on a good street in the quarter of La Chapelle^3^. It is all that we need and I am already quite attached to it. Though it is immensely larger than my rooms back in To before I began sharing my life with James, it is quite modest. We have two small bedrooms and a common room with a stove and a small table. All in all it is smaller than the music room back ~~home~~ in Toronto.

Our representation at the Police Prefecture^4^ went well. The officer did not doubt out documentation and we have the necessary residence permit. Our stay here is not in question.

We have not yet secured employment and that is a worry, but we have transportation. We purchased two used bicycles. They are ugly old things but they serve us well enough. We have fixed a few of our neighbours's bicycles, for small compensations, after we were seen fixing ours. We charge less than the nearest mechanic, evidently. James says that such exchanges are the only way to make friends as rapidly, other than to own a dog. We already are known as Les Canadiens.

There are ~~only~~ so many bicycles to repair. I am fairly versatile, but James is not. For all his scientific knowledge and engineering genius, he as no talent for a physical occupation. To wit, he posted advertisements in the La Croix^5^ and the Figaro^6^ as a private tutor in English, German and the sciences. He says it is better to broaden the field buy choosing a conservative Catholic newspaper and a liberal paper. He knows Paris better than I do, even as my French is better than his. He is getting better by the day. As for me, I have what I think is an interview at the Banque de Paris et Pays-Bas^7^ for an entrance lever accountant. The letter calls it an examination. For this, I have to thank our new neighbour Mme M (who lives on ground floor). She is an elderly lady, a lovely woman with obvious breeding but little money, who took a shine to us immediately. She says that James reminds her of her late husband whom she lost in the troubles of '48^8^. She told me of the openings at the Banque.

In anticipation for the examination, I finally bought myself a hat. I lost mine in To and had been wearing on of James' more sedate ones. I do not mind wearing his clothing. It is in fact quite pleasant, but there is nothing more intimate than a hat.

I had read that Spring in Paris was beautiful. It is true that the weather is lovely, but I find Paris unaccountably noxious. I am shocked. Many buildings on our street do not have plumbing and their facilities are in the courtyard. Some of our neighbours don't use them at night and empty chamber pots in the street every morning. A sight I had not witnessed since my youth in New Brunswick. We share facilities with Mr. R on our floor.

2^nd^ April 1900, Monday.

I started at the Bank this morning. I am one of a dozen accountants on a floor of desks. Our role is to verify records books, flag mistakes, but not to ever posit a cause for any discrepancy, nor to correct them. I am only a Vérificateur^9^. If a column is incorrect, we are to flag it by inserting an annotated bookmark and send it up the Correcteurs^10^. The pay is slim, I calculate that it is equivalent to what I made as a constable, but it is a salary and there is room here for advancement. My supervisor has already told me "Vous irez loin^11^". As of today, James has not found any clients.

Basilique Sainte-Trinité, a gothic building finished in the mid-15th century, on foundations of previous churches dating as far back as the 9^th^ century.
The Jardin du Luxembourg, a public park in the Quartier Latin in the 6^th^ arrondissement. Built in 1612, originally the park was the private garden of the Palais du Luxembourg (which now houses the French Senate). The entire neighbourhood is expensive and sought after.
In the 18^th^ arrondissement in the North end of Paris, the Quartier de la Chapelle was originally a working-class village absorbed in the Parisian expansion in 1860. It remained a primarily working-class neighbourhood in 1900, well outside tourist attractions.
Since 1870, the law requires that any foreigner wishing to take up permanent residence within Paris city limits must, within 15 days of arrival, declare their intention at the Passports and Foreigners Office at the Parisian Police headquarters, then and now situated on the Island of la Cité in the 1^st^ arrondissement, at 36, Quai des Orfèvres. After an examination of identification documents and forms, one received a residency permit good for one year. The process has little changed to this day.
La Croix, a daily French Catholic newspaper, founded in 1883.
Le Figaro, a daily French newspaper, founded in 1826. It has historically showed nationalist centre-right leanings. Decidedly less liberal than Pendrick realized.
Also known as Banque Paribas, it was an investment institution, founded in 1872, and headquartered at 3, rue d'Antin in the 3^rd^ arrondissement. In the early 1900s, it was the sight of a few financial scandals. It merged with the Banque nationale de Paris (BNP) in 1999 to become BNP-Paribas.
France was the site of two political revolutions in 1848, both centred in Paris, though similar political upheavals occurred all over Europe that year. In February, a popular nationalist and republican movement that successfully ended the constitutional monarchy of Louis-Phillipe and led to the creation of the Second Republic under the leadership of the bourgeois classes. By June, months of economic uncertainty, wealthy citizens having massively chosen to empty their bank accounts, leads to closures and massive unemployment. Unrest spreads as a larger proportion of the working classes turn from the existing government, leading to outright insurrection on 20-25 June. Massive repression ensues, leading to thousands of deaths, tens of thousands wounded and nearly ten thousand exiled to Algeria.
Literally, "checker."
Literally, "corrector."
"You will go far."

Dancing Suite, part 2: The Consequences of Flight, 6/?

July 31, 2018 by Tournevis in English, Création

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The Consequences of Flight (6346 words) by Tournevis
Chapters: 6/?
Fandom: Murdoch Mysteries
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: William Murdoch/James Pendrick
Characters: William Murdoch, James Pendrick, Julia Ogden, Inspector Brackenreid, Georges Crabtree, James Gillies
Additional Tags: A host of OCs - Freeform, A host of historical figures, Diary/Journal, Fake Academic Essay
Series: Part 2 of The Dancing Suite
Summary:

The following is taken from a recently defended Master’s cognate in History entitled « The Consequences of Flight : The Rediscovered Diary of a Canadian Homosexual in the Late-Victorian Era. »

**The Murdoch Diary, part 1:

Sault-au-Récollet and SS Columbia,

15 and 16 March 1900**

15th March, Thursday.

We stopped at Southampton during the night. The vessel is half empty. Most of the remaining passengers are either Germans or Frenchmen. All are eager to make landfall.

The stewart [sic.] tells us we will be arriving at Cherbourg tomorrow. I am uncertain why we are taking all this time. We made good time despite the choppy seas (his words) earlier in the crossing.

James is trying to keep his spirits up today. His smiles are ever present but they are tight. He has our transit to Paris planned and agrees with me that we will need to find employment in occupations that will support our new identities, inconspicuous ones, but that we’ll need to find them quickly. He is feigning enthusiasm, most likely in response to my prodding yesterday, but he is trying. I wish I knew what it was exactly that made our flight more difficult than his – our – previous difficulties. I am no stranger to starting over myself, to loss. I am mourning as much as he is. I ache to know the fate of our friends, but somehow it is not as difficult for me than it is for my beautiful James. Did I have less to lose? No, that cannot be, since we lost equally. We lost the life we had built together.

I do regret leaving the Sault-au-Récollet like we did. We arranged for a coach to fetch us in the middle of the night on February 26th and we left the house with the gray door without a note or a goodbye. F in particular was an immeasurable ally to us; he never knew the truth or the depth of our lies to him, while he asked for nothing from us in return.

Perhaps, a few years from now, when all is settled and no more risk can come to us or our friends, I will be able to let him know. This is unlikely. Perhaps it is the finality of our situation that hurts James the most.

16th March. Friday.

We dock around noon. The coast is visible from our porthole and we are required to leave our cabin in a few minutes. We have a hotel room at Cherbourg from tonight, though I would not have minded taking the train to Paris directly. James plans for us to stay here at least for a day, so he may make arrangements for us in Paris. I am uncertain what he means exactly. He was responsible for the entire escape plan in the first place and intentionally did not share most of it with me. He asks me to trust him again, which is self evident. Of course I trust him. I have not talent for barely legal schemes. I am grateful every day that he has chosen an honest life. A keen intellect such as his would have created a formidable villain if he had been so inclined. No wonder I once thought him a criminal mastermind. He has a talent for such schemes. Ironically, we are fugitives from the law, after a fashion.

By tomorrow, I will know the form of James’s plan. Once we are established in Paris, I will have a better ability to lead, if only because my French is superior to his. He knows science and engineering in the language of course; I am simply fluent. I am also more liable to find employment, and more quickly so. I have adaptable skills in a way that my inventing engineer has not.

I must stop here, the steward is announcing we must vacate the deck.

I hope to continue this journal upon our arrival. In the meantime, God look upon us.

Dancing Suite, part 2: The Consequences of Flight, 5/?

July 31, 2018 by Tournevis in Création, English

Read here or click through.

The following is taken from a recently defended Master’s cognate in History entitled « The Consequences of Flight : The Rediscovered Diary of a Canadian Homosexual in the Late-Victorian Era. »

The Murdoch Diary, part 1:

Sault-au-Récollet and SS Columbia,

13 and 14 March 1900

13^th^ March. Tuesday

Today we met with the ship's First Officer. Our status as 2^nd^ class passengers precludes us from ever meeting the Captain, but our questions about the vessel (mostly James' pestering of the stewards) brought us to his attention. Again, our adopted identities worked in our favour. Much as it was in the village, the two widowers with an interest for engineering and a need for distraction let us to have both lunch and dinner at the First Officer's table, and access to full schematics of the ship. James is currently pouring over the specifications and making Torque calculations. Apparently the ship's twin screws should transfer motion much more efficiently than they currently do. This branch of engineering is far above my scientific ability and I am content to observe. At the moment, James smiles genuinely, there is true excitement for the first time in more weeks than I care to count. It is late. The ships's library will close soon and we may need to move to one of the smoking rooms. There are two that remain open through the night, welcoming gentlemen with the promise of warmth, leather chairs, fine alcohol and no wives. The aft promenade smoking room has two large desks.

14^th^ March. Wednesday.

James is lying to me. Or perhaps he is lying to himself. The ship's plans and our relations are a distraction. I understand his need to forget the reasons behind our predicament --- why we are on this vessel in the first place. I too am tempted to get lost in these simple pleasures. I feel the loss it as much as he does. In most ways that count, we have lost everything, our occupations, our friends, our prospects. Yet I find myself looking forward to the challenge of starting over. I am uncertain about how James feels about this. Not well. I've brought up the topic and he has an elaborate plan for us to settle in Paris, but there is no excitement. True, he suffered the most at the hands of our enemy and took the longest to recover. His left shoulder will never be the same. But he is also the man I found the best equipped for starting over. When a venture fails, he begins another. He has done this countless times in the past. When his wife stole the Rembrandt and his lost his share in the high rise, he recovered. Even after the rape, he recovered^1^. How is our current predicament so different? Is it that we are leaving Canada? Is it that he left his patents and reputation? Or the house and workshop? James assures me that his love has not changed and that our commitment to eachother [sic.] is strong. The same is true for me. I vow to help him through this. We are to begin another life in Paris and we will be together for it, if he will have me. I simply wish I knew how to help him. He has recovered from the physical injuries. He "bounced back" like he has before. What is different? If the most intimate of violations could not break him, what has happened since our enemy that could have broken him now? I cannot find a way to formulate questions that wouldn't makes everything worse. Until I find a way. In the meantime I will simply humbly love him as I must.

There is no indication of a rape, or any form of sexual violence, related to James Pendrick in the historical record. Nevertheless, Murdoch's sentence strongly implies that Pendrick was the victim of a rape. There is a police report associated with the Sally Hubbard investigation and arrest that speaks of a physical assault Pendrick suffered in his home in the days prior to Hubbard's attempted arson of the Pendrick estate. Perhaps the extent of this assault was kept quiet? For more information on Sally Hubbard's criminal career including her many crimes against Pendrick, see Sarah Burke, "Sally Hubbard, From Seduction to Treason," PhD thesis in History, University of Toronto, 1982.

Dancing Suite, part 2: The Consequences of Flight, 4/?

July 28, 2018 by Tournevis in Création, English

Read here or click below.

The Consequences of Flight (5015 words) by Tournevis
Chapters: 4/?
Fandom: Murdoch Mysteries
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: William Murdoch/James Pendrick
Characters: William Murdoch, James Pendrick, Julia Ogden, Inspector Brackenreid, Georges Crabtree, James Gillies
Additional Tags: A host of OCs - Freeform, A host of historical figures, Diary/Journal, Fake Academic Essay
Series: Part 2 of The Dancing Suite
Summary:

The following is taken from a recently defended Master’s cognate in History entitled « The Consequences of Flight : The Rediscovered Diary of a Canadian Homosexual in the Late-Victorian Era. »

The Murdoch Diary, part 1:

Sault-au-Récollet and SS Columbia,

11 and 12 March 1900

11^th^ March. Sunday.

I took Mass today. The ship's chaplain is Anglican, but there is a Cistercian on board, and the Chaplain agreed to let him serve those of us Catholics passengers. An especially generous offer, rather rare occurrence to be of note.

James was bed-ridden until Christmas. I was back on my feet fairly quickly, but it was not the case for him. The entire ordeal, the wound at his shoulder festering and sapping his strength, the shock of our flight, even the basic nature of our accommodations all combined to slow his recovery. I still catch him flinching when someone addresses him as Mr. Beckett. He made a joke Monday that he should have chosen an anagram of his full name instead. I asked him what he meant by it but he changed the subject. By Christmas, he was anxious. He was mostly healed but Cabin fever has set in. I remember it well from my time as a logger. Short days and the cold will eat away at most people. For us, the timing was unfortunate. The winter was far from over with the grim and frost of February still to come. We were both in a bad mood.

Nevertheless, I had been accepted in the village as one of their own, le butler canadien they said, and I was able to move about the village with smiles and hellos rather than ceaseless questions. Despite myself, I made friends. Old Mr. P owner of the General store^1^ and, inexplicably, the Ice Merchant G^2^. The curé^3^ was a frequent visitor too, I think mostly to convince me to make Confession and take Communion. I went to Mass on Sundays, of course, but I will not lie in Confession, so I refrained. I continued to disappoint him for the entirety of our stay. He gifted me a copy of his history of the Parish^4^, from its earliest days as an Indian mission in the times of New France to the present. It was published two years ago with a fine red cloth cover. I found him too inclined to accept interventions of Providence over more scientific explanations, but that is no surprise. I regret leaving it behind.

To keep occupied during the short dark days of winter, we paid Mr. P to ensure we got all the Montreal and Toronto papers. The former we received daily and the latter weekly, brought back from the city to us by a young man who works there but returns home every Sunday. In late January, James was well enough that we would sometimes avail ourselves of the tramway line on warmer days. We attended a few public lectures at McGill^5^, notably one by Doctor Osler^6^. But we could not partake in many paid entertainments, since neither of us were employed and we only had what money I had taken with me from To. (We were only able to access James's Mtl accounts two weeks ago.) We did take in a play at the Theater français^7^ [sic.] and two converts at the Academy of Music^8^. In February Father F also took me to a boxing match, at the Monument National^9^. James refused to come. Despite the more than abundant entertainment in English in the city, we chose to cultivate our French.

Overall, our stay at Sault au Récolet [sic.] was dark, slow and melancholy, with short moments of energy and wonder. Mr. P's store kept us well stocked in paper and ink, and F loaned us a set of drafting tools from the Noviciate. We needed to "lay low" as G^10^ would say and our need to save money did not allow James or I to tinker at all. Any new ideas James had during our stay has to remain paper dreams for the foreseeable future.

12^th^ March. Monday.

Clear skies today. James spent the entire day on the Promenade deck bundled in heavy blankets taking in the pale sun like a tuberculosis patient. It's frightfully cold on deck, but James would not be deterred. I took lunch alone.

It occurs to be we missed the Lord Stanley's Championship finals. Father F was looking forward to it and hoped the Montreal Shamrocks would win against all other teams^1^^1^. There is no way to know today. Perhaps in Paris we can find access to Canadian newspapers. We left Mtl on the first present under heavy snow and I wonder how long the storm lasted^1^^2^. I find myself wondering about all the news we missed. The new we will miss. Once in France, newspapers will be our only link to home. Maybe these are the questions marring James' mood.

He spoke to me after dinner. Attempted to explain his behaviour, his mood. He is confused. He tells me he is not as well as he expected to be once we were finally on our way to Europe. He expected to feel free of all our travails once we boarded the ship. He thought the thrill of adventure would return and we could remake ourselves replacing the pain of what we have lost. He spent all day in the bracing cold searching inward in search of that spark in his heart. He tells me he did not quite find it.

His affections for me have returned. We had not touched in this way in quite some time. I refuse to admit I have counted the days. But now that he sleeps and I write these words by the light of the near-full moon. I wonder if he did not try to distract himself in the pleasures of the flesh.

1. Théophile Paquet (1830-1903), owner of the Magasin général in the village and at times member of the Municipal council. The store building, first opened in 1865, still stands today on Gouin boulevard.

2. Most likely Eugène Gagnon (?-1959). Why would his friendship be inexplicable is not clear. In all probability, Gagnon would have been somewhat younger than Murdoch, but not of a vastly different age or social class.

3. Charles-Philippe Beaubien (1843-1914), parish priest at Visitation-du-Sault-au-Récollet church from 1890.

4. Charles-P Beaubien, Le Sault-au-Récollet. Ses rapports avec les premiers temps de la colonie. Mission -- Paroisse (Montréal: Beauchemin, 1898).

5. McGill University.

6. Doctor William Olser (1843-1919), Canadian physician of world renown, founding professor of Johns Hopkins Medical school. Notably he innovated by focussing on bedside clinical training for medical students and was often considered the best diagnostician of his time.

7. Le Théâtre français, founded in 1885, stood near the corner of Saint-Laurent and Sainte-Catherine streets. Originally planned as a skating rink, the theatre specialized in French-language plays, with a particular interest in French classical theatre.

8. The Academy of Music (1875-1910) was a popular venue on Victoria street, which catered to both the Francophone and Anglophone bourgeois and middle classes.

9. Le Monument national (1893 to today) was a modern venue capable of seating 1620 spectators when it was opened under the auspices of the St. Jean Baptist Society of Montréal. It focussed primarily on entertainment for French Canadians, whether classical or popular, whether theatre or variety, as well as boxing.

10. Possibly George Crabtree.

11. The Montreal Shamrocks did win the Challenge Cup, as the Stanley Cup was known then, on March 7^th^, 1900, against the Halifax Crescent in Montréal.

12. A record-setting 46 cm fell on Montréal on March 1^st^, 1900.

Dancing Suite, part 2: The Consequences of Flight, 3/?

July 28, 2018 by Tournevis in English, Création

Click here or read below

The Consequences of Flight (3755 words) by Tournevis
Chapters: 3/?
Fandom: Murdoch Mysteries
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: William Murdoch/James Pendrick
Characters: William Murdoch, James Pendrick, Julia Ogden, Inspector Brackenreid, Georges Crabtree, James Gillies
Additional Tags: A host of OCs - Freeform, A host of historical figures, Diary/Journal, Fake Academic Essay
Series: Part 2 of The Dancing Suite
Summary:

The following is taken from a recently defended Master’s cognate in History entitled « The Consequences of Flight : The Rediscovered Diary of a Canadian Homosexual in the Late-Victorian Era. »

The Murdoch Diary, part 1:

Sault-au-Récollet and SS Columbia,

9 and 10 March 1900

9^th^ March. Friday.

The Columbia is a remarkable vessel. This morning James convinced a steward to allow us access to the mechanical decks. From the promenade deck, all is white with elegant beige funnels^1^, but aft and amidships, the elegance makes way for brute metal and coal dust. The boiler room, the steward would not let us enter, but through the dust and soot we glimpsed all its engineering strength. I am uncertain as to the reason for his hesitation, since he was convinced we were both some form of engineers. At least, James is. James posited later that we did not see the boilers possibly because of the filth, but also because we would have seen the state of the dozen or so men toiling below, feeding coal into the furnace. We were allowed to view the enormous twin screws that power the propellers. The noise was deafening. We are now once again in the library. James is reading what looks to be a history of __. His mood is improved.

He still struggles to answer to his new name, I notice. When we were still in The Province of Quebec, he found it especially difficult. After To^2^, by the time the train reached Longueuil Station^3^, it became clear James could travel no further. I did not yet know then, but infection had set into his injured shoulder where our enemy had ran through what I think was a steel bore. With the dehydration, in his already weakened state, we would not be able to flee any further without risking his life. Hiding was the appropriate course of action until he healed completely. It had been foolish to think we would have made our escape to Europe quickly. So once at Lngl^4^, I made a telephone call.

James is sleeping now and I am writing by the moonlight through the porthole of our cabin. Once in Lngl, I realized we should have stopped in Mtl^5^ directly. We needed help and we needed to hide for as long as James needed. No hotel in Montreal would provide that. I was desperate, I telephoned to an old school friend of mine from Jesuit College. F., now Father F, lived at the Jesuit Noviciate^6^ in the village of Sault au Recollet^7^ on the north of the Island of Mtl. I lied to him after a fashion, told him it was a police matter, that I needed a place to lay low with someone under my protection. He said he would take care of it, that all we needed was to make our way to the village, that the roads past the city limits were still passable despite the snow^8^. It was well banked on the roads and the coach we hired got there in the evening. He met us at the Noviciate gates. James' fever only rose as we made our way out of the city, across miles of farmland until the first houses on Principal road appeared. The Noviciate

[page missing]

10^th^ March. Saturday.

Father F met us at the Noviciate gates, climbed into the coach with us and told the driver to go back up the road to the white house with the gray door^9^. This was the house we woulds be staying in for the length of James' convalescence, however long it took. The house belonged to a recent widow who would be spending the winter with family on the South Shore with her young children. The Noviciate was expecting to be given the house outright, or they planned the purchase, I'm not certain which and never bothered to ask. F assured me we would not be disturbed. The village had a doctor, and he paid us a visit that evening.

The story we told villagers went thus: we were both recent widowers, hurt in a recent accident on our way to Quebec City. But our state of health demanded we convalesce in peace. F agreed to spread the story. He asked I not enquire how he convinced his superiors to give us shelter, and I did not.

The weather turned today and the Atlantic Ocean shows its might. My father would call it choppy seas I believe. The Columbia is a marvellous ship. It navigates the waves with stability and ease. No doubt my father's schooner, had it been full size, we would be tossed about. As it is, only the weakest of stomachs among the 1^st^ class Passengers seem a little green. I would not want to be below deck with the 3^rd^ class today, I fully admit.

James was quiet today. Not exactly melancholy. He seems contemplative. Most likely my reflective mood is rubbing off. He asked what I am writing today at lunch. I told him.

Within half a week of our arrival at Sault Au Recollet, not only did the entire village know of our existance [sic.], but our names and a version of our story built on rumour and deduction. They knew us as James Beckett from Toronto (un Anglais, they called him^10^) and his French Canadian butler William Gagnon^11^. They agreed that I had spent most of my life in Ontario, explaining my more English inflections and errors when speaking French with them. We had been widowed in a train wreck "out west" in one version, and had chosen to spend our mourning and convalescence in tranquility. It seems we were not very unusual visitors to the Sault; since the arrival of the tramway in 1893^12^, quite a few Messieurs Bourgeois had bought summer homes here, turning it into a bit of a resort in the warm month. The mayor^13^, whom I met at church weekly, is inordinately proud of the village's wood sidewalks, though his pride is not completely misplaced. The villagers were welcoming to a fault, respectful of our grief and so far as I know never suspected they had been lied to. Not the Jesuits either, nor the Priests of St. Gabriel^14^ who run the village school or the Sulpicians of the Parish church^15^, not the good Holy Heart nuns^16^ who sent us sucre a la crême fudge [sic.] weekly withing ten days of our arrival.

1. In 1900, the chimney funnels on Hamburg-America ships were beige with a black band.

2. Toronto.

3. Longueuil is situated on the South Shore of the St. Lawrence River, directly across downtown Montréal, QC.

4. Longueuil.

5. Montréal.

6. We could not identify Father F. No priest with this initial served at the Noviciat Saint-Joseph at Sault-au-Récolet in 1900. The institution was founded in 1852 and remained in operation as the Jesuits' main school for recruits until 1969. The building still stands on Gouin boulevard in the arrondissement Ahuntsic-Cartierville in Montréal and houses the Collège Mont-Saint-Louis.

7. The village of Sault-au-Récollet was founded in 1696 and was named for the French Récollet priest Nicolas Viel who drowned in the rapids in the Prairie River in 1625. It was an Indian mission until the early 1700s. A number of buildings from the 18^th^ and early 19^th^ centuries still stand and the old village is now a protected historic area.

8. In 1900, most of the territory on the Island of Montreal was still farmland. Outside of Montréal proper and its immediate suburbs, the island was dotted by a number of rural villages, some of which were turning into summer resort areas, notably Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue (then referred to as St. Ann) and Sault-au-Récolet.

9. We could not identify the exact house. We know from later mentions that the house stood between the Jesuit Noviciate and Visitation-du-Sault-au-Récollet parish church, possibly on what is now Lambert street.

10. This monicker was a common way from French Canadians to refer to Anglophones in Canada. especially but not exclusively those from British extraction. This monicker was widely used well into the mid-twentieth century. James Pendrick would be the epitome of an "Anglais": White, English-speaking, and of Protestant extraction.

11. Though Murdoch's fluency of French is a well-known, this sentence indicates that he spoke the language almost as well as a native. Steve Gunn, in his biography of Murdoch, found that the Detective consistently gave the reason for his French-language fluency as having studied with Jesuits in New Brunswick. The main issue here is that there were no Jesuit houses of education in that province during Murdoch's lifetime. Gunn posits that Murdoch may have been taught by one or more Jesuit priests who had left the Society of Jesus in order to become secular priests in an unidentified New Brunswick parish. There are a few examples of such priests in New Brunswick in the second half of the nineteenth century, though Gunn could not identify Murdoch's mentor or mentors. See Gunn, Our Own Sherlock (Toronto: UTP, 1999), chap. 2.

12. Murdoch is incorrect by two years: Montreal Park & Island inaugurated tramway line 24 in 1895.

13. Émile Delorme, who was mayor in 1897-1902.

14. The Frères de Saint-Gabriel were invited by Archbishop Bruchési to settle in Québec in 1888 and moved to Sault-au-Récolet in 1891. They built a noviciate near the Jesuits and opened a primary school immediately.

15. In 1900, as with most parish churches on the Island of Montréal, Sulpician priests were responsible for and own the Visitation-du-Sault-au-Récollet parish church, first built in 1749 and expanded several times in the 19^th^ century.

16. The Dames du Sacré-Coeur convent was established in 1855. They ran several institutions in the village, notably a school for girls.

Dancing Suite, part 2: The Consequences of Flight, 2/?

July 25, 2018 by Tournevis in Création, English

Click through or read below.

The Consequences of Flight (2145 words) by Tournevis
Chapters: 2/?
Fandom: Murdoch Mysteries
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: William Murdoch/James Pendrick
Characters: William Murdoch, James Pendrick, Julia Ogden, Inspector Brackenreid, Georges Crabtree, James Gillies
Additional Tags: A host of OCs - Freeform, A host of historical figures, Diary/Journal, Fake Academic Essay
Series: Part 2 of The Dancing Suite
Summary:

The following is taken from a recently defended Master’s cognate in History entitled « The Consequences of Flight : The Rediscovered Diary of a Canadian Homosexual in the Late-Victorian Era. »

The Murdoch Diary, part 1:

Sault-au-Récollet and SS Columbia,

To 8 March 1900

[no date]

I am worried about James.

[no date]

I write this sentence nearly two months ago, some time after Christmas. I don’t remember the exact date. My memory is failing me and I still worry.

8th March, Thursday

I have decided I should keep a journal, a diary. Now that we are no longer in danger of immediate arrest. I find I need to speak of the last dew months. I has been almost 6 months since we left Toronto. We boarded the SS Columbia this morning, heading for Cherbourg, from which we are heading to Paris 1. We are in a 2nd class cabin that James had arranged to be reserved for us when Operation Exodus was launched. The too ship is comfortable and swift, and rather modest for a Hamburg-America steamship, or so James tells me. No doubt He’s been on bigger, better vessels. Which comes as no surprise, and I have caught him looking wistfully at 1st class Passengers and to glimpse into their reserved Salons. I think, though, he is attempting to see if he knows any of them. We do not want to be recognized. Myself, I am simply happy to have avoided joining the 3rd class passengers below. I am told there are about 300 of them on our way to Europe, but there will be close to 800 when the ship makes its way back.

There will be no return trip for us. Certainly not in the foreseeable future. There is a library on board. It is small well-stocked and open to all 1st and 2nd class. James is already sat in one of the deep leather chairs reading the morning editions. We will not have access to them for at least a week, until France. James is pointedly not asking me what I am writing in this ledger. I am writing because I need to tell the our story to someone and because it cannot happen in person. Not even to a priest. Paper will have to do.

Six months ago, We left Toronto on the Monday morning in a coach that would take us to Kingston as per the original plan James

[pages missing]

I will not name anyone in this diary. There is no shame in what James and I are to eachother and what we have done, but I cannot in good conscience risk that this diary could or anything could be read used to reach back to those of our friends who helped us.

This journal is therefore must be of William Gagnon and his compagnon friend James Beckett. This is who we are now.

Young J helped the staff2 and Dr R3 pack for us, as I made lists of what to bring between naps. The good Dr O4 cried when I hugged her last. James regained consciousness in the early morning and took the news of our impending flight well enough, all considering. Our enemy5 had made sure his intentions clear to James before torturing him. Our enemy kept James well drugged after a day or so. He did not remember being blinded and rendered dumb with plaster casts. He was not in any shape. He was not in any shape to travel, we all knew, but we did not have any choice. The doctors would not chance giving him a tonic or stimulants not even coffee because most are diuretic and he was still dehydrated. The daylong trip to Kingston only made things worse, for both of us, even if I were in a better state of health.

We bid farewell to our house, the library, the music room, our friends. We left our life on that cold Winter morning.

We were two [sic.] numb to cry and It was too early to mourn, so we spoke softly in the coach huddled under the coach covers, which were heavy and dry. I recounted what had happened in the last three days and what he’d missed of our rescue. How Dr O had been a beacon of sanity during the ordeal. How G had proven himself a capable Detective. How I‘d be lost without him8 at my side. How I love him and cannot regret our life despite the strife. And how we owed the Inspector9. everything. Why we had to leave.

James explained how our enemy has lured him to the laneway of St. David’s. It had been too easy, James felt more than foolish. How no one had recalled witnessing the event is astounding to me. Somehow, our enemy or an aid had used what I think is a fishing line to puck James’ driving hat right off his head. near He saw it fly up above his head drove to follow it. when it disappeared from sight, James stopped his motor without thinking and turned the corner to get his hat back. One turn into the laneway and he was smothered with chloroform. He woke next in what we now know was the top floor of the Ru a downtown building. All this for a hat.

When we arrived at Kingston, we almost took a room at the PG10. James was not in a good way, but we decided to take the next train to Mtl. James wouldn’t have been able to walk up the hotel’s steps, so we simply waited in the lounge with hot drinks for three hours. He had high tea. When we boarded the train across the street, from there it was a smooth enough trip to Mtl. Or so was the plan.

1. The Hamburg America Line steamships on the New York/Hamburg via Southampton and Cherbourg route sailed out of Hoboken, NJ.

2. “Young J.” Could not be identified and no records remain of who Pendrick kept as staff after 1898.

3. Doctor Paul Roberts (1869-1903), who rose to prominence as one of the more progressive staff members at Toronto’s Provincial Asylum until he resigned due to ill health in 1901.

4. Doctor Julia (Ogden) Roberts (1863-1938), Toronto’s only female coroner, on and off, from 1895 to 1918.

5. James Gillies, as discussed in the introduction.

6. Presumably George Crabtree (1875-1927), constable then detective of Toronto’s Station House no 4. Records show he worked primarily as an assistant to Murdoch before 1900.

7. Pendrick, most likely.

8. Thomas Brakenreid (1856-1928). Born in York, UK, he emigrated to Toronto as a young man and made his way up the echelons of Toronto’s police force, becoming Inspector in 1891, and Chief Inspector in 1908.

10. The Prince George Hotel in Kingston, ON, which still stands across Ontario St. from the now defunct train station. It has been in operation almost continuously since 1809, though today only caters to long-term rentals.

Dancing Suite, part 2: The Consequences of Flight, 1/?

July 25, 2018 by Tournevis in Création, English

Welcome to the next installment of my Murdoch Mysteries m/m fic. Click through or read below.

The following is taken from a recently defended Master’s cognate in History entitled « The Consequences of Flight : The Rediscovered Diary of a Canadian Homosexual in the Late-Victorian Era. »

Description : The following is taken from a recently defended Master’s cognate in History entitled « The Consequences of Flight : The Rediscovered Diary of a Canadian Homosexual in the Late-Victorian Era. »

Excerpts from the Introduction

[…] The history of homosexuality at the waining years of the Victorian era, whether in North America or Europe, is limited by an extreme dearth of primary sources outside of judicial and police records. While we know quite well how homosexuality was policed and legislated, the lived experience of homosexuals remains obscured. There are a few notable exceptions, usually among artists and writers, but even in their cases, much is to be deduced and many historians will refuse to see anything other friendship in historical correspondence which would be considered proof of a gay relationship in the contemporary record. As such, the turn of the Twentieth century continues to be a history of silences and closeted individuals thrown forcibly into the light by judicial means.

In Canada, the new Criminal Code adopted in 1868 on the heels of Confederation made same sex relations into act of gross indecency which, if it do longer required the death penalty, continued to land homosexuals in prison and hard labour. As such, there are few “confirmed bachelors” in the non-judicial public record in this period, outside perhaps of Montréal. Indeed, in Toronto the Good around 1900, homosexuals of any gender only even appear when prosecution or public opprobrium is raised. This is why the discovery of a hitherto unknown diary or a hitherto unidentified Toronto homosexual, one well-known person at that, is so rare and exciting. [...]

[...] Internal references show that the diary’s author was most likely none other than William Murdoch (b. 1863, Shelbourne, NS), who served in the Toronto Constabulary, notably as a Detective of Station House no 4 from 1893 until is disappearance in October 1899. [...]

His disappearance, along with that of former millionaire and inventor James Pendrick (b. 1895, Toronto, ON) had led at the time to endless speculation as to their well-being. [...] Police archives reveal little more. They show it was well-known that the two men lived together in the Pendrick Mansion in Rosedale, but with no suspicion of impropriety.

What was well known at the time, however, was that in the few days before they disappeared, the men were kidnapped and tortured by James Gillies (b. 1878, London, UK; d. 1899, Toronto, ON), whom Murdoch had arrested for murder in 1897. Toronto newspapers, for the most part, believed them murdered. [...] Until the discovery of the diary presented here, popular culture had completely embraced the theory that serial murderer James Gillies had assassinated Murdoch and Pendrick, as the movies Jagged Edges (1996) and its remake The Murdoch Trap (2012) posited.

The Murdoch diary reveals a very different story. Murdoch and Pendrick survived Gillies, but they were found to have been much more than housemates. The two men were in fact a committed couple, but they had allies in the Toronto Constabulary who aided in their flight from the city.

That Murdoch and Pendrick were a homosexual couple, one that had completely escaped the historical record is astounding, especially considering how well-known both men were in Toronto at the time. Between 1893 and 1900, Toronto newspapers are replete with articles and reports about them. Murdoch is arguably Toronto’s most well-known police officer at the time, due to his arrest record and his many narrow escapes. Pendrick was perhaps more infamous than famous. He was an impressively successful industrialist, becoming one of Toronto’s first millionaires by 1894, but suffered a humiliating blow, when it was revealed that his wife (Sally Hubbard, 1866-1898) was in fact a criminal mastermind and multiple murderer herself! She swindled her husband out of most of his fortune. It was in fact during the investigations over the Hubbard thefts and murders that Murdoch and Pendrick met. It is not known when their intimate relationship began.

[...] The Murdoch diary is a unique window into the minds of the two men. Spanning about a year, it is dated from March 8th, 1899 to October 17th 1900, with two early entries dating to some time after they fled Toronto in October 1899. It recounts how they left Toronto, through Montréal and Cherbourg to finally Paris. Murdoch’s narrative is at times choppy, especially in the first half, which was written aboard the Hamburg-America line steamship SS Columbia while describing their winter sojourn outside Montréal. It speaks to the physical and emotional tole they suffered. The reader cannot help but feel for these two brave gay men, facing a world of prejudice preventing them from healing properly from the trauma inflicted upon them. It also shows how they overcame their travails. It is quite moving at times: the former policeman expresses great sorrow. It seems perhaps the men even suffer from clinical depression. “I find I need to speak of the last few month,” writes Murdoch at the beginning of the journal. One excuses the disorganization of the diary’s first section, as it was written in the span of a week, largely in flashback, during a singular period of transition: the crossing of the Atlantic before they would begin their new life in France: “There will not be a return trip for us.” [...]

The second section of the Murdoch diary, written in Paris proper, is just as moving, though it speaks more of adventure and discovery, as both men find a place for themselves and a new identity. Murdoch quotes Pendrick: “We might make ourselves useful afterall [sic.].” Contrary to the former section, the Paris narrative is written day to day, rendering it more legible and more coherent. [...] The diary itself is a single 100-page ledger manufactured by the Consolidated Stationary Company (Winnipeg, MB) and is written with at least three different nibs. Murdoch’s handwriting is crisp and legible, consistent throughout despite the different writing implements used, and compares perfectly with the police reports he penned before his disappearance. [...]

This cognate essay takes the form of an annotated transcription of the Murdoch diary. Individuals, places, events and inventions which have been identified with certainty are fully referenced. Where doubt remains, footnotes indicate this candidate’s best hypothesis.