The Outcasts of Poker Flat – Bret Harte (1839-1902)
Francis Bret Harte was born at Albany in 1839, and after receiving an ordinary school education, went to California, in 1854. He tried teaching and mining, but without success, and then worked as compositor on a San Francisco paper. During that time he published a few verses and sketches. On the appearance of The Luck of Roaring Camp in the Overland Monthly, he was hailed as a man of exceptional talent as indeed he was.
It was he who popularized the Western story. Such tales as The Luck of Roaring Camp and The Outcasts of Poker Flat are typical of Harte at his best. He was often over-sentimental and at times he wrote primarily in order to exhibit a trick-ending, in the manner of O. Henry, but the story included in this volume shows that he could interpret and describe human beings in a masterly fashion.
This story is reprinted from the volume The Luck of Roaring Camp, etc. Copyright, 1872, by Houghton Mifflin & Co., Boston, by whose permission it is here used.
The Outcasts of Poker Flat
As Mr. John Oakhurst, gambler, stepped into the main street of Poker Flat on the morning of the 23d of November, 1850, he was conscious of a change in its moral atmosphere since the preceding night. Two or three men, conversing earnestly together, ceased as he approached, and exchanged significant glances. There was a Sabbath lull in the air, which, in a settlement unused to Sabbath influences, looked ominous.
The Outcasts of Poker Flat – Mr. Oakhurst’s calm, handsome face betrayed small concern in these indications. Whether he was conscious of any predisposing cause was another question. “I reckon they’re after somebody,” he reflected: “likely it’s me.” He returned to his pocket the handkerchief with which he had been wiping away the red dust of Poker Flat from his neat boots, and quietly discharged his mind of any further conjecture.
