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.
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.
In point of fact, Poker Flat was “after somebody.” It had lately suffered the loss of several thousand dollars, two valuable horses, and a prominent citizen. It was experiencing a spasm of virtuous reaction, quite as lawless and ungovernable as any of the acts that had provoked it. A secret committee had determined to rid the town of all improper persons. This was done permanently in regard to two men who were 1 lien hanging from the boughs of a sycamore in the gulch, and emptily in the banishment of certain other objectionable characters.
I regret to say that some of these were ladies. It is but due to the sex, however, to state that their impropriety was professional, and it was only in such easily established standards of evil that Poker Flat ventured In sit in judgment.
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