40 Fun Facts About The Outcasts of Poker Flat

Which fellow writer, once Bret Harte's friend, later branded him a liar, a thief and a swindler?

Mark Twain wrote the insults in a letter to William Dean Howells, trying to block his old friend's appointment as a US consul. He later nicknamed Harte 'The Immortal Bilk'.

On which playing card does John Oakhurst write his own epitaph in 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?

The two of clubs, which the story calls the deuce, carries his farewell note. It says he struck a streak of bad luck and handed in his checks two weeks later.

What does Poker Flat exile John Oakhurst do after winning Tom Simson's entire fortune at cards?

Oakhurst hands it back, all forty dollars or so, and tells the youth never to gamble again. The kindness turns Tom into his devoted admirer.

Which Poker Flat outcast, named for an English prophetess, starves herself so Piney can eat?

Mother Shipton hides a week of untouched rations under her head and asks Oakhurst to give them to the girl. Her namesake was a soothsayer of English folklore.

Which Greek epic does Tom Simson retell in mining-camp slang in 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?

The Iliad comes out in the talk of the diggings, with swift-footed Achilles renamed 'Ash-heels'. Oakhurst follows that hero's fate with special interest.

Which director, later a four-time Best Director Oscar winner, made a 1919 silent film of 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?

John Ford shot the silent version with cowboy star Harry Carey as the gambler. The film is now considered lost.

In which US state's gold-mining country is Bret Harte's 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat' set?

California is the setting: the exiles climb from the foothills into the cold air of the Sierras, making for another mining camp a hard day's ride away.

What does John Oakhurst fashion from an old pack-saddle so Tom Simson can reach Poker Flat?

Snowshoes cut from the saddle give Tom what Oakhurst calls one chance in a hundred of saving Piney. Oakhurst himself chooses to stay behind.

Which Poker Flat exile, a suspected sluice-robber and confirmed drunkard, steals the party's mules?

Uncle Billy slips away with the animals just as the first flakes fall, leaving the party stranded. Oakhurst hides the theft from the young couple.

Why are Tom Simson and Piney Woods riding toward Poker Flat when they meet exile John Oakhurst?

To get married, after a long engagement and a secret flight from home. Tom thinks it lucky to have found company and a place to camp.

What nickname does Tom Simson, the youth who idolizes Poker Flat exile John Oakhurst, go by?

The Innocent is so trusting that he takes the Duchess for Oakhurst's wife. He never suspects that his new companions have just been run out of town.

What weapon lies beside John Oakhurst's body at the end of 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?

A derringer lies by his side, with a single bullet in his heart. The narrator calls him at once the strongest and yet the weakest of the exiles.

What fastens John Oakhurst's farewell note to a pine tree in 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?

A bowie knife pins the note to the bark of one of the largest pines at the head of the gulch. The message on it is written in a firm hand.

Which mining camp, a hard day's ride away, are the exiles from Poker Flat trying to reach?

Sandy Bar had not yet had a moral clean-up of its own, so it seemed likely to take them in. The party halts with scarcely half the journey done.

Before exiling John Oakhurst, what do Poker Flat's self-appointed judges do to two other men?

They hang them from a sycamore in the gulch, a permanent way of ridding the town of improper persons. The exiles are told to stay away at the peril of their lives.

What instrument does Tom Simson pull from his pack in 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?

An accordion, from which Piney coaxes a few reluctant tunes while Tom keeps time on bone castanets. The music helps the party forget how little food is left.

Which habit does Poker Flat gambler John Oakhurst shun because it would dull his coolness at cards?

Drinking interfered with a trade that needed presence of mind, and by his own account he could not afford it. He stays upright while his three companions sink into a stupor.

What does John Oakhurst tell Tom Simson he has often gone a week without while playing poker?

Sleep, he says: a man on a lucky streak does not get tired, and the luck gives in first. The boast lets him take most of the night watch himself.

In 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat', what does John Oakhurst call the only certain thing about luck?

It is bound to change, he tells Tom on night watch, and knowing when is what makes a gambler. He adds that the party has had bad luck ever since leaving town.

What shelter does Tom Simson find near the trail in 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?

A roofless log cabin, which Tom thatches with pine boughs once the storm sets in. The women take the inside while the men lie down before the door.

What does John Oakhurst suddenly do to the Duchess before leaving the Poker Flat exiles' camp?

He kisses her, leaving her pale face aflame and her limbs rigid with amazement. He says he is only walking Tom as far as the canyon, yet he never comes back.

What does the Duchess ask Piney as their fire dies near the end of 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?

Whether she can pray, and when Piney simply answers no, the Duchess feels oddly relieved. She rests her head on the girl's shoulder and speaks no more.

After John Oakhurst leaves, what does the Duchess find piled beside the Poker Flat exiles' shelter?

Fuel for the fire, enough to last a few days longer, is his last unspoken gift. The Duchess hides her tears from Piney.

In which other Bret Harte tale does a gambler called Oakhurst help christen a miners' orphan baby?

The Luck of Roaring Camp has Oakhurst suggest the name for baby Thomas Luck. In the Poker Flat story a townsman calls him a stranger from that very camp.

Which magazine, edited by Bret Harte himself, first printed 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?

Overland Monthly was only six months old when the tale ran in its January 1869 issue. Harte had edited the magazine since its first number.

What kind of body decides to rid Poker Flat of John Oakhurst and other 'improper persons'?

A secret committee does the judging after the town loses several thousand dollars, two valuable horses and a prominent citizen. Harte calls its burst of virtue as lawless as the acts that provoked it.

Why do some Poker Flat citizens argue for a harsher sentence on John Oakhurst than mere exile?

To win back their money: he had beaten them at cards, and they hoped to reimburse themselves from his pockets. Townsmen who had won from him overruled them.

What kind of song do Tom Simson and Piney lead, hands joined, in 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?

A camp-meeting hymn, sung with such a defiant swing that the hardened exiles end up joining the chorus. Oakhurst even quotes it later while on watch.

Bret Harte's Gold Rush mining-camp stories made him a leading figure in which American literary movement?

Local color writing leans on the dialect, customs and landscape of one region, here the mining camps of the Sierra foothills. The style is also known as regionalism.

What is the name of the horse John Oakhurst trades for the Duchess's mule on leaving Poker Flat?

Five Spot goes to the weary Duchess while Oakhurst takes her sorry mule. Even that courtesy fails to draw the sullen party any closer together.

Whose English translation of a Greek epic has Tom Simson read in 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?

Alexander Pope published his rhymed version between 1715 and 1720. Tom had mastered the plot and fairly forgotten the words, so he told it in camp slang instead.

Although famous for his Gold Rush tales, Bret Harte was born in which eastern state capital?

Albany, New York, was his birthplace, and he only went west as a teenager, following his mother to the Pacific coast. His formal schooling had ended at thirteen.

In which country did Bret Harte spend his last years and die, never returning to the United States?

England became his home from 1885, and he died at Camberley in 1902. He kept turning out Western stories there to the end, 24 years after he sailed from America.

In which European country did Bret Harte take up his first post as a United States consul?

Germany was his first posting: in 1878 he became US consul in the town of Krefeld, after months of asking for such a role. A second consulship, in Glasgow, followed two years later.

Which English novelist's death in 1870 moved Bret Harte to hold the presses for a poetic tribute?

Charles Dickens was mourned in the poem 'Dickens in Camp', which Harte wrote after delaying his magazine's next issue by 24 hours.

For which express company did a young Bret Harte briefly guard treasure boxes on stagecoaches?

Wells Fargo took him on as a messenger for a few months after he failed to make a living in the gold camps. He then left to become a schoolmaster in the Sierra foothills.

Which star of All About Eve was top-billed in the 1952 film of 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?

Anne Baxter played Cal, an outlaw's wife invented for the film, opposite Dale Robertson as Oakhurst. This version lets the gambler live and ride off with her.

Composers Samuel Adler and Jaromir Weinberger each made what from 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?

An opera by Weinberger carries the Czech title Lidé z Pokerflatu and dates from 1932. Harte's tale has also been filmed at least five times.

Which visiting British author called San Francisco 'hallowed ground' because of Bret Harte?

Rudyard Kipling said so to a local reporter, who shot back that Harte might claim the state but the state did not claim Harte.

How does John Oakhurst explain the Poker Flat party's missing animals to Tom Simson and Piney?

An accidental stampede, he suggests, set off when their missing companion wandered from camp. The other two women know the truth but keep quiet.