THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT

BY

FRANCIS BRET HARTE

This is often called a story of local color.  And it is.  It is rich in the characteristics of California in the gold-seeking days.  It is also classified as a story of setting.  And it is.  The setting is a determining factor in the conduct of these outcasts.  They are men and women as inevitably drawn to the mining camp as the ill-fated ship in “The Arabian Nights” was attracted to the lode-stone mountain, and with as much certainty of shipwreck.  These the blizzard of the west gathers into its embrace, and compels them to reveal their better selves.  But it is more than a story of local color and of setting.  It is also an illustration of the artistic blending of plot, character, and setting, and of the magical power of youth to see life at the time truly enough, but to transform it later into something fine and noble.

THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT

[Footnote:  From “The Luck of Roaring Camp,” by Francis Bret Harte.  Copyright, 1906, by Houghton Mifflin Company.  Reprinted by special arrangement with Houghton Mifflin Company, the authorized publishers of Bret Harte’s works.]

As Mr. John Oakhurst, gambler, stepped into the main street of Poker Flat on the morning of the twenty-third 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 of 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 whipping 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 of two men who were then hanging from the boughs of a sycamore in the gulch, and temporarily 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 to sit in judgment.