Reading Notes W4 The Outcasts of Poker Flats (Harte), Part B

I really enjoyed The Outcasts of Poker Flats by Bret Harte. This story begins with a description of the  town of Poker Flats, which seems to be in turmoil. The town had recently lost several thousand dollars, a couple of horses, and one of its citizens, and the townsfolk were looking for someone to pay for it. Enter our hero of the story John Oakhurst, who is a cool, calm, and collected gambler who has a reason to believe that he is one of the ones that will pay for the towns misfortune, and he was right. He was a good gambler, and had taken money from some of the men who were on the hunt, so they figured that hanging him would be a good example to the town and taking the money he had won from them would be a bonus.

In the end they decided to exile John, a woman called "The Duchess", another woman called "Mother Shipton", and the town drunk and thief "Uncle Billy" from the town with the threat of death if they ever returned. The four of them set out for a camp about a days journey away, but the group (with the exception of John) stopped halfway through their journey and decided to rest and drink. They are joined by a young couple (Piney and Tom) who are running off to Poker Flats to get married, and John knows the boy from past gambling times. John woke up the next morning to a surprising sight, snow falling down and all of the groups' horses, as well as Uncle Billy gone without a trace.

Now the the 5 of them are stuck in a cabin in the woods, while it is snowing with no way to get to either their destination or back to Power Flats. After a week Mother Shipton falls ill and abruptly dies after confiding in John that she had actually starved herself to death in order to save her portion of the food for young Piney. John then decides that Tom must take some snow shoes he had made and make the journey to Poker Flats to get help for Piney, and he decides to take Tom most of the way. During their journey Piney and Duchess are staying in the temporary shelter of the cabin, consoling each other before eventually the fire runs out with no way to get it back, and they accept their fate. The two of them die in an oddly calm embrace, and when the townsfolk eventually get to them, they cannot even tell which one is the sinner and which is the virgin.

The fact that the townspeople came to find the girls shows that Tom made it safely to the town, but John, however, did not. His body was found next to a large tree with a 2 of clubs pinned to it with a knife, a gun by his side, and a bullet in his heart. The heroic John had decided to kill himself in the end.

Although this is just a basic summary of the story, there is so much more to explore here and I highly suggest that if you didn't read it, you do it now. My favorite character was John Oakhurst, because he was a very complicated and sometimes contradicting man, being both calm and yet yearning for excitement, a "sinner" who took others' money gambling but a very generous and helpful man, and a very strong leader of this group of outcasts, but the weakest of them in the end by committing suicide. He is a very complex character and the one I enjoyed the most throughout this very entertaining story.