Scene—An Artist’s Studio. The artist, a young man of prepossessing appearance, sits in a dejected attitude, amid a litter of sketches, with his head resting upon his hand. An oil stove stands on a pine box in the centre of the studio. The artist rises, tightens his waist belt to another hole, and lights the stove. He goes to a tin bread box, half-hidden by a screen, takes out a solitary link of sausage, turns the box upside-down to show that there is no more, and chucks the sausage into a frying-pan, which he sets upon the stove. The flame of the stove goes out, showing that there is no more oil. The artist, in evident despair, seizes the sausage, in a sudden access of rage, and hurls it violently from him. At the same time a door opens, and a man who enters receives the sausage forcibly against his nose. He seems to cry out; and is observed to make a dance step or two, vigorously. The newcomer is a ruddy-faced, active, keen-looking man, apparently of Irish ancestry. Next he is observed to laugh immoderately; he kicks over the stove; he claps the artist (who is vainly striving to grasp his hand) vehemently upon the back. Then he goes through a pantomime which to the sufficiently intelligent spectator reveals that he has acquired large sums of money by trading pot-metal hatchets and razors to the Indians of the Cordillera Mountains for gold dust. He draws a roll of money as large as a small loaf of bread from his pocket, and waves it above his head, while at the same time he makes pantomime of drinking from a glass. The artist hurriedly secures his hat, and the two leave the studio together.
Short Fiction
Chapter List-
Short Fiction
-
Lord Oakhurst’s Curse
-
I
-
II
-
III
-
Bexar ScripNo.2692
-
Queries and Answers
-
Aristocracy Versus Hash
-
Fickle Fortune or How Gladys Hustled
-
A Strange Story
-
The Great French Detective, in Austin
-
I
-
II
-
III
-
Tracked to Doom
-
A Snapshot at the President
-
Three Paragraphs
-
A Lunar Episode
-
The Sensitive Colonel Jay
-
The Distraction of Grief
-
A Sporting Interest
-
Had a Use for It
-
The Old Landmark
-
Getting at the Facts
-
Too Wise
-
Answers to Inquiries
-
Hush Money
-
Relieved
-
A Villainous Trick
-
Book Reviews
-
A Conditional Pardon
-
Bill Nye
-
A Guarded Secret
-
A Universal Favorite
-
Willing to Compromise
-
Ridiculous
-
Guessed Everything Else
-
A Slight Mistake
-
A Good Story Spoiled
-
Chapter_41
-
No Help for It
-
“Not So Much a Tam Fool”
-
A Guess-Proof Mystery Story
-
ChapterI
-
ChapterII
-
ChapterIII
-
ChapterIV
-
ChapterV
-
An Inspiration
-
Coming to Him
-
His Pension
-
The Winner
-
Hungry Henry’s Ruse
-
One Consolation
-
An Unsuccessful Experiment
-
Even Worse
-
The Shock
-
The Cynic
-
Speaking of Big Winds
-
An Original Idea
-
Calculations
-
Chapter_63
-
Solemn Thoughts
-
Explaining It
-
Her Failing
-
A Disagreement
-
An Expensive Veracity
-
Grounds for Uneasiness
-
Recognition
-
His Doubt
-
A Cheering Thought
-
What It Was
-
Identified
-
Red Conlin’s Eloquence
-
Marvelous
-
The Stranger’s Appeal
-
The Colonel’s Romance
-
A Narrow Escape
-
A Years Supply
-
Slightly Mixed
-
Knew What Was Needed
-
Some Ancient News Notes
-
A Sure Method
-
A Tragedy
-
A Houston Romance
-
Nothing New Under the Sun
-
A Matter of Loyalty
-
By Easy Stages
-
Taking No Chances
-
The Other Side of It
-
The Bruised Reed
-
Journalistically Impossible
-
The Power of Reputation
-
A Personal Insult
-
Reconciliation
-
Buying a Piano
-
Too Late
-
A New Microbe
-
A Story for Men
-
Just a Little Damp
-
Her Mysterious Charm
-
Why He Hesitated
-
Convinced
-
How It Started
-
His Dilemma
-
Something for Baby
-
A Righteous Outburst
-
A Green Hand
-
A Fatal Error
-
The Rake-Off
-
The Telegram
-
An Opportunity Declined
-
The Confession of a Murderer
-
A Startling Demonstration
-
Leap Year Advice
-
After Supper
-
His Only Opportunity
-
Correcting a Great Injustice
-
Getting Acquainted
-
City Perils
-
Jack the Giant Killer
-
No Time to Lose
-
Paderewski’s Hair
-
Binkley’s Practical School of Journalism
-
The Apple
-
A Pastel
-
A Night Errant
-
Board and Ancestors
-
An X-Ray Fable
-
The Sporting Editor on Culture
-
A Question of Direction
-
Chapter_133
-
Lucky Either Way
-
The “Bad Man”
-
Simmon’s Saturday Night
-
The Wounded Veteran
-
Her Ruse
-
Why Conductors Are Morose
-
Led Astray
-
The Mirage on the Frio
-
The Legend of San Jacinto
-
In Mezzotint
-
Whiskey Did It
-
A Strange Case
-
How Willie Saved Father
-
Chapter_147
-
A Mystery of Many Centuries
-
The Good Boy
-
The Dissipated Jeweler
-
Sufficient Provocation
-
The Pint Flask
-
An Unknown Romance
-
How She Got in the Swim
-
An Odd Character
-
The Barber Talks
-
The Sunday Excursionist
-
Barbershop Adventure
-
Somebody Lied
-
The Lotus and the Cockleburrs
-
The Proem
-
“Fox-in-the-Morning”
-
The Lotus and the Bottle
-
Smith
-
Caught
-
Cupid’s Exile Number Two
-
The Phonograph and the Graft
-
Money Maze
-
The Admiral
-
The Flag Paramount
-
The Shamrock and the Palm
-
The Remnants of the Code
-
Shoes
-
Ships
-
Masters of Arts
-
Dicky
-
Rouge Et Noir
-
Two Recalls
-
The Vitagraphoscope
-
Chapter_180
-
Chapter_181
-
Chapter_182
-
Chapter_183
-
Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking
-
Georgia’s Ruling
-
Bulger’s Friend
-
A Blackjack Bargainer
-
The Duplicity of Hargraves
-
The Passing of Black Eagle
-
Cherchez La Femme
-
Friends in San Rosario
-
The Marionettes
-
By Courier
-
Madame Bo-Peep, of the Ranches
-
An Afternoon Miracle
-
A Call Loan
-
The Struggle of the Outliers
-
A Professional Secret
-
Cupid à la Carte
-
A Departmental Case
-
Round the Circle
-
The Cactus
-
The Renaissance at Charleroi
-
Hearts and Hands
-
A Ghost of a Chance
-
Art and the Bronco
-
Hygeia at the Solito
-
Sound and Fury
-
Roads of Destiny
-
The Left Branch
-
The Right Branch
-
The Main Road
-
The Robe of Peace
-
A Retrieved Reformation
-
One Dollar’s Worth
-
While the Auto Waits
-
The Guardian of the Accolade
-
October and June
-
The Marquis and Miss Sally
-
Out of Nazareth
-
The Atavism of John Tom Little Bear
-
The Whirligig of Life
-
The Fourth in Salvador
-
Jimmy Hayes and Muriel
-
I
-
II
-
III
-
Tobin’s Palm
-
The Lonesome Road
-
Confessions of a Humorist
-
At Arms with Morpheus
-
The Princess and the Puma
-
A Chaparral Christmas Gift
-
The Sphinx Apple
-
The Pimienta Pancakes
-
The Social Triangle
-
The Elusive Tenderloin
-
A Chaparral Prince
-
The Ferry of Unfulfilment
-
The Pendulum
-
The Hypotheses of Failure
-
Transformation of Martin Burney
-
A Little Local Colour
-
A Newspaper Story
-
A Madison Square Arabian Night
-
The Champion of the Weather
-
On Behalf of the Management
-
The Enchanted Kiss
-
The Adventures of Shamrock Jolnes
-
After Twenty Years
-
The Sparrows in Madison Square
-
Lost on Dress Parade
-
The Reformation of Calliope
-
Witches’ Loaves
-
New York by Camp Fire Light
-
The Romance of a Busy Broker
-
A Matter of Mean Elevation
-
The Brief Debut of Tildy
-
Chapter_259
-
The Easter of the Soul
-
Ulysses and the Dogman
-
The Complete Life of John Hopkins
-
The Caliph and the Cad
-
The Door of Unrest
-
The Emancipation of Billy
-
A Harlem Tragedy
-
Dougherty’s Eye-Opener
-
The Rubber Plant’s Story
-
The Gold That Glittered
-
A Lickpenny Lover
-
The Missing Chord
-
Chapter_272
-
One Thousand Dollars
-
A Comedy in Rubber
-
The Defeat of the City
-
The Pride of the Cities
-
The Greater Coney
-
Transients in Arcadia
-
The Lady Higher Up
-
The Foreign Policy of Company 99
-
Two Renegades
-
A Tempered Wind
-
The Roads We Take
-
The Furnished Room
-
A Philistine in Bohemia
-
The Diamond of Kali
-
A Little Talk About Mobs
-
Suite Homes and Their Romance
-
The Caliph, Cupid and the Clock
-
Makes the Whole World Kin
-
The Love-Philtre of Ikey Schoenstein
-
The Rathskeller and the Rose
-
A Sacrifice Hit
-
The Sleuths
-
From the Cabby’s Seat
-
The Theory and the Hound
-
The Coming-Out of Maggie
-
Squaring the Circle
-
Hearts and Crosses
-
The Ransom of Mack
-
The Cop and the Anthem
-
Christmas by Injunction
-
The Green Door
-
The Church with an Overshot-Wheel
-
The Badge of Policeman O’Roon
-
A Ramble in Aphasia
-
The Making of a New Yorker
-
A Service of Love
-
Psyche and the Pskyscraper
-
A Cosmopolite in a Café
-
Chapter_311
-
Vanity and Some Sables
-
Chapter_313
-
Babes in the Jungle
-
The Song and the Sergeant
-
Man About Town
-
Memoirs of a Yellow Dog
-
Mammon and the Archer
-
The Detective Detector
-
“Little Speck in Garnered Fruit”
-
The Shocks of Doom
-
Extradited from Bohemia
-
The Red Roses of Tonia
-
Springtime à la Carte
-
Between Rounds
-
Tommy’s Burglar
-
The Marry Month of May
-
The Girl and the Graft
-
The Call of the Tame
-
According to Their Lights
-
Roses, Ruses and Romance
-
The Voice of the City
-
Hostages to Momus
-
I
-
II
-
III
-
IV
-
Sisters of the Golden Circle
-
The Dog and the Playlet
-
An Adjustment of Nature
-
Chapter_341
-
The Lost Blend
-
An Unfinished Story
-
Nemesis and the Candy Man
-
The City of Dreadful Night
-
The Skylight Room
-
The Assessor of Success
-
From Each According to His Ability
-
The Poet and the Peasant
-
A Bird of Bagdad
-
Chapter_351
-
The Plutonian Fire
-
“The Guilty Party”
-
The Count and the Wedding Guest
-
The Last Leaf
-
Elsie in New York
-
The Clarion Call
-
The Tale of a Tainted Tenner
-
Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen
-
Blind Man’s Holiday
-
Telemachus, Friend
-
A Double-Dyed Deceiver
-
The Gift of the Magi
-
The Duel
-
The Thing’s the Play
-
The Rubaiyat of a Scotch Highball
-
The Buyer from Cactus City
-
The Harbinger
-
The Day Resurgent
-
The Fool-Killer
-
The Handbook of Hymen
-
Brickdust Row
-
Sociology in Serge and Straw
-
“Girl”
-
A Ruler of Men
-
The Trimmed Lamp
-
The Higher Abdication
-
Calloway’s Code
-
The Country of Elusion
-
The Ethics of Pig
-
Compliments of the Season
-
Seats of the Haughty
-
The Purple Dress
-
Past One at Rooney’s
-
The Indian Summer of Dry Valley Johnson
-
The Man Higher Up
-
Proof of the Pudding
-
The Halberdier of the Little Rheinschloss
-
The Caballero’s Way
-
The Ransom of Red Chief
-
The Fifth Wheel
-
The World and the Door
-
Phoebe
-
“Next to Reading Matter”
-
The Day We Celebrate
-
The Octopus Marooned
-
Jeff Peters as a Personal Magnet
-
Modern Rural Sports
-
The Chair of Philanthromathematics
-
The Hand That Riles the World
-
The Exact Science of Matrimony
-
A Midsummer Masquerade
-
Shearing the Wolf
-
Innocents of Broadway
-
Conscience in Art
-
The Memento
-
The Enchanted Profile
-
A Night in New Arabia
-
Chapter_409
-
The Headhunter
-
The Moment of Victory
-
“The Rose of Dixie”
-
Buried Treasure
-
The Last of the Troubadours
-
Strictly Business
-
“What You Want”
-
The Hiding of Black Bill
-
Schools and Schools
-
I
-
II
-
III
-
IV
-
V
-
The Discounters of Money
-
He Also Serves
-
The Third Ingredient
-
Thimble, Thimble
-
II
-
Chapter_429
-
II
-
III
-
IV
-
Supply and Demand
-
To Him Who Waits
-
The Higher Pragmatism
-
I
-
II
-
Bestseller
-
I
-
II
-
III
-
IV
-
No Story
-
A Poor Rule
-
Rus in Urbe
-
The Venturers
-
Chapter_447
-
A Christmas Pi
-
A Technical Error
-
Let Me Feel Your Pulse
-
The Friendly Call
-
The Snow Man
-
Law and Order
-
An Unfinished Christmas Story
-
The Unprofitable Servant
-
A Fog in Santone
-
The Dream
-
Endnotes