#190 From the Cabby’s Seat- O. Henry

#190 From the Cabby’s Seat- O. Henry

Welcome back to a true O. Henry Friday! For the past few months I switched to authors winning the O.Henry prize, but like they say, there’s nothing like the original.

As usual, O. Henry paints a picture of late 19^th century New York that no one else could. There are certain things in life that we all experience the same, no matter rich, poor, big, small, woman, child. This story relates the doings of a Hansom Cab driver making his way through the Urban Jungle.

“The cock-of-the-roost sits aloft like Jupiter on an unsharable seat, holding your fate between two thongs of inconstant leather. Helpless, ridiculous, confined, bobbing liker a toy mandarin, you sit like a rat in a trap—you, before whom butlers cringe on solid land—and must squeak upward through a slit in your peripatetic sarcophagus to make your feeble wished known…Then, in a cab, you are not even an occupant; you are contents.”

Rating: 8-7-7-7 Total= 29

#57 Mammon and the Archer- O. Henry

#57 Mammon and the Archer- O. Henry

What’s the power of money? What is better than money? Love? Well we’ll see.

“I bet my money on money every time. I’ve been through the encyclopedia down to Y looking for something you cant buy with it…I’m for money against the field.”

This is a perfect archetypal example of an O. Henry story; good premise, a complete plot, and stylistic, clean writing. Textbook short story here.

Word of the Day: Contumelious (adj)- scornful and insulting; insolent

Notable Passage: “They say it takes three generations to make [a gentleman]. They’re off. Money’ll do it as slick as soap grease.”

8-7-8-7 Total= 30

#50 The Love Philtre of Ikey Shoenstein- O. Henry

#50 The Love Philtre of Ikey Shoenstein- O.Henry

Ikey Shoenstein is a night clerk at the Blue Light Drug Store.  He is in love with Rosy.

“Behind his counter he was a superior being, calmly conscious of special knowledge and worth; outside he was a weak-kneed, purblind, motorman-cursed rambler.”

“There as it should be, the druggist is a councellor, a confessor, an advisor, an able and willing missionary and mentor whose learning is respected, whose occult wisdom is venerated and whose medicine is often poured, untasted, into the gutter.”

Now, I know these stories can seem a little quaint and outdated, but they’re short and fun little tales… and where else will you hear someone described as: “a weak-kneed, purblind, motorman-cursed rambler?”

Ikey finds out that his best customer has plans to marry his Rosy but needs him to make a love potion.  Schemes unfold, and twists abound, and O. Henry strikes again!

Rating: 7-6-6-5 Total= 24