Lawyer Gooch bestowed his undivided attention upon the engrossing arts of his profession. But one flight of fancy did he allow his mind to entertain. He was fond of likening his suite of office rooms to the bottom of a ship. The rooms were three in number, with a door opening from one to another. […]

The New York Enterprise sent H. B. Calloway as special correspondent to the Russo-Japanese-Portsmouth war. For two months Calloway hung about Yokohama and Tokio, shaking dice with the other correspondents for drinks of ‘rickshaws–oh, no, that’s something to ride in; anyhow, he wasn’t earning the salary that his paper was paying him. But that was […]

A favourite dodge to get your story read by the public is to assert that it is true, and then add that Truth is stranger than Fiction. I do not know if the yarn I am anxious for you to read is true; but the Spanish purser of the fruit steamer El Carrero swore to […]

Not many days ago my old friend from the tropics, J. P. Bridger, United States consul on the island of Ratona, was in the city. We had wassail and jubilee and saw the Flatiron building, and missed seeing the Bronxless menagerie by about a couple of nights. And then, at the ebb tide, we were […]

[From The Rolling Stone.] “Press me no more Mr. Snooper,” said Gladys Vavasour-Smith. “I can never be yours.” “You have led me to believe different, Gladys,” said Bertram D. Snooper. The setting sun was flooding with golden light the oriel windows of a magnificent mansion situated in one of the most aristocratic streets west of […]

[From The Rolling Stone.] So the king fell into a furious rage, so that none durst go near him for fear, and he gave out that since the Princess Ostla had disobeyed him there would be a great tourney, and to the knight who should prove himself of the greatest valor he would give the […]

[From THE ROLLING STONE.] The snake reporter of The Rolling Stone was wandering up the avenue last night on his way home from the Y.M.C.A. rooms when he was approached by a gaunt, hungry-looking man with wild eyes and dishevelled hair. He accosted the reporter in a hollow, weak voice. “‘Can you tell me, Sir, […]

[Left unfinished, and published as it here appears in Everybody’s Magazine, December, 1911.] I am the richer by the acquaintance of four newspaper men. Singly, they are my encyclopedias, friends, mentors, and sometimes bankers. But now and then it happens that all of them will pitch upon the same printworthy incident of the passing earthly […]

[This is the kind of waggish editorial O. Henry was writing in 1894 for the readers of THE ROLLING STONE. The reader will do well to remember that the paper was for local consumption and that the allusions are to a very special place and time.] (It will be remembered that about a month ago […]

‘Tis midnight in Paris. A myriad of lamps that line the Champs Elysees and the Rouge et Noir, cast their reflection in the dark waters of the Seine as it flows gloomily past the Place Vendome and the black walls of the Convent Notadam. The great French capital is astir. It is the hour when […]

[These two farcical stories about Tictocq appeared in The Rolling Stone. They are reprinted here with all of their local references because, written hurriedly and for neighborly reading, they nevertheless have an interest for the admirer of O. Henry. They were written in 1894.] THE GREAT FRENCH DETECTIVE, IN AUSTIN A Successful Political Intrigue CHAPTER […]

[O. Henry wrote this for Ainslee’s Magazine, where it appeared in March, 1903.] PERSONS OF THE DRAMA Mr. PENNE. . . . . . An Author Miss LORE. . . . . . An Amanuensis SCENE–Workroom of Mr. Penne’s popular novel factory. MR. PENNE–Good morning, Miss Lore. Glad to see you so prompt. We should […]

[The story referred to in this skit appears in “The Trimmed Lamp” under the same title–“The Badge of Policeman O’Roon.”] The Adventures of an Author With His Own Hero All that day–in fact from the moment of his creation–Van Sweller had conducted himself fairly well in my eyes. Of course I had had to make […]

[Published in “Monthly Magazine Section,” July, 1910.] When I used to sell hardware in the West, I often “made” a little town called Saltillo, in Colorado. I was always certain of securing a small or a large order from Simon Bell, who kept a general store there. Bell was one of those six-foot, low-voiced products, […]

[Published in The Cosmopolitan, October, 1912. Probably written in 1904, or shortly after O. Henry’s first successes in New York.] The drug clerk looks sharply at the white face half concealed by the high-turned overcoat collar. “I would rather not supply you,” he said doubtfully. “I sold you a dozen morphine tablets less than an […]

[Originally published in EVERYBODY’S MAGAZINE, June, 1903.] Without knowing it, Old Bill Bascom had the honor of being overtaken by fate the same day with the Marquis of Borodale. The Marquis lived in Regent Square, London. Old Bill lived on Limping Doe Creek, Hardeman County, Texas. The cataclysm that engulfed the Marquis took the form […]

[Originally published in The Black Cat for April, 1902, The Short Story Publishing Co.] The policeman was standing at the corner of Twenty-fourth Street and a prodigiously dark alley near where the elevated railroad crosses the street. The time was two o’clock in the morning; the outlook a stretch of cold, drizzling, unsociable blackness until […]

[Originally published in Munsey’s Magazine, December, 1908.] “But can thim that helps others help thimselves!” –Mulvaney. This is the story that William Trotter told me on the beach at Aguas Frescas while I waited for the gig of the captain of the fruit steamer Andador which was to take me abroad. Reluctantly I was leaving […]

[O. Henry thought this the best of the Jeff Peters stories, all the rest of which are included in “The Gentle Grafter,” except “Cupid a la Carte” in the “Heart of the West.” “The Atavism of John Tom Little Bear” appeared in EVERYBODY’S MAGAZINE for July, 1903.] I saw a light in Jeff Peters’s room […]

[Written at the prime of his popularity and power, this characteristic and amusing story was published in Everybody’s Magazine in August, 1906.] I walked the streets of the City of Insolence, thirsting for the sight of a stranger face. For the City is a desert of familiar types as thick and alike as the grains […]