“The Outcasts of Poker Flat” 523Mother Shipton, in an act of selflessness that belies
the town’s moral judgment of her, starves herself in
order to keep Piney alive. In the end, however, even
Piney loses her innocence by accepting her dark fate
and realizing there is no escape from death. When
the townspeople of Poker Flat find her, she and the
Duchess are both in the cabin, covered in snow,
locked in each other’s arms.
Oakhurst’s experience and philosophical calm
finally play themselves out. He gives his companions
a few days’ worth of fuel before he leaves the cabin
in order to keep them alive a little longer. He could
have saved himself earlier, but he sacrificed his own
life, hoping that Tom could save Piney by returning
to Poker Flat for help. Oakhurst read his own fate.
At the end of the story, the townspeople find his
cold dead body under a tree. On the tree is pinned
a deuce of clubs, and written on it in his own hand
is Oakhurst’s epitaph: “Beneath this tree lies the body
of John Oakhurst, who struck a streak of bad luck on the
23rd of November, 1850 and handed in his checks on the
7th of December, 1850.”
It is ironic that, in the end, both innocence and
experience are brought together by the characters’
fateful exile from Poker Flat. The snow, pure but
deadly, covers the morally questionable Duchess and
the virginal Piney. Even the law of Poker Flat rec-
ognizes that sense of merged innocence and experi-
ence, and they turn away, not disturbing the bodies.
Oakhurst, experienced in getting out of previous
scrapes, cannot win this time, so he takes his own
life in the face of certain death.
Gary Kerley
Sur vival in “The Outcasts of Poker Flat”
Reading “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” when it was
first published in 1869, contemporaries of Bret
Harte were familiar with the struggle to survive in
the rugged Sierra Nevada of northern California.
They would have known of the tragedy of the Don-
ner Party during the winter between November
1846 and February 1847. Of 87 migrants, 40 died
and many of the survivors resorted to cannibalism.
Survival challenges would continue to plague many
immigrants on their westward rush to California in
the years following the discovery of gold at Sutter’s
Mill in 1848.
On the morning of November 23, 1850, Mr.
John Oakhurst, a professional gambler, is the center
of controversy in the town of Poker Flat. Because he
won several thousand dollars, he senses that he is in
danger of being hanged or, at best, run out of town.
His knack for survival is hard-won. A gambler from
Roaring Camp, Oakhurst has been through similar
scrapes before. He knows what to expect when the
men of Poker Flat get a sudden urge to rid their town
of him and three other undesirables: “The Duchess,”
a prostitute; “Mother Shipton,” presumably a madam
traveling with her; and “Uncle Billy,” a gold thief and
drunkard. All of these outcasts are experienced in the
ways of the world and not surprised to be scapegoats
of Poker Flat’s need to rid itself of bad elements.
The story centers around Oakhurst’s reactions,
and it is mostly his ability to predict the outcome of
any situation by weighing the odds that best illus-
trates the theme of survival. The outcasts are sent
out of town at gunpoint and head toward the camp
of Sandy Bar, one day’s ride away. The road to Sandy
Bar lies over the beautiful but precipitous mountain
range. Because the road is both narrow and difficult,
the Duchess refuses to go on, and the party halts in
a wooded amphitheater surrounded on three sides
by steep granite cliffs.
Oakhurst’s gambler sense tells him that the
outcasts are not equipped to stop; they lack the
provisions to delay their journey. As he surveys the
steep cliffs a thousand feet above them, he can also
see that the sky is becoming overcast. However, he
keeps his fears to himself and reacts as if nothing is
wrong. In the past, survival has meant keeping his
cards close to the vest and maintaining a poker face.
A new twist in their predicament comes in the
form of Tom Simson, the “Innocent,” who happens
to be coming from Sandy Bar to seek his fortune. He
is eloping with 15-year-old Piney Woods, a waitress
from the Temperance House. Tom calls it a lucky
break when he runs into Oakhurst, even though the
gambler won all of Tom’s fortune in a poker game
a few months before. Oakhurst, however, sees the
arrival of young Tom and Piney as two more mouths
to feed while the weather grows more and more
ominous. He cannot persuade Tom to keep moving
to Poker Flat, but he does not tell him or the others
about his ever-increasing feeling of dread.