"The Ransom of Red Chief," by O. Henry

In which a perfectly honest kidnapping scheme is ruined by a most obstreperous child, and our narrator is glad to be accenting now in the American South.



William Sydney Porter, better known as O. Henry, published "The Ransom of Red Chief" in The Saturday Evening Post in 1907, and then in his short story collection Whirligigs in 1910. It's since become one of the most well-known short comic stories in American literature, and even if you haven't read it before you've surely seen homages to it countless times without even realizing it.

I mention this in the recording, but I'll repeat it here: be aware that this story contains not only a portrayal of an early 1900s child playacting a Native American in a very early-1900s way, but also contains an actual racial slur. You know the one. It's used in a quick and frankly baffling manner, but it's there.

Now illustrations! As far as I could tell, there aren't any "original" illustrations, or at least none that I could find, so I've got a pair here from the Boy Scouts Book of Stories, published for the Boy Scouts of America by D. Appleton and Company in 1920. The line-drawing "decoration" up at the top of the post headed the story and was done by Arthur D. Scott, and the fully-painted illustration here was by Walter Louderback.

15:13 - The Black Scout jumps on Bill's
back and digs his heels in his side.

A couple of quick notes from the text: at 2:12, we are told that the entire motivating factor behind the kidnapping is to acquire funds for a "town-lot scheme." Near as I can tell, this is essentially the old "got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell ya" con, where they sell plots of land they don't quite have the rights to. My guess is that the money was to actually purchase a single plot of land and then sell it multiple times to different people.

A moment later, our loquacious narrator uses the wonderful word "philoprogenitiveness," which is the condition of either producing many offspring or of loving one's offspring, either of which would rather work in context.

Last, around 11:02 Bill says that his favorite Bible character is King Herod. This presumably refers not to the King Herod who challenged Jesus to walk across his swimming pool, but rather his father, Herod the Great, who was the King of Judea who, in the Gospel of Matthew, heard that a new "king of the Jews" was to be born in Bethlehem and thus ordered the deaths of all young boys in and around Bethlehem.

And that's it for this short story interlude! Check back soon for the start of our next book.


If you would like to read along, the text can be found at Project Gutenberg. No reading ahead, though!

Around the World in Eighty Days, Chapters Thirty-Four to Thirty-Seven

In which Passepartout is given the opportunity of letting out some atrocious, but perhaps unpublished, words; Passepartout does not have repeated to him twice the order his master gives him; "Phileas Fogg" is again at a premium in the market; and it is proved that Phileas Fogg has gained nothing by making this tour of the world, unless it be happiness; and in which our narrator is not entirely sure he remembered the correct (terrible) voices for Phileas Fogg's Reform Club friends.



No notes for these last few short chapters, but we do have a final three illustrations:

8:45 - “He found in the letter box a note from the gas company.”

22::00 - "'Gentlemen, here I am!"

22:50 - "His hair disordered, hatless, running, running..."

As I mention in the recording, one does wonder how exactly our party gained a full day without noticing. I mean, no, the International Date Line didn't officially exist yet, but in practice that extra day should've shown up as soon as they landed in The United States and tried to catch one of their trains or boats a day before it departed. But maybe I'm just nitpicky.

And that's all for Around the World in Eighty Days, which has now taken its proper place upon the Bookshelf! Come back soon for a short story interlude, followed by a brand new book. Thanks for listening!


If you would like to read along, my translation by Stephen W. White can be found courtesy of Choptank Press on Google Books. If you prefer one of the other options, the George Towle translation can be found at Zvi Har’El’s Jules Verne Collection, which is also where I got the illustrations, or the more accurate but rather fusty Henry Frith translation can be found at Project Gutenberg. No reading ahead, though!

Around the World in Eighty Days, Chapters Thirty-One to Thirty-Three

In which the detective, Fix, takes seriously in charge Phileas Fogg's interests; Phileas Fogg engages in a direct struggle with ill luck; Phileas Fogg shows himself equal to circumstances; and in which our narrator cannot for the life of him decide on a regional accent for the sea captain, despite him being found in the narrator's own home state.



Onwards across the frozen prairies! We'll just skate -- ha, skate -- past most of the US in the last few of these eighty days. Almost there!

4:20 - "The travelers took their places and wrapped
themselves closely in their traveling cloaks."

8:28 - "Sometimes, also, prairie wolves... vied with the sledge in swiftness."

The prairie wolves mentioned above are not actually wolves at all, but are in fact coyotes. Oddly, I never really thought about coyotes being pack animals, despite being canids. I always pictured them as being solitary hunters, which I can probably blame entirely on Chuck Jones.*

I do apologize for my little confused interjection around 10:31 upon reading "Chicago, already risen from its ruins," which I originally read as being a really unnecessary slam on Chicago. As I figured out halfway through my own sentence, though, it is of course actually a reference to the Great Chicago Fire of October 1871, the year before the story takes place. This is the fire that has traditionally been blamed on Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicking over a lantern in her barn, though a newspaper reporter admitted that he made the whole story up. The exact cause of the fire remains unknown.

You may have caught at about 17:26 that Phileas Fogg briefly considers taking a balloon across the Atlantic, but immediately dismisses the idea as impracticable. Despite the fact that the hot-air balloon is indelibly associated with this story, featuring prominently in all adaptations and even appearing on book covers (including the one I'm using right now!), this is the only mention of hot-air balloons in the entire book.

27:47 - "'Pirate!' cried Andrew Speedy."

30:28 - "The crew displayed an incredible zeal."

33:12 - "'I arrest you in the name of the Queen!'"

And now, with Phileas Fogg back on English soil with mere hours to spare but taken into custody, we're barreling to our conclusion. Come back next time for the final installment!


If you would like to read along, my translation by Stephen W. White can be found courtesy of Choptank Press on Google Books. If you prefer one of the other options, the George Towle translation can be found at Zvi Har’El’s Jules Verne Collection, which is also where I got the illustrations, or the more accurate but rather fusty Henry Frith translation can be found at Project Gutenberg. No reading ahead, though!


*I find it hilarious that in the "Diet and hunting" section of that coyote Wikipedia article they note that "Though the coyote is the basis for the character of Wile E. Coyote... [in the cartoons] about the Road Runner, coyotes have not been known as yet to successfully attack greater roadrunners for prey." I mean, they've yet to do it successfully in the cartoons, either. [back]

Around the World in Eighty Days, Chapters Twenty-Nine and Thirty

In which certain incidents are related, only to be met with on the railroads of the United States; Phileas Fogg simply does his duty; and in which there is a depiction of Native Americans that our narrator supposes technically could have been worse, but, you know, still.



All right, we're gonna get back on track here. We're closing in on the end of the story, and we're suddenly getting some serious action (even if some of the "action," such as Passepartout's rescue, is kinda glossed over). Stay tuned to see if our heroes make it back in time!

No notes this time (it's handy now being in my native land!), but a surprising number of illustrations for only two chapters:

1:17 - "The railroad reached its highest point."

4:00 - "'I should play a diamond.'"

10:18 - "The Sioux entered the cars."

12:05 - "There, suspended by one hand between the baggage car and the tender..."

18:49 - "An enormous shadow, preceded by a lurid light, slowly advanced."

24:04 - "The Frenchman had knocked down three of them with his fist."

If you would like to read along, my translation by Stephen W. White can be found courtesy of Choptank Press on Google Books. If you prefer one of the other options, the George Towle translation can be found at Zvi Har’El’s Jules Verne Collection, which is also where I got the illustrations, or the more accurate but rather fusty Henry Frith translation can be found at Project Gutenberg. No reading ahead, though!