1Footnote 1:

2Frio—The Rio Frio arises in mountainous country about 75 miles west of San Antonio and flows southeast to the Gulf of Mexico. Its upper stretches are spring-fed and often crystal-clear.

3Footnote 2:

4lobos—(Spanish) wolves

5Footnote 3:

6mayordomo—(Spanish) steward, head of the household staff; also a ranch foreman

7Footnote 4:

8pear—prickly-pear cactus, the most common variety of large cactus in Texas, often growing in great clumps

9Footnote 5:

10Henry Thomas Buckle (1821-1862) was a self-taught historian. He planned a series of books to explain the idea that history—especially the progress of nations and peoples—followed laws similar to those being described in the natural sciences. The first volume of his History of Civilization in England, published in 1857, was only an introduction to his theme, but it made Buckle a celebrity. The second volume appeared in 1861, but Buckle died the following year without completing his series. The two volumes were widely read during the decade or two after his death. O. Henry read voraciously as a child and would likely have been familiar with the work.

11Footnote 6:

12Septimus Winner (1827-1902), a gifted composer (he wrote "Oh where, oh where has my little dog gone . . ."), teacher, and performer was the author of at least 200 books on how to play numerous musical instruments.

13Footnote 7:

14The Lick Observatory, the first permanent mountain-top observatory, was built in the 1880's. Its 36-inch refracting telescope was the largest in the world until the Yerkes Observatory was opened in 1897.

15Footnote 8:

16"Two Orphans"—probably a reference to a popular play, "Le Deux Orphelines," written in 1875 by Adolphe d'Ennery and Eugène Cormon

17Footnote 9:

18opodeldoc—a camphorated liniment of soap mixed with alcohol

19Footnote 10:

20animals . . . there—a reference to delirium tremens, in which hallucinatory visions of animals or insects is common. O. Henry was a heavy drinker in his later years (he probably died of complications of alcoholism) and might have experienced delirium tremens personally.

21Footnote 11:

22Henry Rider Haggard (1856-1925) wrote novels set in exotic locations. His best known work is King Solomon's Mines (1885).

23Lew Dockstader had one of the last major travelling minstrel companies and was its principal comedian.

24Dr. Charles Henry Parkhurst (1842-1933), pastor of New York's Madison Square Presbyterian Church from 1880 to 1919, was noted for his denunciations of vice and governmental corruption. He was instrumental in the campaign against Tammany Hall.

25Footnote 12:

26botts—a parasitic infestation of the intestines of animals, especially horses, by larvae of the botfly

27Footnote 13:

28Homer K. . . . Ruby Ott—If the reader has not yet deciphered the references, he should consult Project Gutenberg's e-book #246 ( https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/246)

29Footnote 14:

30"deep as first love, and wild with all regret"—Tennyson, The Princess, Part IV, Song:

31"Deep as remembered kisses after death,

32And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd

33On lips that are for others; deep as love,

34Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;

35O Death in Life, the days that are no more. "

36One must wonder whether O. Henry remembered these lines because of the untimely death of his young first wife Athol, whom he loved dearly.

37Footnote 15:

38cañada—(Spanish) a sheep camp or ranch

39Footnote 16:

40San Miguel Creek flows into the Frio south of San Antonio near the ranches where O. Henry lived in his youth.

41Footnote 17:

42The Nueces River is one of the major rivers of West Texas, running roughly parallel to and west of the Frio.

43Footnote 18:

44Palestine is a town in East Texas, but Jud mistakes it for the Holy Land.

45Footnote 19:

46merino—a breed of sheep noted for fine wool

47Footnote 20:

48O. Henry was an expert marksman with a pistol, a skill he picked up on the Texas ranches. Marksmanship plays an important role in another story in this book, "The Princess and the Puma."

49Footnote 21:

50piedra—(Spanish) stone; a rocky place

51Footnote 22:

52howdah—a seat, often with a canopy, for riding an elephant or camel

53Footnote 23:

54The San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railroad, affectionately called the "SAAP" by two generations of Texans, was eventually incorporated into the International & Great Northern and later into the Missouri Pacific. As late as 1920 summer vacationers going to Central Texas resorts such as Comfort could take the S.A. & A.P. from San Antonio as far as Boerne (now on the northern edge of San Antonio) and then ride a stagecoach the rest of the way.

55Footnote 24:

56Grease-us—a play on the name of Croesus

57Footnote 25:

58Eighteenth Century mariners called the petrel (a large sea bird) "Mother Cary's chicken."

59Footnote 26:

60crack-loo—a form of gambling in which coins are tossed high into the air with the object having one's coin land nearest a crack in the floor

61Footnote 27:

62The Menger Hotel was (and still is) a San Antonio landmark. Built in 1859 near the Alamo, its guests have included Robert E. Lee, U. S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, and Sarah Bernhardt.

63Footnote 28:

64suaderos—O. Henry uses this term in several stories. He probably meant "sudaderos," which are saddle blankets or pads. The term is also sometimes used to refer to pads that prevent the stirrup straps from rubbing the rider's leg. O. Henry undoubtedly picked up the word during his stay on South Texas ranches, but he probably never saw the word written, and "suaderos" was what he came up with many years later when writing. This annotator is grateful to Michael K. DeWitt of Oklahoma State University for explaining this reference.

65Footnote 29:

66Cambon snack—This term eludes definitive explanation. It might refer to the brothers Paul and Jules Cambon. Paul was the French ambassador to Great Britain from 1898 to 1920; in 1904 he negotiated the Entente Cordiale between France and Britain that was the basis for their alliance in World War I. Jules was the French ambassador to the U.S. from 1897 to 1902 and was the French ambassador to Germany at the outbreak of World War I.

67Footnote 30:

68Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine (1853-1931) was a very popular British novelist and playwright in his day, but his works have now been largely forgotten. As of July, 2004, two of his books, The Christian and The Scapegoat, can be found in Project Gutenberg's library.

69Footnote 31:

70cicerone—a sight-seeing guide

71Footnote 32:

72suttee—the practice in India (now illegal) of a widow being burned to death (voluntarily or involuntarily) on her husband's funeral pyre

73Footnote 33:

74In the late 1800's and early 1900's western air was thought to be efficacious in healing tuberculosis (no drug therapy was then available), and many patients were sent to San Antonio. This theme appears in other O. Henry stories. There was a history of tuberculosis in O. Henry's family, and while he never had overt signs of the disease, he was allowed to go (or sent) to Texas at age 20 partly for his health.

75Footnote 34:

76Russell Sage (1815-1906) was a well-known wealthy New York businessman with financial interests in banking, western railroads, and Western Union.

77Footnote 35:

78mutoscope—In 1894 Henry Norton Marvin and Herman Casler patented the mutoscope, a device for showing moving pictures. A sequence of photographs was attached to a rotating drum, so that the images were flipped rapidly from one to the next as the drum rotated, creating the illusion of motion.

79Footnote 36:

80International—The International and Great Northern Railroad (I. & G. N.) plays a prominent role in many of O. Henry's stories. It was one of the great early railroads of Texas, beginning in the northeast corner of the state and gradually extending southwestward almost 600 miles, reaching Rockdale by 1873, Austin by 1876, then San Antonio, and eventually the Mexican border at Laredo in 1881. Later it became part of the Missouri Pacific system.

81Footnote 37:

82There is a town named Rincón almost 200 miles south of San Antonio, but it is not on the route of the I. & G. N. O. Henry often appropriated names of real places for his stories without worrying about geographical correctness. The description here is undoubtedly from O. Henry's memory of his journey from his home in North Carolina to a ranch in LaSalle County, Texas, when he was twenty. He would have gotten off the I. & G. N. at Cotulla, about 90 miles south of San Antonio, and ridden to the ranch as described in this paragraph. The description of this journey, with its vistas and aromas, is repeated in a number of O. Henry's stories.

83Footnote 38:

84javeli—native wild pigs of the Sonoran desert, more often called javelinas, prized by hunters because of their ferocity. Their name comes from the Spanish word for javelin, "jabalina," because of their razor-sharp teeth.

85Footnote 39:

86Drinking water was stored in clay containers in the shade. Water seeped through the clay to the surface, where it evaporated, and the evaporation cooled the jar and its contents.

87Footnote 40:

88señorito—(Spanish) young man, little man

89Footnote 41:

90Esta bueno?—(Spanish) Is that good? Is that all right?

91Footnote 42:

92mil gracias—(Spanish) a thousand thanks

93Footnote 43:

94kobold—in German folklore an elf or gnome who haunts underground places

95Footnote 44:

96gehenna—(Biblical) a place of abomination; Hell

97Footnote 45:

98The Guadalupe River arises in the Hill Country of Central Texas northwest of San Antonio and flows southeast to the Gulf of Mexico.

99Footnote 46:

100Another of O. Henry's lapses from geographical accuracy. The Guadalupe is much farther than twenty miles to the north and east from the setting of this story.

101Footnote 47:

102treinta, cuarenta—(Spanish) thirty, forty

103Footnote 48:

104rangers—Texas Rangers, an elite law-enforcement organization which began in the 1830's, even before Texas became an independent republic. One of O. Henry's hosts during his stay on ranches in South Texas was Leigh Hall, a man from O. Henry's home town in North Carolina, who had been one of the most famous Texas Rangers. Hall had resigned from the Rangers and was managing a ranch when O. Henry was taken to Texas by Hall's parents. Hall probably served as a model for many of O. Henry's Ranger heroes.

105Footnote 49:

106like Tybalt . . . arithmetic—Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Sc. i. Mortally wounded by Tybalt, Mercutio says

107"No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve: ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this world.—A plague o' both your houses!—Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death! a braggart, a rogue, a villain, that fights by the book of arithmetic!"

108Footnote 50:

109Livy (History of Rome, Book II) tells the story of Horatius Cocles. Shortly after the Romans threw out Tarquin and the Etruscans (about 509 B.C.), Lars Porsenna, an Etruscan King, attacked the city. His army had to cross a narrow wooden bridge over the Tiber. Horatius and two companions blocked the way of the Etruscan army while their comrades dismantled the bridge behind them. Horatius' companions retreated to safety just before the bridge collapsed. When Horatius was certain the Etruscans could not cross the river, he prayed to the god of the Tiber, then jumped from the bridge into the river in full armor and swam to safety. For a more complete account, read the original in Project Gutenberg's library: https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10828.

110Footnote 51:

111Spurius Lartius was one of Horatius' two companions defending the Sublician Bridge. O. Henry exaggerates the time devoted to study of the classics in the curriculum for Ranger training.

112Footnote 52:

113Rio Bravo—Rio Grande. In Mexico the Rio Grande is often called the Rio Bravo or the Rio Bravo del Norte.

114Footnote 53:

115jacal—(Spanish) a small house or shack built by driving vertical stakes into the ground and filling in walls between the stakes with adobe

116Footnote 54:

117Diabla bonita—(Spanish) Pretty devil

118Footnote 55:

119cañoncito—(Spanish) little canyon

120Footnote 56:

121viva la reina! —(Spanish) long live the queen!

122Footnote 57:

123kalsomining—applying a whitewash to ceiling or walls

124Footnote 58:

125slings . . . fortune—Hamlet, Act III, Sc. i. Hamlet's soliloquy:

126"To be, or not to be,—that is the question:—

127Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

128The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

129Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

130And by opposing end them?

131Footnote 59:

132Military Plaza—The Plaza de Armas was established about 1722 as the drill grounds for the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar. After the Civil War it was used as an open market. Today it is the site of governmental buildings.

133Footnote 60:

134norther—a Texas "blue norther" is a cold front. Its arrival is heralded by a blue-black sky to the north, followed by rain and thunderstorms. The temperature can fall 20-40 degrees in a few hours.

135Footnote 61:

136potrero—(Spanish) pasture, grassland

137Footnote 62:

138El Amo!—(Spanish) The boss!

139Footnote 63:

140Cléo de Mérode (1873-1966) was a beautiful Parisian ballerina whose hair style caused a sensation when she danced in a production at age 13.

141Footnote 64:

142puerta—(Spanish) gate

143Footnote 65:

144This annotator can find no record of a Lone Wolf Crossing on the Frio, but there are clues that O. Henry had an actual place in mind for the setting of this story. We are told four paragraphs below that this point on the Frio is about 20 miles from the Nueces River. Later we are told that the Arroyo Hondo is near the Lone Wolf Crossing. Hondo Creek enters the Frio in Frio County 5 miles from Pearsall (about 75 miles southwest of San Antonio). At that location the Frio and the Nueces are about 20 miles apart.

145Footnote 66:

146mescal—a drug-containing liquor made by distilling fermented agave cactus

147Footnote 67:

148quien sabe—(Spanish) who knows?

149Footnote 68:

150gannet—a large sea bird

151Footnote 69:

152gitanas—(Spanish) gypsies

153Footnote 70:

154plait . . . stake-rope—O. Henry probably learned this skill or at least saw it practiced during the two years he spent on South Texas ranches.

155Footnote 71:

156chivo—(Spanish) goat

157Footnote 72:

158Quintana Creek is a tributary of the Nueces River in LaSalle County, where O. Henry spent two years on ranches.

159Footnote 73:

160tienda—(Spanish) store

161Footnote 74:

162lavendera—(Spanish) laundress, washerwoman

163Footnote 75:

164El Chivato—(Spanish) literally translated as The Sneak or The Informer but more likely meaning The Villain or The Evil One. This was one of the nicknames of Billy the Kid.

165Footnote 76:

166frijoles—(Spanish) beans, usually cooked a long time until very soft, with various seasonings added

167Footnote 77:

168Que mal muchacho!—(Spanish) What a bad boy!

169Footnote 78:

170alma—(Spanish) soul, spirit; in this sense a "soul-mate"

171Footnote 79:

172chica—(Spanish) girl, little one

173Footnote 80:

174caballo—(Spanish) horse

175Footnote 81:

176muy caballero—(Spanish) very much a gentleman

177Footnote 82:

178canciones de amor—(Spanish) love songs

179Footnote 83:

180pantalones and camisa—(Spanish) trousers and shirt

181Footnote 84:

182Pues—(Spanish) Well then

183Footnote 85:

184Valgame Dios!—(Spanish) God help me!

185Footnote 86:

186rift . . . loot—Tennyson, Idylls of the King: Merlin and Vivien:

187"It is the little rift within the lute

188That by and by will make the music mute,

189And ever widening slowly silence all. "

190Footnote 87:

191spavined crowbait—a lame, emaciated horse (from spavin, an inflammation of the tarsal or ankle joint of a horse, causing lameness, and an appearance that causes carrion birds to think a meal is in the offing)

192Footnote 88:

193apples of silver—Proverbs XXV: "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver."

194Footnote 89:

195apples of the Hesperides—the eleventh labor of Hercules was to retrieve the golden apples of Zeus, which were guarded by a hundred-headed dragon and by the Hesperides, daughters of Atlas

196Footnote 90:

197Percival De Lacey—possibly derived from Maurice De Bracy in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe

198Footnote 91:

199blind-bridle—a bridle with flap-like extensions partly covering the horse's eyes to prevent him from looking to the side or turning his head to the side

200Footnote 92:

201star wayno—probably a corruption of "esta bueno" ("that's good)

202Footnote 93:

203orchestrion—a large mechanical instrument capable of imitating various musical instruments or even an entire orchestra. It usually included components of an organ, piano, and percussion instruments. Those made by the Seeburg Company were also called nickelodeons because they played when a coin was inserted into a slot. The Seeburg Company later made "juke boxes."

204Footnote 94:

205O. Henry was not fond of national bank examiners. One (F. B. Gray) accused him of embezzling funds from the First National Bank of Austin, where he worked as a teller. The owners of the bank wanted to let the matter drop, possibly because some of them were guilty, but the examiner persisted. O. Henry (then William Sidney Porter) was convicted and spent three years in prison. To this day no one knows whether he was really guilty; he often claimed he took the blame for what others had done, but occasionally he made comments that might be construed as admissions of guilt.

206Prison was good for O. Henry in one respect: it gave him the opportunity to write. At least a dozen of his stories were published (under various pen names) before his release in 1901, including "Georgia's Ruling," which, to this annotator, is one of his three best stories.

207Footnote 95:

208"The Cowboy's Lament"—better known as "The Streets of Laredo," possibly written by Francis Henry Maynard:

209As I walked out in the streets of Laredo,

210As I walked out in Laredo one day,

211I spied a young cowboy wrapped up in white linen,

212Wrapped up in white linen and cold as the day. "

213Footnote 96:

214Colorado-claro—light brown (taken from the nomenclature of cigar wrappers)

215Footnote 97:

216Danaë—(Greek mythology) Danaë was the daughter of King Acrisius of Argos. Because of a prophecy that Danaë's child would kill him, Acrisius had Danaë, who was childless, shut up in a bronze tower to prevent her from ever becoming pregnant. Zeus became enamored of Danaë and appeared to her as a shower of gold through the ceiling, impregnating her. When she gave birth to a son, Perseus, Acrisius had Danaë and Perseus locked in a wooden chest and set adrift in the ocean. They reached land and safety. Perseus grew up to be one of the great heroes of Greek mythology; slaying the gorgon Medusa was one of his many adventures. At an athletic contest he threw the discus, which by accident flew into the crowd, striking and killing Acrisius, who happened to be a spectator at the games.

217Presumably O. Henry's metaphor refers to a shower of gold.

218Footnote 98:

219lèse-majesté—(French) an affront to royalty

220Footnote 99:

221Momus—(Greek mythology) the god of ridicule and mockery

222Footnote 100:

223In Shakespeare's As You Like It the erudite Jaques, one of the banished duke's attendants in the Forest of Arden, is cynical and sarcastic.

224Footnote 101:

225now in his sere and yellow leaf—Macbeth, Act V, Sc. iii:

226"I have liv'd long enough: my way of life

227Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf;

228And that which should accompany old age,

229As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,

230I must not look to have; . . . "

231Footnote 102:

232oriflamme—the red-orange flag of the Abbey St. Denis, used as a standard by early French kings

233Footnote 103:

234Rat-trap—O. Henry was married twice, once in his twenties (she died a few years after they were married) and again near the end of his life. Both marriages were somewhat stormy, and he often complained that marriage was too confining.

235Footnote 104:

236muchacha—(Spanish) young girl

237Footnote 105:

238seidlitz powder—a medication made by mixing powders of sodium potassium tartrate, sodium bicarbonate, and tartaric acid, used for its laxative effect or to treat hangovers

239Footnote 106:

240Annie and Willie's prayer—probably refers to a poem by Sophia Snow called "Annie and Willie's Prayer" which parodies "'Twas the Night before Christmas":

241"'Twas the night before Christmas, 'Goodnight,' had been said,

242And Annie and Willie had crept into bed; . . . "

243Footnote 107:

244Violet de Vere—name of a poem by Robert William Service (1874-1958) about a strip-teaser brought before a judge for disturbing the peace. Violet is released when she reveals that the judge owes her money.

245Footnote 108:

246Fredericksburg is in the Hill Country west of Austin and north of San Antonio. It is near but not "on" the Pedernales. Fredericksburg was settled largely by Germans (as was most of Central Texas), and as recently as the 1940's German was commonly spoken in its cafes. Even today (2004) the main street (named Der Hauptstrasse) boasts an array of German restaurants. Austin had a large German population when O. Henry lived there in the 1890's, and when he was publishing a weekly humorous newspaper called _The Rolling Stone_ he lost many subscribers and advertisers by satirizing the Germans. Note his treatment of a German accent later in this story.

247Footnote 109:

248scat—skat, a popular German card game

249Footnote 110:

250Donnerwetter! —(German) an exclamation, literally translated "thunder-weather!"

251Footnote 111:

252Ausgespielt—(German) finished

253Footnote 112:

254Spiel! Zwei bier! —(German) Play! Two beers! Hondo Bill's German vocabulary was limited.

255Footnote 113:

256Gott in Himmel!—(German) God in Heaven!

257Footnote 114:

258megrims—depression, unhappiness

259Footnote 115:

260steam piano—calliope. Joshua C. Stoddard (1814-1902) invented the calliope in 1855 and formed the American Steam Piano Company to manufacture it commercially.