Page 8 - DENG105_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_II

Unit 1: The Last Leaf by O. Henry

fifteen. In 1879, he started working in his uncle’s drug store and in 1881, at the age of nineteen, Notes
he was licensed as a pharmacist. At the drug store, he also showed off his natural artistic
talents by sketching the townsfolk.
Porter led an active social life in Austin, including membership in singing and drama groups.
He was a good singer and musician. He played both guitar and mandolin. He became a
member of the “Hill City Quartet,” a group of young men who sang at gatherings and serenaded
young women of the town. Porter met Athol Estes, then seventeen years old and from a
wealthy family and began courting with her. Her mother objected to the match because Athol
was ill, suffering from tuberculosis. On July 1, 1887, Porter eloped with Athol to the house of
Reverend R. K. Smoot, where they were married.

Porter family in early 1890s—Athol, daughter Margaret and William.
The couple continued to participate in musical and theatre groups, and Athol encouraged her
husband to pursue his writing. Athol gave birth to a son in 1888, who died hours after birth,
and then a daughter, Margaret Worth Porter, in September 1889. Porter’s friend Richard Hall
became Texas Land Commissioner and offered Porter a job. Porter started as a draftsman at
the Texas General Land Office (GLO) in 1887 at a salary of $100 a month, drawing maps from
surveys and field notes. The salary was enough to support his family, but he continued his
contributions to magazines and newspapers.
The same year, Porter began working at the First National Bank of Austin as a teller and book-
keeper at the same salary was paid made at the GLO. The bank was operated informally and
Porter was apparently careless in keeping his books and may have embezzled funds. In 1894,
he was accused of embezzlement by the bank and lost his job but was not indicted.
He then worked full time on his humorous weekly called The Rolling Stone, which he started
while working in the bank. The Rolling Stone featured satire on life, people and politics and
included Porter’s short stories and sketches. Although eventually reaching a top circulation of
1500, The Rolling Stone failed in April 1895 since the paper never provided an adequate
income. However, his writings and drawings had caught the attention of the editor at the
Houston Post.
Porter’s father-in-law posted bail to keep Porter out of jail, but the day before Porter was due
to stand trial on July 7, 1896, he fled, first to New Orleans and later to Honduras. While holed
up in a Trujillo hotel for several months, he wrote Cabbages and Kings, in which he coined
the term “banana republic” to describe the country, subsequently used to describe almost any
small, unstable tropical nation in Latin America. Porter had sent Athol and Margaret back to
Austin to live with Athol’s parents. Unfortunately, Athol became too ill to meet Porter in
Honduras as Porter had planned. When he learned that his wife was dying, Porter returned
to Austin in February 1897 and surrendered to the court, pending an appeal. Once again,
Porter’s father-in-law posted bail so Porter could stay with Athol and Margaret.
Athol Estes Porter died of tuberculosis (then known as consumption) on July 25, 1897. Porter,
having little to say in his own defence, was found guilty of embezzlement in February 1898,
and was sentenced to five years in prison, and imprisoned on March 25, 1898, as federal
prisoner 30664 at the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio. While in prison, Porter, as a
licensed pharmacist, worked in the prison hospital as the night druggist. Porter was given his
own room in the hospital wing, and there is no record that he actually spent time in the cell
block of the prison. He had fourteen stories published under various pseudonyms while he
was in prison, but was becoming best known as “O. Henry”, a pseudonym that first appeared
over the story “Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking” in the December 1899 issue of McClure’s
Magazine. A friend of his in New Orleans would forward his stories to publishers, so they had
no idea the writer was imprisoned. Porter was released on July 24, 1901, for good behaviour

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