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Elective English—III

Notes home of the Harrells, who were friends of Richard’s. Porter took a number of different jobs over
the next several years, first as pharmacist then as a draftsman, bank teller and journalist. He also
began writing as a sideline.
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 the 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 and began courting Athol Estes, then seventeen years old
and from a wealthy family. Her mother objected to the match because Athol was ill, suffering
from tuberculosis. On July 1, 1887, Porter eloped with Athol to the home of Reverend R. K.
Smoot, where they were married.
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.
In the GLO building, he began developing characters and plots for such stories as “Georgia’s
Ruling” (1900), and “Buried Treasure” (1908). The castle-like building he worked in was even
woven into some of his tales such as “Bexar Scrip No. 2692” (1894).

His job at the GLO was a political appointment by Hall. Hall ran for governor in the election of
1890 but lost. Porter resigned in early 1891 when the new governor, Jim Hogg, was sworn in.
In 1894, he was accused by the bank of embezzlement 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 at 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 writing and drawings had caught the attention of the editor at the Houston Post.
While he was in Houston, federal auditors audited the First National Bank of Austin and they
found the embezzlement shortages that had led to his firing. A federal indictment followed and
he was arrested on charges of embezzlement.

12.1.3 Flight and Return

Porter’s father-in-law posted bail to keep him out of jail. He was due to stand trial on July 7, 1896,
but the day before, as he was changing trains to get to the courthouse, an impulse hit him. 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, a phrase subsequently used widely to describe a small, unstable tropical nation in
Latin America with a narrowly focused, agrarian economy. 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 on July 25, 1897, from tuberculosis (then known as consumption). Porter,
having little to say in his own defence, was found guilty of embezzlement in February 1898,
sentenced to five years in prison, and imprisoned on March 25, 1898 at the Ohio Penitentiary in
Columbus, Ohio. While in prison, Porter, as a licensed pharmacist, worked in the prison hospital

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