The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain This short story brought Mark Twain national fame. Why do you think it was so popular with the American people? Use evidence from the story. What do you think Twain wanted people to learn from this satirical comedy? Only some parts of the passage are attached.
The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain This short story brought Mark Twain national fame. Why do you think it was so popular with the American people? Use evidence from the story. What do you think Twain wanted people to learn from this satirical comedy? Only some parts of the passage are attached.
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The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain
This short story brought Mark Twain national fame. Why do you think it was so popular with the American people? Use evidence from the story.
What do you think Twain wanted people to learn from this satirical comedy?
Only some parts of the passage are attached.
![[5] Thish-yer Smiley had a mare, the boys called her the fifteen-minute nag. but that was only in
fun, you know, because, of course, she was faster than that and he used to win money on that
horse, for all she was so slow and always had the asthma, or the distemper, or the
consumption, 10 or something of that kind. They used to give her two or three hundred yards
start, and then pass her under way, but always at the fag-end of the race she'd get excited and
desperate-like, and come cavorting and straddling up, and scattering her legs around limber,
sometimes in the air, and sometimes out to one side amongst the fences, and kicking up m-o-r-
e dust, and raising m-o-r-e racket with her coughing and sneezing and blowing her nose and
always fetch up at the stand just about a neck ahead, as near as you could cipher it down.
And he had a little small bull pup, that to look at him you'd think he wan's worth a cent, but to
set around and look ornery, and lay for a chance to steal something. But as soon as money was
up on him, he was a different dog; his underjaw'd begin to stick out like the fo'castle of a
steamboat, and his teeth would uncover, and shine savage like the furnaces. And a dog might
tackle him, and bully-rag him, and bite him, and throw him over his shoulder two or three
times, and Andrew Jackson which was the name of the pup Andrew Jackson would never let on
but what he was satisfied, and hadn't expected nothing else and the bets being doubled and
doubled on the other side all the time, till the money was all up; and then all of a sudden he
would grab that other dog jest by the j'int of his hind leg and freeze on it not chew, you
understand, but only jest grip and hang on till they thronged up the sponge, if it was a year.
Smiley always come out winner on that pup, till he harnessed a dog once that didn't have no
hind legs, because they'd been sawed off by a circular saw, and when the thing had gone along
far enough, and the money was all up, and he come to make a snatch for his pet bolt, he saw in
a minute how he'd been imposed on, and how the other dog had him in the door, so to speak,
and he 'peered sur-prised, and then he looked sorter discouraged-like, and didn't try no more
to win the fight, and so he got shucked out bad. He give Smiley a look, as much as to say his
heart was broke, and it was his fault, for putting up a dog that hadn't no hind legs for him to
take bolt of, which was his main dependence in a fight, and then he limped off a piece and laid
down and died. It was a good pup, was that Andrew Jackson, and would have made a name for
hisself if he'd lived, for the stuff was in him, and he had genius I know it, because he hadn't had
no opportunities to speak of, and it don't stand to reason that a dog could make such a fight as
he could under them circumstances, if he hadn't no talent. It always makes me feel sorry when I
think of that last fight of his'n, and the way it turned out.
11
Well, thish-yer Smiley had rat-tarners, and chicken cocks, and tom-cats, and all of them kind
of things, till you couldn't rest, and you couldn't fetch nothing for him to bet on but he'd match
you. He ketched a frog one day, and took him home, and said he cal"klated to edercate him; and
so he never done nothing for three months but set in his back yard and learn that frog to jump.](/v2/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcontent.bartleby.com%2Fqna-images%2Fquestion%2Fe19b267a-b9e2-4fa8-8617-8860e82f187c%2F5efafb79-8110-417d-a43b-02f9ef851691%2Fvrmhln3_processed.jpeg&w=3840&q=75)
Transcribed Image Text:[5] Thish-yer Smiley had a mare, the boys called her the fifteen-minute nag. but that was only in
fun, you know, because, of course, she was faster than that and he used to win money on that
horse, for all she was so slow and always had the asthma, or the distemper, or the
consumption, 10 or something of that kind. They used to give her two or three hundred yards
start, and then pass her under way, but always at the fag-end of the race she'd get excited and
desperate-like, and come cavorting and straddling up, and scattering her legs around limber,
sometimes in the air, and sometimes out to one side amongst the fences, and kicking up m-o-r-
e dust, and raising m-o-r-e racket with her coughing and sneezing and blowing her nose and
always fetch up at the stand just about a neck ahead, as near as you could cipher it down.
And he had a little small bull pup, that to look at him you'd think he wan's worth a cent, but to
set around and look ornery, and lay for a chance to steal something. But as soon as money was
up on him, he was a different dog; his underjaw'd begin to stick out like the fo'castle of a
steamboat, and his teeth would uncover, and shine savage like the furnaces. And a dog might
tackle him, and bully-rag him, and bite him, and throw him over his shoulder two or three
times, and Andrew Jackson which was the name of the pup Andrew Jackson would never let on
but what he was satisfied, and hadn't expected nothing else and the bets being doubled and
doubled on the other side all the time, till the money was all up; and then all of a sudden he
would grab that other dog jest by the j'int of his hind leg and freeze on it not chew, you
understand, but only jest grip and hang on till they thronged up the sponge, if it was a year.
Smiley always come out winner on that pup, till he harnessed a dog once that didn't have no
hind legs, because they'd been sawed off by a circular saw, and when the thing had gone along
far enough, and the money was all up, and he come to make a snatch for his pet bolt, he saw in
a minute how he'd been imposed on, and how the other dog had him in the door, so to speak,
and he 'peered sur-prised, and then he looked sorter discouraged-like, and didn't try no more
to win the fight, and so he got shucked out bad. He give Smiley a look, as much as to say his
heart was broke, and it was his fault, for putting up a dog that hadn't no hind legs for him to
take bolt of, which was his main dependence in a fight, and then he limped off a piece and laid
down and died. It was a good pup, was that Andrew Jackson, and would have made a name for
hisself if he'd lived, for the stuff was in him, and he had genius I know it, because he hadn't had
no opportunities to speak of, and it don't stand to reason that a dog could make such a fight as
he could under them circumstances, if he hadn't no talent. It always makes me feel sorry when I
think of that last fight of his'n, and the way it turned out.
11
Well, thish-yer Smiley had rat-tarners, and chicken cocks, and tom-cats, and all of them kind
of things, till you couldn't rest, and you couldn't fetch nothing for him to bet on but he'd match
you. He ketched a frog one day, and took him home, and said he cal"klated to edercate him; and
so he never done nothing for three months but set in his back yard and learn that frog to jump.
Transcribed Image Text:Simon Wheeler backed me into a corner and blockaded me there with his chair, and then sat
me down and reeled off the monotonous narrative which follows this paragraph. He never
smiled, he never frowned, he never changed his voice from the gentle-flowing key to which he
tuned the initial sentence, he never betrayed the slightest suspicion of enthusiasm; but all
through the interminable narrative there ran a vein of impressive earnestness and sincerity,
which showed me plainly that, so far from his imagining that there was anything ridiculous or
funny about his story, he regarded it as a really important matter, and admired its two heroes
as men of transcendent genius in finesse. To me, the spectacle of a man drifting serenely along
through such a queer yarn without ever smiling, was exquisitely absurd. As I said before, I
asked him to tell me what he knew of Rev. Leonidas W. Smiley, and he replied as follows. I let
him go on in his own way, and never interrupted him once:
There was a feller here once by the name of Jim Smiley, in the winter of '49 or may be it was the
spring of '50 I don't recollect exactly, somehow, though what makes me think it was one or the
other is because I remember the big flume wasn't finished when he first came to the camp; but
any way, he was the curiosest man about always betting on any thing that turned up you ever
see, if he could get any body to bet on the other side; and if he couldn't, he'd change sides. Any
way that suited the other man would suit him any way just so's he got a bet, he was satisfied.
But still he was lucky, uncommon lucky; he most always come out winner. He was always ready
and laying for a chance; there couldn't be no solittry thing mentioned but that feller'd offer to
bet on it, and take any side you please, as I was just telling you. If there was a horse-race, you'd
find him flush, or you'd find him busted at the end of it; if there was a dog-fight, he'd bet on it; if
there was a cat-fight, he'd bet on it; if there was a chicken-fight, he'd bet on it; why, if there was
two birds setting on a fence, he would bet you which one would fly first; or if there was a camp-
meeting, he would be there reg'lar, to bet on Parson Walker, which he judged to be the best
exhorter about here, and so he was, too, and a good man. If he even seen a straddle-bug start
to go anywheres, he would bet you how long it would take him to get wherever he was going to,
and if you took him up, he would foller that straddle-bug to Mexico but what he would find out
where he was bound for and how long he was on the road. Lots of the boys here has seen that
Smiley, and can tell you about him. Why, it never made no difference to him he would bet on
any thing the dangdest feller. Parson Walker's wife laid very sick once, for a good while, and it
seemed as if they warn's going to save her; but one morning he come in, and Smiley asked how
she was, and he said she was considerable better thank the Lord for his inftnit mercy and
coming on so smart that, with the blessing of Providence, she'd get well yet; and Smiley, before
he thought, says, "Well, I'll risk two-and-a-half that she don't, any way."
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