He came, and from that time made New York his home, becoming very fond of Little Old-Bagdad-on-the-Subway as he called it. He had found the work which he wished to do, and he turned out stories very rapidly. These were first published in newspapers and magazines, then collected in book form. The first of these volumes, _Cabbages and Kings_, had Central America as its setting. He said that while there he had knocked around chiefly with refugees and consuls. _The Four Million_ was a group of stories of New York; it contained some of his best tales, such as "The Gift of the Magi," and "An Unfinished Story." _The Trimmed Lamp_ and _The Voice of the City_ also dealt with New York. _The Gentle Grafter_ was a collection of stories about confidence men and "crooks." The material for these narratives he had gathered from his companions in his prison days. _Heart of the West_ reflects his days on a Texas ranch. Other books, more or less miscellaneous in their locality, are _Roads of Destiny_, _Options_, _Strictly Business_, _Whirligigs_; and _Sixes and Sevens_. He died in New York, June 5, 1910. After his death a volume containing some of his earliest work was published under the title _Rolling Stones_. His choice of subjects is thus indicated in the preface to _The Four Million_: "Not very long ago some one invented the assertion that there were only 'Four Hundred' people in New York who were really worth noticing. But a wiser man has arisen--the census taker--and his larger estimate of human interest has been preferred in marking out the field of these little stories of the 'Four Million.'" It was the common man,--the clerk, the bartender, the policeman, the waiter, the tramp, that O. Henry chose for his characters. He loved to talk to chance acquaintances on park benches or in cheap lodging houses, to see life from their point of view. His stories are often of the picaresque type; a name given to a kind of story in which the hero is an adventurer, sometimes a rogue. He sees the common humanity, and the redeeming traits even in these. His plots usually have a turn of surprise at the end; sometimes the very last sentence suddenly illuminates the whole story. His style is quick, nervous, often slangy; he is wonderfully dextrous in hitting just the right word or phrase. His descriptions are notable for telling much in a few words. He has almost established a definite type of short story writing, and in many of the stories now written one may clearly see the influence of O. Henry. IN POLITICS