O. HENRY ENCORE STORIES AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY O. HENRY * _Usually Under the Name_ The Post Man * _Discovered and Edited by_ Mary Sunlocks Harrell _New York 1939_ Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc. Printed at the _Country Life Press_, Garden City, N.Y., U.S.A. CL Copyright, 1939 By Mary Sunlocks Harrell All Rights Reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface Introduction Part One: Stories A Night Errant In Mezzotint The Dissipated Jeweler How Willie Saved Father The Mirage on the Frio A Tragedy Sufficient Provocation The Bruised Reed Paderewski's Hair A Mystery of Many Centuries A Strange Case Simmon's Saturday Night An Unknown Romance Jack the Giant Killer The Pint Flask An Odd Character A Houston Romance The Legend of San Jacinto Binkley's Practical School of Journalism A New Microbe Vereton Villa Whiskey Did It Nothing New Under the Sun Led Astray A Story for Men How She Got in the Swim The Barber Talks Barbershop Adventure Part Two: Sketches Did You See the Circus? Thanksgiving Remarks When the Train Comes In Christmas Eve New Year's Eve and How It Came to Houston Watchman, What of the Night? Newspaper Poets Her Choice Part Three: Newspaper Poetry Topical Verse Cape Jessamines The Cricket My Broncho The Modern Venus Celestial Sounds The Snow "Little Things, but Ain't They Whizzers?" Last Fall of the Alamo Preface During the years 1934 and 1935 I made a close study of O. Henry's Texas contacts. The newspapers of Texas during the time of O. Henry's residence in the state furnished one of the sources which I investigated; and it was during my research in the files of the _Houston Post_, 1895-1896, that I discovered the stories and illustrations which make up this book. In reprinting this material, I have followed the original version meticulously except for the correction of obvious typographical errors and certain slight aberrations in punctuation that seemed to demand revision for the sake of consistency or to comply with modern standards of usage. Even so, I have allowed many typographical and even grammatical conventions to remain as they were printed forty years ago. The companion volume to O. Henry Encore, namely, O. Henry in Texas, embodies the results of my investigation into the Texas period of O. Henry's life, and contains a much more complete account of his work on the _Houston Post_ than I have been able to give in the short introduction to the present volume. Permission for reprinting the material here was arranged for me by former Governor W. P. Hobby of Texas, now President of the Houston Post, and Mr. A. E. Clarkson, Business Manager of the Post. I am happy to express my gratitude to them. My thanks are due also to Dr. Leonidas Warren Payne, Jr., of The University of Texas, Dr. Vernon Loggins, of Columbia University, and the late Dr. Dorothy Scarborough, of Columbia University, for helping in the identification of the material. Mary Sunlocks Harrell Introduction