Reading Notes W4: The Outcasts of Poker Flat, Part B

The outcasts of Poker Flat is a story that details the happenings of of small Californian community appropriately named Poker Flat. In this town the feelings of hardship and ruin are present. Townspeople feel as though the town is sinking since crimes have gone up and the towns resources are being depleted. To combat this, the city decides to form a secret commitee of townsfolk that will decide who in the town can live,  who will be killed, and who will be exiled. In this story, four people are exiled, these people being Mother Shipton, Uncle Billy, John Oakhurst, and Dutchess, all of which are notorious among their town. John Oakhurst is the quasi-leader of the band of outcasts, and they set out on a journey to a nearby camp. Oakhurst was a poker player, he won a lot of money playing poker and a lot of that money came straight out of the pockets of the secret committee. It starts to begin to feel like this commitee is abusing their power to further their own lives instead of the greater good of the town. After a long travel, Oakhurst and his band stop midway to the camp to rest.

It is at this point in the story that the characters take a turn for the worst. Oakhurst Meets a couple that are on the run from their old home and plan to get married in Poker Flat. The girl's name is Piney Woods, and the man is named Tom Simons, a poker player who happens to know Oakhurst. Oakhurst has an inner revelation and decides to give Tom all the money that he had lost when playing poker against Oakhurst if he promises to never play poker again. Delighted, Tom and Piney return to the camp with John Oakhurst, unaware that the group has been exiled from Poker flats. Oakhurst leads the group to an abandoned cabin where they decide to rest for the night and continue their journey in the morning. When Morning comes, all hell has broken lose. Oakhurst wakes up to find that it has begun to snow, and that Uncle Billy has left the cabin with all the horses. The group has no choice but to wait out the snow storm with little food and water left to run off of. Mother Shipton ends up dying of starvation first, as she goes insane and tries to save food for "the child" which is Piney, who is not a child but is viewed by Mother Shipton because of her malnourished body. Oakhurst realizes that they can not ride out this snowstorm and that Tom must go out and get help. Tom eventually finds help back at Poker Flat and the "Law of Poker Flat get ready to go save out and save them. When The Law gets to the cabin, Duchess and Piney freeze to death when the fire goes out in the cabin. Oakhurst, who accompanied Tom "as far as the canyon" commits suicide upon returning to the cabin having seen the corpses of Dutchess and Piney.