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Piney Woods
A member of Poker Flat’s powerful secret committee that decides who gets to remain at the settlement and who is banished to Sandy Bar, the next town over. Wheeler, like many others on the committee, lost money to Oakhurst and is outraged about it. He thinks that Oakhurst should be hanged, though this is more of a way for Wheeler to get his precious money back than it is a moral punishment for Oakhurst—after all, many men on the committee gamble, Wheeler included, and they aren’t hanged or exiled for it. Jim Wheeler’s name is possibly a nod to main characters Jim Smiley and Simon Wheeler in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” a gambling-themed story by Harte’s friend and fellow writer, Mark Twain.
Jim Wheeler Quotes in The Outcasts of Poker Flat
The The Outcasts of Poker Flat quotes below are all either spoken by Jim Wheeler or refer to Jim Wheeler. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Quotes
Mr. Oakhurst was right in supposing that he was included in this category. A few of the committee had urged hanging him as a possible example, and a sure method of reimbursing themselves from his pockets of the sums he had won from them. “It’s agin justice,” said Jim Wheeler, “to let this yer young man from Roaring Camp—an entire stranger—carry away our money.” But a crude sentiment of equity residing in the breasts of those who had been fortunate enough to win from Mr. Oakhurst overruled this narrower local prejudice.
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Jim Wheeler Character Timeline in The Outcasts of Poker Flat
The timeline below shows where the character Jim Wheeler appears in The Outcasts of Poker Flat. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Outcasts of Poker Flat
...them, and they wish to take their money back from him. One such committee member, Jim Wheeler , is irate that Oakhurst waltzed into Poker Flat and “carr[ied] away [their] money,” since...
(full context)
