"Given that both writers' referenced him,
I've assumed that Smiley was a real person"? Interesting. My assumption
would be that Harte was having a little fun at MT's expense.

On Dec 11, 2016 2:13 PM, "Darryl Brock" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Well, you may have a point.  Given that both writers' referenced him,
> I've assumed that Smiley was a real person, but what evidence I find now
> does not necessarily support my assumption.  Maybe somebody can settle
> the question.
>
> This is from Mark Rasmussen's wonderful /Mark Twain A-Z:
>
> /*Smiley, Jim*/. /Character in the JUMPING FROG STORY.  A former
> resident of Angel's Camp, Smiley was notorious for being willing to take
> either side of any bet, and he was uncommonly lucky.  He once even
> offered odds to the Parson Walker that the parson's wife would not
> recover from her illness.  Smiley owned many animals on which he
> wagered, including a broken-down horse known as the 'fifteen minute
> nag,' a fighting dog named Andrew Jackson, chicken cocks and tomcats.
> His prize possession, however, w2as his jumping frog, Dan'l Webster,
> which he spent three months teaching to jump.  He often took the frog
> with him to town on the chance of getting up a getting up a bet . . . .
> When Mark Twain first heard the jumping frog story from Ben Coons, the
> Smiley character was called Coleman.
>
> So, is Smiley /only/ a character?  Or was he all of these things beyond
> his character role?
> /
> /
> On 12/10/16 7:57 PM, Clay Shannon wrote:
> > Was Jim Smiley a real person? The cat who told the "Jumping Frog" story
> was=
> >   named Ben Coon. I think he was "Simon Wheeler" but don't recall Jim
> Smiley=
> >   being the name of an actual historical personage.=C2=A0- B. Clay
> Shannon
> >
> >        From: Peter Salwen <[log in to unmask]>
> >   To: [log in to unmask]
> >   Sent: Saturday, December 10, 2016 12:12 PM
> >   Subject: Re: Jim Smiley
> >    =20
> > Nice find. Bears some meditation. But probably -- at that relatively
> early
> > stage -- just some more-or-less gentle ribbing?
> >
> > *_________________________________*
> >
> > *Peter Salwen /* salwen.com
> > *114 W 86, NYC 10024 | 917-620-5371*
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Dec 10, 2016 at 2:53 PM, Darryl Brock <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> >> Re-reading Bret Harte's "How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar" (1872),
> >> I was interested to find this passage referencing the narrator of MT's
> >> jumping frog tale (1867):
> >>
> >> It was a figure familiar enough to the company, and known in Simpson's
> >> Bar as the "Old Man." A man of perhaps fifty years; grizzled and scant
> >> of hair, but still fresh and youthful of complexion. A face full of
> >> ready, but not very powerful, sympathy, with a chameleon-like aptitude
> >> for taking on the shade and color of contiguous moods and feelings. He
> >> had evidently just left some hilarious companions and did not at first
> >> notice the gravity of the group, but clapped the shoulder of the nearest
> >> man jocularly, and threw himself into a vacant chair.
> >> "Jest heard the best thing out, boys! Ye know Smiley, over yar -- Jim
> >> Smiley -- funniest man in the Bar? Well, Jim was jest telling the
> >> richest yarn about -- "
> >> "Smiley's a ---- fool," interrupted a gloomy voice.
> >> "A particular ---- skunk," added another in sepulchral accents.
> >> A silence followed these positive statements. The Old Man glanced
> >> quickly around the group. Then his face slowly changed. "That's so," he
> >> said reflectively, after a pause, "certingly a sort of a skunk and
> >> suthin' of a fool. In course." He was silent for a moment as in painful
> >> contemplation of the unsavoriness and folly of the unpopular Smiley.
> >>
> >>
> >> I wonder if this might have annoyed Twain.=C2=A0 Later in the 70s, his
> >> relationship with Harte deteriorated.=C2=A0 Could this have been an
> early
> >> harbinger?=C2=A0 Harte had spent time in Angel's Camp and presumably met
> >> Smiley, or at least knew of him, but it was Twain who'd made him a
> >> popular figure.=C2=A0 The two writers were keenly aware of their
> respecti=
> > ve
> >> sales; each paid close attention to the other.=C2=A0 Might MT have
> viewed
> >> Harte as trying to ride his coat-tails?
> >>
> >
> >    =20
> >
>