The Pharmaceutical Symbolism of O. Henry
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The Pharmaceutical Symbolism of O. Henry by Robert A. Buerki* ITHIN the short span of a decade, a quiet, with a strong inventive turn, yet his career was prepossessingW Southerner called Will Porter be- marred by a marked tendency toward tippling came the most widely-read writer in the United and a genial fecklessness. According to one of States; from 1899 to 1910, he produced nearly Will’s schoolmates, Dr. Porter “fell a victim to 300 short stories that captured the fancy and touched the hearts of countless newspaper and magazine readers of his own time—stories that are still enjoyed by millions throughout the world. So popular did his method become that the modern short story was thereby standard- ized—and his pseudonym, “O. Henry,” has itself become a symbol to represent a recognizable species of short-story writing. Dr. Algernon Sidney Porter, The Early Years O. Henry’s father. O. Henry was born William Sidney Porter, in Greensboro, North Carolina, on 11 September 1862. Neither of his parents appear to have had a strong direct influence on young Will Porter; his mother died of tuberculosis when Will was three years old, and it is doubtful whether he the delusion that he had solved the problem had more than the dimmest memory of her.1 His of perpetual motion, and finally abandoned a father, Dr. Algernon Sidney Porter, was regard- splendid practice and spent nearly all his time ed as the leading physician of Guilford County working on his machines.”2 As he grew older, Dr. Porter gave less attention to his profession * Professor Emeritus, Division of Pharmacy Practice and Adminis- and increasingly devoted his time to impracti- tration, The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy, 500 West cal inventions, particularly after the death of his Twelfth Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1291. Adapted from “The 3 Pharmaceutical Symbolism of O. Henry,” a paper presented to the wife. It was well-known in Greensboro that Dr. American Institute of the History of Pharmacy Section on Contrib- Porter drank to excess; rumors circulated, and uted Papers, May 16, 1977, New York, New York. it was whispered that he was no longer capable Vol. 55 (2013) No. 1 www.aihp.org 3 The Porter and Tate pharmacy operated by Will’s uncle, W. Clark Porter. as a physician.4 The neglected medical practice The Drug Store Years, 1879-1882 began to dwindle, eventually declining to almost At the age of fifteen, Will’s formal school- nothing, and Dr. Porter ceased to be a support ing ended; his aunt was hard-pressed to support to his family. The burden of maintaining the the family, and Will was encouraged to take the household fell upon the shoulders of Will’s stern first job that was offered. Following in his fa- paternal grandmother, Mrs. Ruth Porter, and ther’s erratic footsteps, he went to work as an his maternal aunt, Miss Evelina Porter, an ex- apprentice pharmacist in the drugstore oper- ceptional woman whose influence upon Will was ated by his uncle, W. Clark Porter. Located on both deep and lasting.5 “Miss Lina,” as she was Elm Street across from the old Benbow Hotel, called, also kept a small private primary school the store was a social gathering place for the that adjoined the Porter residence as one means town’s leading characters and men of substance of providing the family income. Miss Lina was alike. Many of the local celebrities met daily in a forceful disciplinarian who served not only the drugstore, where they repeated the news, as Will’s surrogate mother but also as the best exchanged stories, talked politics, or re-fought teacher he ever had. Under her tutelage, Will the war from Sumter to Appomattox while they learned respect for the written word as well as played checkers or dominoes. These patrons and for the essentials of creative art. There is no loungers were a curious study in character types doubt that her enthusiasm and discipline were of the Old South, and Porter’s Drug Store a fine the forces that aroused Porter’s youthful passion place to study humanity in its unbuttoned state; for reading and his later desire to create.6 the male citizens of the town gathered around 4 www.aihp.org Pharmacy in History the potbellied stove, smoked cigars, and gener- ing havoc with his health: Will suffered from a ally let their hair down. Behind the store there chronic, hacking cough, which caused the older were stakes for horseshoe pitching and a pistol townsfolk to nod to each other with melancholy range on which Will, in his spare time, devel- significance; young Will, in their opinion, wasn’t oped into a marksman.7 long for this world.13 Dr. Hall, too, worried over During the next four years, Will quickly Will’s health, and in March, 1882, when he and but unobtrusively learned the tools of the trade his wife invited Will to accompany them as their and mastered thoroughly the techniques and guest on a visit to their four sons in the dry and secrets of the pharmacopoeia; his qualifications salubrious climate of Texas, Will took the offer were officially established in the records of the and left Greensboro, happy to escape from the North Carolina Pharmaceutical Association, hometown to which he never returned.14 Will ap- where his name appears on the first list of drug- plied to Morley Brothers, a large wholesale and gists registered on 30 August 1881, the date on retail drug firm, located on East Pecan Street which all practicing pharmacists were required in Austin. He was told that as soon as he could by state law to have a license.8 Between filling prove his qualifications, the place would be his. prescriptions, replenishing the decanter from Will’s letter to Greensboro, asking for creden- the whiskey barrel in the basement, and selling tials, by two letters of recommendation: One let- cigars and sundries, Will was storing up count- ter, signed by four Greensboro physicians, com- less impressions of his patrons’ personal oddi- mended Will “both as a druggist and a citizen.” ties, mannerisms, gestures, and modes of speech The other letter, signed by J. N. Nelson, clerk of that were later to be reflected in his stories. In courts of Guilford County and endorsed by the his spare time, Will amused himself by draw- registrar of deeds and the postmaster, declared ing cartoons of the townsfolk; the cartoons were the bearer a “young man of good character, an marked by a certain amount of wit and percep- A No. 1 druggist and a very popular young man tion, a healthy dose of irreverence, and a dash or among his many friends.” Will went to work two of malice.9 with an enthusiasm that quickly waned; after the Will’s drugstore years have doubtless freedom of the range, the long and regular hours been over-idealized in the recollections of ag- of the drugstore proved confining and irksome. ing cronies, as recent biographers agree;10 yet Within two months he gave up the job with the Will appears to have enjoyed himself: one con- explanation that drawing soda had proved too temporary recalled him “holding court” in the much for him.15 drugstore among men two or three times older due to his quick wit and unquenchable sense of mischief; Will also became good friends with The Shadowed Years, 1898-1901 Dr. James K. Hall, who had gradually assumed Will Porter’s next practice of pharmacy Dr. Porter’s dwindling practice. Several of Will’s was in the Ohio Penitentiary as Federal Pris- pranks were regarded highly enough to become oner No. 30664; it came about in this way: In part of the Greensboro legend: Once he poured January, 1891, Will obtained a job as a teller in a measure of syrup into a urine specimen left the First National Bank of Austin, an astonish- for testing by Dr. Hall; it was the doctor’s own ing bank, run with astonishing laxity. Overdrafts urine. When Dr. Hall returned later to conduct on accounts were allowed continually, and an the test, he diagnosed himself as a diabetic on officer of the bank might not even bother to the verge of collapse. The physician was about write a check, merely saying to a teller that he to compose his will when someone—not Will— was drawing out some money.16 In November, worked up the courage to tell him about the 1894, when irregularities were found in Will’s practical joke.11 At the same time, Will appar- accounts, he lost his job with the bank and went ently found the daily grind of the drugstore an to Houston, where he worked for a time on the agonizing drudgery; the drugstore appeared to Houston Post. In 1896, when federal authorities offer nothing but stagnation to Will, and there arrested him and ordered him to stand trial for seemed to be no prospect of finding a better embezzlement, Will fled to Honduras while free position.12 Moreover, the long hours were play- on bail. The following January, the illness of his Vol. 55 (2013) No. 1 www.aihp.org 5 wife called him back to Austin, where he faced Dr. John M. Thomas, chief physician at federal prosecution. Will’s trial opened in Feb- the prison, described Porter as an “unusually ruary, 1898; to the four original indictments for competent” pharmacist: “In fact, he could do embezzlement, two more were added as a result anything in the drug line.”21 The night physician of his flight to avoid prosecution.