American Realism of the late nineteenth century was often satirical, and Twain's subject in this story is the assumptions that people make about one another based on where they live or were born or their social class. Twain often sought, through his work, to debunk stereotypes and attack bigotry. Thus Simon Wheeler, a rustic Western frontier type some might assume to be simple and slow, is able to outwit the sophisticated Easterner who narrates the story. American Realists often used vernacular speech in their true-to-life portrayals of ordinary people going about the business of everyday life, and that is certainly true of Simon Wheeler, who begins to relate the tale of Jim Smiley:
"There was a feller here once... in the winter of '49 or may be it was the spring of '50 I don't recollect exactly, somehow, though what makes me think it was one or the other is because I remember the big flume wasn't finished when he first came to the camp; but any way, he was the curiosest man about always betting on any thing that turned up you ever see, if he could get any body to bet on the other side; and if he couldn't, he'd change sides."
While Twain does use hyperbole to build humor, the outer frame of the story is plausible: an outsider visits a mining camp and encounters a raconteur who offers some local color and a practical joke.
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