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[H]e 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.

This quote comes at the beginning of Simon Wheeler’s reminiscences and introduces the hero Jim Smiley. Wheeler’s description here succinctly sums up several of Smiley’s defining characteristics. He is an eccentric man and degenerate gambler of unsurpassed tenacity and determination. The quote also sets the tone for a tall tale in which Jim Smiley’s exploits are both extreme and hilarious.

If he even seen a straddle-bug start to go anywheres, he would bet you how long it would take him to get wherever he was going to, and if you took him up, he would foller that straddle-bug to Mexico but what he would find out where he was bound for and how long he was on the road.

This quote continues Simon Wheeler’s exposition regarding Jim Smiley. It is another humorous anecdote that further establishes the hilarious lengths Smiley would go in order to place and win a bet. The anecdote is also implausible in the extreme. This kind of implausibility hints that Smiley’s exploits are not just stories, but more akin to legend and cast Smiley as a hero.

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