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However, as Baender demonstrates, it has to be too much of a fluke to have such "sophisticated" (192) humor. That is, telling the story tongue-in-cheek as such as serious anecdote. Twain, himself, reflected on using this device in "How to tell a story," when he said that the "humorous story is told gravely." And that the teller should "conceal the fact that he even dimly suspects...there is something funny." Even before he wrote the story he said about Coon's delivery: "He was a dull person, and ignorant; he had no gift as a story-teller, and no invention...he was entirely serious, for he was dealing with what to him were austere facts...he saw no humor in his tale..." (Baender 194)
Twain gives hints about his feelings of this seriousness by stating in his first draft of the story: "...the spectacle of a man drifting serenely along through such a queer yarn without ever smiling was exquisitely absurd" (Baender 195).
What makes it so difficult to know the degree of Twain's humor is that he does tell the story so seriously, without any slapstick and exaggerated humor. This was a change from two earlier drafts of the story that appeared where he was much more blatant, such as one story ending with the yells of the crowd as the gambler's coat tails disappear behind the next hill.
Who could honestly say that Twain's writing is not purposeful when such delightful description, such as all the things that the gambler bets on: cat fights, chicken fights, birds on a fence, Parson Walker's...
Then Twain ironically ends with the "one-eyed cow" because the narrator leaves before Wheeler can do more than mention her.
It is not wonder that "Calaveras" made readers take interest in Twain. Besides its humor and interest, it is an insightful tale not only about Smiley, but the people who lived in the West during that time period. It clearly shows how Twain, in the years to come, would develop characters like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn who are as enjoyable today as they were a century ago. Biologists like Davis are fighting to keep the red frog from going extinct. Luckily, Twain's story will keep on living.
References
Baender, Paul. The "Jumping Frog" as a Comedian's First Virtue. Modern Philology
1963) 60.3: 192-200
Bruggers, James. Biologist hopes to save celebrated frog. Contra Costa Times.
Cuff, Roger Penn. Mark Twain's Use of California Folklore in His Jumping Frog
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