The Caliph And The Cad

Written by O. Henry

Narrated by Maria Tolkacheva

Everybody knows a proverb: “Clothes don’t make the man”. This famous statement is proved in the book “Caliph and Cad”. Corny Brannigan was an ordinary truck driver, but he had an unusual entertainment.

When working day was over, he changed his rags to evening raiment and went to the lobbies of the best hotels. He saw elegant women and gallant gentlemen and tried to copy them. Sometimes he managed conversations with guests, exchanged cards and then carefully kept them for his own use later.

Mr. Brannigan acquired manners, but still he was just a truck driver. He was too poor to even order a carriage and he was very upset about it. But one accident changed his life. Once he stopped on the street to admire the sheen of his shoes. Well-dressed rich couple went out of pretentious café nearby and he heard their conversation. She was anxious about his attitude towards her, the man answered her in a quite rude way. Corny Brannigan decided to interrupt: “No gentleman would talk to a lady like that.” Abuse developed into a fight, in which Mr. Brannigan appeared to be a winner.

Nevertheless, after all he invited his opponent to have a drink as he understood one important thing and was grateful for it. This small incident made him believe: expensive clothes and luxury lifestyle don’t make you a gentleman. You are a gentleman or you are not, that’s all.

A SmartTouch Media production.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SmartTouch Media
• Release date: Jan 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9781467605472

O. Henry

O. Henry (1862-1910) was an American short story writer. Born and raised in North Carolina, O. Henry—whose real name was William Sydney Porter—moved to Texas in 1882 in search of work. He met and married Athol Estes in Austin, where he became well known as a musician and socialite. In 1888, Athol gave birth to a son who died soon after, and in 1889 a daughter named Margaret was born. Porter began working as a teller and bookkeeper at the First National Bank of Austin in 1890 and was fired four years later and accused of embezzlement. Afterward, he began publishing a satirical weekly called The Rolling Stone, but in 1895 he was arrested in Houston following an audit of his former employer. While waiting to stand trial, Henry fled to Honduras, where he lived for six months before returning to Texas to surrender himself upon hearing of Athol’s declining health. She died in July of 1897 from tuberculosis, and Porter served three years at the Ohio Penitentiary before moving to Pittsburgh to care for his daughter. While in prison, he began publishing stories under the pseudonym “O. Henry,” finding some success and launching a career that would blossom upon his release with such short stories as “The Gift of the Magi” (1905) and “The Ransom of Red Chief” (1907). He is recognized as one of America’s leading writers of short fiction, and the annual O. Henry Award—which has been won by such writers as William Faulkner, John Updike, and Eudora Welty—remains one of America’s most prestigious literary prizes.