PEACE: Smart's relatives

StoneOx17 · 19 Oct 2002, 17:37 · from urth-v0210.mbox · original

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From: StoneOx17 at aol.com
Subject: Re:   (urth) PEACE: Smart's relatives
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2002 13:37:04 EDT
Message-ID: <urth-v0210-1882 at digest.urth.net>
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Roy C. Lackey writes:

> More than once in the course of the Tilly tale, Smart remarks upon how =20
> handsomely Tilly had paid him. He's a liar. He knew Tilly less than a wee=
k,
> and I doubt that he was paid by the day, because he mentions a=20
> "salary" (151). I doubt that Smart ever collected a nickel from him.

I agree he's a liar, but I think that's not all he's lying about.  I think=20
Smart lived with Tilly for at least six months.  Correct me if I'm wrong=20
about either Gulf coast weather or seasonal fruit, but in the Tilly tale,=20
oranges are locally in season (and thus it's winter) and it's 90 degrees=20
after midnight (and thus it's summer).  Wolfe certainly knows about=20
orange season (recall oranges in Den's Christmas stocking) and also=20
about Gulf coast weather (Wolfe went to college in Texas).  I don't=20
think this is an oversight ... I think it's a deliberate clue, as was=20
Hannah's supposed trip to Boston in the diary written by Gold.  Tilly=20
died at least six months after Smart arrived, this makes Smart the=20
chief suspect in Tilly's poisoning.

Of course, Smart is likely lying about the handsome salary as well,=20
to explain where all the money he got from taking over Mr. Tilly's=20
carney medicine business came from.  After all, even if he kept the=20
books in the pharmacy's regular business honestly, I don't see why
he would have kept records of having prescribed illegal medicines. =20

- Stone Ox=20

--=20

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