Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock
"Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town" by Stephen Leacock is a humorous and satirical portrayal of a fictional small town called Mariposa. The narrative is delivered from the perspective of a local observer who introduces a cast of quirky characters, each representing different aspects of small-town life and human nature. Central figures include Mr. Josh Smith, the shrewd hotel owner known for his profit-driven antics; Jefferson Thorpe, the barber with dubious investments; and Reverend Drone, whose ineffective sermons and financial woes highlight the town's struggles.
The stories blend humor with underlying themes of economic ambition, social dynamics, and the absurdities of small-town politics. Events such as the sinking of the steamboat Mariposa Belle and Mr. Pupkin's unexpected heroism during a bank robbery illustrate the blend of farce and poignancy in the narrative. As the town gears up for a mayoral election, the ironic outcomes reflect on the nature of governance and integrity. Ultimately, Leacock's work encapsulates the charm and eccentricities of small-town life while inviting readers to reflect on broader societal themes.
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1912
Type of work: Short-story cycle
The Work
In his masterpiece Sunshine Sketchesof a Little Town, Leacock’s lifelong interests in economics and political science merge, resulting in a thematic unity not found in most of his other books. After a genial preface in which Leacock provides some autobiographical information—and in so doing prepares the reader for the narrative tone of naïveté mixed with sarcasm—the narrator, a fellow townsperson, establishes himself as the observer from whose point of view the reader is able to make a judgment about the characters.
The first of these is Mr. Josh Smith. Weighing in at three hundred pounds, Smith owns the town’s only hotel. Shrewd and slyly gregarious, Smith is reputed to be the richest man in Mariposa. He knows how to turn a profit and has even been fined by the License Commission for selling liquor after hours. In a financial venture intended to appease the commission while increasing business, he hires a French chef and opens a café in the hotel. The narrator’s tone suggests admiration at Smith’s business acumen.
Just down the street from the hotel is Jefferson Thorpe’s barber shop. Thorpe is talkative and enjoys the notoriety of being a shrewd investor. The narrator admires the fact that though “Jeff” has “Cuban lands” and even gold mines, he continues shaving his customers without raising his prices. By the end of the story, Jeff has obviously lost his money on scams, but the narrator still admires the town barber’s professional dedication.
In “The Marine Excursion of the Knights of Pythias,” the steamboat Mariposa Belle sinks in Lake Wissanotti—the depth was only a few feet—and Josh Smith “rescues” the passengers—and makes a huge profit—by providing rowboats by which they get safely ashore.
The town minister, Reverend Drone, is a dull preacher, delivering sermons spiced with Greek allusions and irrelevant details. His constant worry is that he cannot make the mortgage payments on the church. The town decides to raise money by a “Whirlwind Campaign,” a series of lunches at which money is pledged but never donated—a kind of pyramid scheme of promises. In the end, the church burns down, and Drone discovers that the church was insured for twice its value. The narrator is amazed at the coincidence.
Mr. Pupkin, the town banker, is in love with romance-reading Zena Pepperleigh, the judge’s daughter. Shy and mousy, as his name implies, Mr. Pupkin is embarrassed by his family. His father is a millionaire who has sent his son to remote Mariposa to get the taste of luxury out of his mouth. Zena expects Mr. Pupkin to be a storybook hero, free of the trappings of wealth. The young man’s problem is solved when he unexpectedly becomes a hero. He is knocked unconscious by a bank robber, and though the mystery of the Mariposa bank robbery is never solved, Mr. Pupkin’s “bravery” is rewarded with Zena’s hand in marriage.
The final segment ends with Mr. Smith running for mayor. He wins largely because he campaigned against a candidate who represented honesty and clean government.
The book closes with a nostalgic paeon to the little town, still as vivid to the narrator as it was thirty years earlier.
Bibliography
Davies, Robertson. Stephen Leacock. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1970.
Doyle, James. Stephen Leacock: The Sage of Orillia. Toronto: ECW Press, 1992.
Lynch, Gerald. Stephen Leacock: Humor and Humanity. Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1988.
Lynch, Gerald, ed. A Critical Edition: “Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town” by Stephen Leacock. Ottawa: Tecumseh Press, 1996.
Staines, David, ed. Stephen Leacock: A Reappraisal. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1986.