Sparing the family tree

About this book

Sparing the family tree by W. C. Tuttle is a humorous Western short story written in the early 20th century. It lampoons high society and “family tree” pride by tossing two desert drifters into a tangle of sham marriage, mistaken identity, and East‑meets‑West culture clash.

The narrator, Yallerstone Brown, and his scrawny partner, Taos Thompson, leave the desert after Taos fixates on a matrimonial ad. On the train Brown meets a blonde named Aurora Metcalf, who pays him to marry her under the alias “Jack Wardner” so she can satisfy her unseen uncle’s demand that she wed a real Westerner and keep her inheritance. In Hillsdale, their new world of valets and parlors collapses into farce: a drunken chauffeur wrecks the limousine, Taos offends the guests and yanks the tablecloth at dinner, and “Aurora” confesses she is actually Agnes Carter. When a call comes asking if Brown is the notorious Jack Wardner, he panics and flees by train. Taos finds him and reveals he is really James Alexander Carter, the rich uncle—and the very man who once held up a stage where he fell for a blonde passenger. In the final twist, Brown quietly admits he truly is the infamous Jack Wardner of Mescal County, which is why he ran, leaving the whole “family tree” scheme neatly, and comically, upended.