Celebrated Jumping Frog, The

An 1865 short story by Mark Twain. It was his first great success as a writer and brought him national attention. In it, the narrator retells a story he heard from a bartender, Simon Wheeler, at the Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, about the gambler Jim Smiley. The narrator describes him: 'If he even seen a straddle bug start to go anywheres, he would bet you how long it would take him to ...