Roughing It · Chapter
XXXIV explained
The chapter describes the frequent and disastrous landslides in the Nevada mountains, and then recounts a humorous legal case where a landslide causes Tom Morgan's ranch to slide down and cover Dick Hyde's property.
What happens
The chapter describes the frequent and disastrous landslides in the Nevada mountains, and then recounts a humorous legal case where a landslide causes Tom Morgan's ranch to slide down and cover Dick Hyde's property. Hyde sues Morgan, but the referee, ex-Governor Roop, rules that the landslide was an act of God and that Morgan has the right to keep his ranch in its new location, much to the outrage of General Buncombe, who only later realizes he has been the victim of a practical joke.
Themes in this chapter
Humor and Exaggeration
The entire lawsuit is a practical joke on General Buncombe, with hyperbolic descriptions of the landslide and the absurd legal reasoning.
The Absurdity of Pretension
General Buncombe's self-importance as a lawyer is mocked when he falls for the joke and takes the case seriously, while the referee's pompous ruling highlights the pretension of legal authority.
Characters to notice
- Dick Hyde
The plaintiff whose ranch is covered by Morgan's landslide; he hires General Buncombe as his lawyer.
- Tom Morgan
The defendant whose ranch slides down onto Hyde's property and refuses to vacate.
- Governor Roop
The referee who presides over the case and delivers the absurd verdict that the landslide is an act of God.
- The Narrator
The narrator describes the landslide phenomenon and the ensuing legal farce.
Key passages
“The reader cannot know what a landslide is, unless he has lived in that country and seen the whole side of a mountain taken off some fine morning and deposited down in the valley, leaving a vast, treeless, unsightly scar upon the mountain’s front to keep the circumstance fresh in his memory all the years that he may go on living within seventy miles of that place.”
Only those who have witnessed a mountain's entire side collapse into the valley can truly understand the lasting impression of the scar it leaves on the landscape.
The narrator emphasizes the dramatic and unforgettable nature of landslides in the region.
“Gentlemen, it is the verdict of this court that the plaintiff, Richard Hyde, has been deprived of his ranch by the visitation of God! And from this decision there is no appeal.”
The court rules that Hyde lost his ranch due to an act of God, and the decision is final.
Governor Roop's absurd verdict uses religious justification to deny Hyde any legal recourse.