The wisdom of the Ouija

The wisdom of the Ouija by W. C. Tuttle is a humorous Western short story written in the early 20th century. Set in the rough-and-tumble town of Piperock, it pokes fun at frontier gullibility when a Ouija-board craze sweeps the locals. The likely topic is a comic unraveling of superstition after a dead rustler’s “spirit” starts spilling inconvenient truths.

Narrated by Ike Harper, the tale follows how sheriff “Scenery” Sims, storekeeper Wick Smith, and a cast of colorful cowhands and town notables—Magpie Simpkins, Buck Masterson, Judge Steele, Hassayampa Harris, and Tombstone Todd—get swept up in messages from the supposed ghost of notorious rustler Hard-Pan Hawkins. Accusations of calf-stealing and infidelity fly, Dirty Shirt Jones shoots one of the boards, and a grand “Revelation Night” devolves into farcical chaos, brawls, and smashed instruments as townsfolk demand answers about thefts and brands. The punch line arrives when the very-much-alive Hard-Pan Hawkins walks in, exposing the whole spirit spectacle as bunk—capped by Magpie breaking the Ouija board over his head. Chastened, the town swears off communing with the “dear departed.” (This is an automatically generated summary.)