The woods in which young Bayard, Johnny and Caspey hunted small game as children, and in which Bayard and Caspey hunt again in Flags in the Dust, is at the back of the Sartoris plantation, "behind" Uncle Henry's cabin and past at least one field. There are vines on many of the saplings and trees, and a creek runs through them. It seems likely that the spring "flowing from the roots of a beech" where Old Bayard sought refuge when he was a child was also in these woods (90).
Submitted by jjoiner@keuka.edu on Wed, 2013-12-18 13:47
As is fairly normal in Faulkner's imaginary world, the first town you would reach traveling south from Jefferson is sometimes called "Mottson" and sometimes "Mottstown." Like Jefferson, it is a county seat, though in "Hand upon the Waters" the name of the county is Okatoba, while in Intruder in the Dust it's Mott.
Submitted by jjoiner@keuka.edu on Wed, 2013-12-18 13:09
When talking to the Yankee Lieutenant, Ringo mentions "the quarters" that are "back yonder" behind the destroyed big house on the Sartoris plantation (88), but that larger area is never described. Only one cabin - "the cabin," as it is called throughout the story - is depicted. As part of the quarters, it originally housed slaves.
Submitted by jjoiner@keuka.edu on Wed, 2013-12-18 11:31
Originally built early in the Civil War to hide the Sartoris livestock from Union troops, and located in "the creek bottom beyond the pasture" (88) behind the Sartoris plantation, this pen is enlarged by Joby, Ringo, Bayard, and Ab Snopes to hide the stolen Yankee mules. When the Union soldiers arrive to recover the stolen mules, they tear down some of the fence around the pen and the lieutenant gives Granny a $10 voucher for the damaged property. After the soldiers leave, Granny orders Joby to "put those rails back up" (91).
Submitted by jjoiner@keuka.edu on Wed, 2013-12-18 11:00
Memphis, an important port on the Mississippi River, was captured by the Union Army in June, 1862. It is also the closest city to Yoknapatawpha, and appears often in Faulkner's fictions. In this story it is where Ab Snopes goes to sell back to the Yankees the mules that Granny and Ringo have stolen from them.
Submitted by dorette.sobolew... on Thu, 2013-12-12 14:02
Although the robbery of Colonel Sartoris' bank took place in 1919 and the F.B.I. did not investigate bank robberies until the 1930s, the "Federal agent" who has possession of the letters Narcissa received must work for the F.B.I. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the agency itself has existed since 1908.
Submitted by dorette.sobolew... on Thu, 2013-12-12 13:58
The only Faulkner story that uses Washington, D.C., as a setting is "Lo!" - a comic tale about a visit paid by Indians to the nation's capital. The Indians are Chickasaws, but not the Chickasaws who appear in the Yoknapatawpha fictions, and so "Lo!" is not included in Digital Yoknapatawpha. Over a dozen of the texts we do include, however, do mention the nation's capital, almost always as a synecdoche for the Federal government.
Submitted by dorette.sobolew... on Thu, 2013-12-12 13:56
While its official name seems to be the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank, this bank was founded by Old Bayard Sartoris, and is usually referred to as "Sartoris' bank." It is a main fixture on Jefferson's Courthouse Square. The book-keeper who "stole that money and ran away" was Bryon Snopes (738).
Submitted by dorette.sobolew... on Thu, 2013-12-12 13:50
Built (according to its description in Flags in the Dust) in the 1840s by an English architect, the Benbow house is almost as old and aristocratic as the Sartoris mansion. It is a major setting in that novel, and in Sanctuary. Narcissa kept the letters hidden in her bedroom dresser.
Submitted by dorette.sobolew... on Thu, 2013-12-12 13:39
Although this short story does not say specifically where Jenny's "great-great-nephew" Bayard was "killed in an airplane" (728, 736), readers of Flags in the Dust know this happened over the airfield in Dayton, Ohio, that the U.S. Army leased from Orville Wright's factory.
