Jim 1

In "Fool about a Horse," this Jim is Pat Stamper's assistant in the horse- and mule-trading business. We hear him called "Jim" only once, by Stamper (130); the narrator refers to him instead with variations of "that nigger" (127, etc.) But it's important to note that the narrator's vocabulary tells us a lot about the racist world in which the narrator has grown up, but nothing about the man named Jim. In addition to that word, the narrator calls him a "magician" and "a artist" (123, 127). Jim displays a genius for "doctoring" horses and mules to disguise their flaws. He shows his compassion along with his talents when he tells the white boy that rain is coming soon, and offers him "a snack of dinner" (131). (He reappears in The Hamlet, but there he is not named.)