After the Swede and Johnnie get into a fight over a card game—with the Swede accusing Johnnie of cheating—Scully forces them (and the other guests) to take the fight outside into the cold. The narrator takes a moment to describe the stormy scene around the men, using metaphors and a simile in the process:
No snow was falling, but great whirls and clouds of flakes, swept up from the ground by the frantic winds, were streaming southward with the speed of bullets. The covered land was blue with the sheen of an unearthly satin, and there was no other hue save where, at the low, black railway station—which seemed incredibly distant—one light gleamed like a tiny jewel.
In the first metaphor here, the narrator describes “whirls and clouds of flakes” moving “with the speed of bullets,” helping readers feel the ferocity of the snowy wind. In the following sentence, the narrator uses a second metaphor, describing how the snow-covered ground is “blue with the sheen of an unearthly satin.” This description helps readers visualize the scene while also adding an eerie energy (via the word “unearthly”), encouraging readers to understand that nothing good will come of this violent conflict.
The narrator also uses a simile in this passage, noting how a single light in the “distant” railway station “gleamed like a tiny jewel.” Throughout the story, the train station exists as a symbol for connection to the civilized world. Here, as the men give into their baser animal instincts and brawl, the rational, civilized train station appears as far away as a jewel that is beyond their grasp.
When describing the town’s relationship to the gambler, the narrator uses a metaphor, as seen in the following passage:
He was, in fact, a man so delicate in manner, when among people of fair class, and so judicious in his choice of victims, that in the strictly masculine part of the town's life he had come to be explicitly trusted and admired. People called him a thoroughbred.
The narrator describes how the townspeople of Romper metaphorically view the gambler as “a thoroughbred,” or a purebred horse. Like purebred horses, who are seen as superior to other kinds of horses (and symbolic of higher-class values), the gambler is seen as superior to other kinds of criminals in town. Despite being a violent conman, he is “delicate in manner” and “judicious in his choice of victims,” leading people to “trust and admire” him.
This moment is significant because it communicates Crane’s underlying message that surface-level judgements about a person are not always accurate. The narrator’s ironic and mocking tone in this passage suggests that the townspeople are being ignorant and hypocritical in their decision to trust a criminal just because he acts “delicate” and has an air of superiority. The way in which the gambler mercilessly kills the Swede near the end of the story underlines this point—he is not as much of a gentleman as the town makes him out to be.
