850 two place government until 1870, at which point they would have a final election which would determine it for all time. in 1850 austin won over several candidates. in 1872, they defeated several cities including waco. in its brief nine-year history the republic of texas had multiple seats of government in its 175 plus year history, -- government. in its 175 plus year history the state of texas has had one. >> up next the c-span city store visits the texas home a writer william sidney porter. while in prison on charges of embezzlement he began writing under the name o. henry.

[inaudible] >> william sidney porter was a great american short story writer. he wrote about 300 to 400 short stories and he was known for having swift endings. a good example of which is "the gifts of the magi," about a poor couple who want to buy each other christmas presents. she has this long, luxurious hair that she cuts to buy her husband a fault for his pocket watch. he sells his pocket watch to buy her these combs which she has been coveting for her long hair. a lot of people know o. henry as a new york short story writer. he cut his teeth here in austin

starting right here in this house. this has been a museum since 1934. what people can find is a middle-class taos that is three rooms, a parlor, there is a bedroom, and there is a dining room and a porch that used to be called a sleeping porch. he moved to texas in his early 20's from greensboro, north carolina, partly out of wanderlust and partly because he had a job. he started as a sheepherder on a ranch south of san antonio. after a couple years there he made his way up to austin and met his wife, had a daughter named margaret. here in austin he had two day jobs he worked while honing his skills as a writer. the first one was as a draftsman at the texas general land office. he drew maps for them and he was

known for drawing little themes and characters on the parameter something his coworkers thought was pretty clever. a second job was as a teller at the first national bank of austin and it is there where his life sort of took a twist for real. he was found to be embezzling money, about $850. some people said he was guilty. some people said he wasn't. some people said he was not equipped to be a teller, he was preoccupied by the teller cage. in any case he was sentenced to five years in federal prison in columbus, ohio. it looked like he came up with the penn name concurrent with being in prison. he was really embarrassed by the whole ordeal and try to keep a low profile in prison. that was his way of masking his identity a bit. he might have toyed with the name prior to prison but i think he really adopted it in earnest

once he got there and transformed himself into becoming a full-time writer. there is a biography on him called "time to write." it says once he got to prison he was free of all the burdens of free life and was able to write. we do not really know where the pen name came from. there's a couple theories. one is that there is a french chemist -- there's an "o" and an "h" and we think he may have grabbed from that because when he lived in north carolina his uncle ran a pharmacy so he was familiar with the drugstore experience. another theory is he had a cat here in austin named henry. oh henry. also, one of his favorite bartenders was named henry.

there's also thinking that ohio penitentiary, it is kind of an anagram from that. behind me is the desk he wrote on, belong to a friend of his in town. we have his original dictionary that he brought to texas from north carolina. he has an exceptional vocabulary and it is fun to look through that. we have a piano that his wife played is here that is original, rosewood with mother-of-pearl inlay pleaded -- inlay. music was something that brought him and his wife together. he was in a quartet and was also a singer. we have the only known recording of o. henry's voice, a minute and a half, and he is talking about the craft of writing.

[indiscernible] writing. >> i just sit down and let my pencil do the rest. >> we have beautiful rocking chairs that his wife purchased along with landscape rents here in the house. -- prints here in the house. he had set aside money for his wife to attend the chicago world fair and she decided instead of spending the money on herself she would buy some things for the family to enjoy. she bought these rocking chairs and a landscape print. we like to say that act of selflessness might have been an inspiration for "gift of the magi." after prison he moved to new york and he was an extremely popular writer the last 10, 12 years of his life right -- life. he had a contract with the new

york world newspaper to write a story a week, which lasted for 2 1/2 years. because that was a weekly story he was writing, it was something that people kind of waited for in anticipation every week. i like to equate it to one of my favorite movies, "a christmas story --." kids gather around the radio. this has been a museum since 1934. he passed shortly after 1910. literature had change so much by that point with the introduction of hemingway and fitzgerald and whatnot. a lot of people thought the twist anything was a little kitschy. it worked well sometimes and sometimes he painted himself into a corner and had to pull the rug out. i think over time he is maybe not regarded as highly here in

the states but we get a lot of visitors from asia and japan korea, russia where some of these tales are universal tales they have tweaked and they resonated across the world. what makes o. henry pot -- popular is that he dealt with universal themes, such as in "the gift of the magi." everyone knows what it is like to rub two nickels together to buy a gift for someone. he is a champion of the marginalized. a lot of his subjects are about regular old people. that is mostly in new york. a great story "a cop and the anthem" is about a homeless person who is trying to get arrested so we can spend the night in jail and have a warm night and emile. -- a meal. he ends up instead finding salvation in another way and that is the twist. o. henry's characters are the number one thing that people i

think enjoy when they read a story and the characters that o. henry depicts armie and you telling our stories, it is kind of a fictionalized nonfiction world. what i want people to take away when they come to the museum is the fact there is a number of stories in his catalog based here in texas. if you think of him as a new york writer and you are thinking, why is he talking about these storylines are whatnot -- it is important to fill in those gaps and it also allows you to talk about -- he was one of the first waves of western writers. some of his stories go back early 1903-ish area that compete with stories like "the virginian," which is considered the first western story. it's important to tell those -- that is background that people

don't know. they are so used to the new york city lifestyle stories. i like people to be able to use it to learn more about austin history. [inaudible] >> long after i'm gone, i want you all to continue to read my stories. [inaudible] >> kenneth allen mcduff was a texas serial killer who was released on parole in 1989. shortly after leaving prison he began killing again. c-span recently spoke with the author of the book "bad boy from rose bed -- rosebud." >> kenneth allen mcduff almost single-handedly brought about one of the largest constructions of prisons in the free world. he became the