According to author David P. Demarest, it is "a comic short story that builds on (and perhaps helped perpetuate) Pittsburgh's turn-of-the-century reputation as a raucous rags-to-riches world full of captains of industry notable for wealth".

[1] Carnegie Magazine wrote that it is "a pleasant reminder of the inventiveness and cleverness of that unique artist O. Henry, who can be (and often has been) imitated but has never been equalled".

One summer, the two are working in Ohio when Tucker proposes that they go to Pittsburgh to find some "Pittsburg[4] Millionaires", whom he describes by saying, "They are rough but uncivil in their manners, and though their ways are boisterous and unpolished, under it all they have a great deal of impoliteness and discourtesy".

The two devise a plan to sell the second copy to Scudder, and the following day Peters disguises himself as a professor and sets up a meeting with the millionaire.

Tucker then replies that Scudder actually bought his own carving, explaining that, "When I was looking at his curios yesterday he stepped out of the room for a moment and I pocketed it".