# Stiffner — While the Billy Boils character guide

> Stiffner in While the Billy Boils by Henry Lawson.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** This Stiffner

**First appearance:** 0005-stiffner-and-jim

## Snapshot

A sly publican and shearer whose shanty is a trap for the unwary, and whose missus comes at trespassers with a shovel.

## Who they are

Stiffner runs a bush pub where the drink flows and the swags of careless travellers have a way of vanishing, and he does not take kindly to being bested. When two travellers make off with their belongings, he and his equally formidable wife give chase, she armed with a shovel and he making for the stables. His grudge against anyone who has 'had' him gives the yarn its comic menace, and his shanty serves as the collection's recurring stage for bush trickery and rough justice.

## In the story

### [Stiffner and Jim](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/chapters/stiffner-and-jim)

Stiffner is the hard, unscrupulous publican of the hotel, a large and mean man with a varied past; he is outwitted by the narrator's trick with the boot nail.

### [The Union Buries Its Dead](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/chapters/the-union-buries-its-dead)

Not directly mentioned, but the publican who holds the priest's hat over his head during the service is a prominent figure.

### [Macquarie's Mate](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/chapters/macquarie-s-mate)

Shanty-keeper who tries to calm the situation and later joins the scuffle.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/stiffner
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters