Irony of Wan Lee's story
When Wan Lee gets adopted by a widow with a daughter his age the two children get along together well. The narrator ironically comments on their relationship by describing the girl with a young shinning cross around her neck and Wan Lee as a little Pagan with a hideous porcelain figure hidden in his blouse. It is by Christian boy that Wan Lee gets brutally murdered at the end.
Irony of Fool
Fool keeps writing to his mistress the people call Hag even when she doesn't respond. He even builds a house for them together. At the end ironically Hag ends up living in the house but not with the Fool, but her husband. The Fool foolishly sacrifices himself for her happiness.
Irony of Ah Fee's "pilgrimage"
Ah Fee is a Chinese servant of the poet from the story An Episode of Fiddletown. He leaves Mr. Tretherick's house and travels to find Clara. On the way there narrator ironically describes his pilgrimage. The irony lies even in calling his travel a pilgrimage. Ah Fee encounters a lot of trouble on his travel:
"On the road to Sacramento he was twice playfully thrown from the top of the stage-coach by an intelligent but deeply-intoxicated Caucasian, whose moral nature was shocked at riding with one addicted to opium-smoking. At Hangtown he was beaten by a passing stranger,—purely an act of Christian supererogation. At Dutch Flat he was robbed by well-known hands from unknown motives. At Sacramento he was arrested on suspicion of being something or other, and discharged with a severe reprimand—possibly for not being it, and so delaying the course of justice."
Irony in the story about centenarian
In the story, the narrator comically and ironically describes centenarian's daughter who is sitting beside her while he interviews the above hundred year old woman:
"Sometimes,- said her daughter, a giddy, thoughtless young thing of eighty-five,—sometimes just moving her head sort of unhitches her jaw..."
Irony of the Rose
Rose of Tuolumne is Jenny. When calling her a rose there is a connotation with fragility and tenderness but Jenny is far from that. She picks up Ridgeway and carries him in her arms to the house in a goddess-like manner. She warns her father to never talk to anyone about this incident.
