Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 1119

This November 1901 dime novel installment features "A No. 1, the Dashing Toll-Taker; Or, The Schoolmarm o' Sassafras" by Edward L. Wheeler, author of the Deadwood Dick series. In Sassafras City mining camp, the brutal bullwhacker Tiger Tooth terrorizes a Chinese laundry owner named Rats, attempting to extract information about a secret mine. Young Edward Temple intervenes, leading to a fight. The mysterious dashing road-agent A No. 1 interrupts, shooting up the saloon and robbing the assembled miners at gunpoint with charming banter, taking fifty dollars before departing. Meanwhile, Simon Shields, the town's founder and wealthiest citizen who owns the valuable Bullion mine, sits at home with his daughter Jessie. The narrative establishes the Western frontier setting with frontier dialect, violence, and eccentric characters typical of the pulp adventure genre.