Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 220

Catalog Entry: Tom Tanner, Scalawag and Scapegrace This installment of Charles Morris's serial novel depicts a workplace confrontation at an iron-manufacturing shop. The story opens with two brothers at their machines: Frank, diligent and steady, and Tom, restless and insubordinate. When foreman Mr. Martin orders Tom back to work, the boy becomes belligerent, sparking a violent altercation in which Tom bites the foreman twice before Frank attempts to intervene peacefully. During escalating chaos, Tom strikes Martin unconscious with an iron tool and flees through a window. Frank, though uninvolved in the assault, is interrogated by proprietor Mr. Wilson but ultimately defends himself and his brother, denouncing both the foreman's brutality and Wilson's threats. Frank quits rather than continue working under Martin. The narrative then shifts to the Tanners' tenement-house rooms, introducing the family's modest circumstances and establishing Frank and Tom's working-class home life with their parents.