Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 232: 'Gold-Dust Dick'

This installment of "Gold-Dust Dick: A Romance of Roughs and Toughs" by Edward L. Wheeler presents the arrival of a refined, well-dressed artist named Richard Gold-dust in the rough mining town of Pistolville. The town, situated in a mountain gulch between Devil's Nugget and Skeleton Flats, seeks a schoolmaster despite its culture of violence and disorder. Gold-dust reads the mayor Haunted Hank Haddon's illiterate job notice and offers his services. After being insulted by a ruffian named Tra-la-lee Charley in a saloon, Gold-dust strikes him down, impressing the town's citizens and winning the position at twenty dollars weekly. Gold-dust encounters a spirited teenage girl in pants and pistols on a donkey, who tests his resolve. The narrative establishes Gold-dust as a capable teacher prepared to impose discipline on Pistolville's unruly population while introducing complications through the resentful Charley and a mysterious young woman waiting in the schoolhouse.