Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 582

This issue of what appears to be a dime novel or story paper features the opening chapters of "The Man from Jersey" by T. C. Harbaugh, author of several adventure serials. The story follows Jonas Jackson, a prosperous New Jersey merchant who arrives in New York with ten thousand dollars to purchase stock for his store. He is deceived by a trio of confidence men—lawyers Stephen Spick and Sandy Spann, and their associate Titus Todd—who pose as legitimate businessmen and fleece him of his money and gifts intended for his daughter Janet. Three weeks later, Janet arrives at police headquarters desperately seeking her missing father. A sympathetic officer assigns a street boy nicknamed "Dodger Dick" to escort her to safety while the police investigate the disappearance, setting up the story's detective plot.