Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 154

Museum Catalog Note This issue features the opening of "Joaquin, the Saddle King," a serial romance by Joseph E. Badger Jr. chronicling a formative episode in the life of the famous outlaw Joaquin Murieta. The narrative begins with a confrontation between the young Sonorian vaquero Joaquin and Manuel Camplido, a wealthy ex-captain of lancers who holds him in contempt. Their rivalry escalates from verbal sparring at General Santa Anna's estate into increasingly dangerous equestrian contests. Camplido insults Joaquin's horsemanship; Joaquin responds with cutting remarks about Camplido's cowardice in the Mexican-American War. When direct violence is forbidden on the general's grounds, they move beyond the boundary to engage in displays of horseback skill, then agree to progressively perilous feats: riding bareback and bridleless along a narrow path beside a deep barranca, then leaping a six-foot stone wall. Joaquin ultimately proposes an even more extreme trial involving blindfolds, bound hands, and rope-connected horses to prove his superiority over his rival.