Beadle's Dime Library No. 27

Museum Catalog Note *The Spotter-Detective: The Girls of New York*, a serialized story by Albert W. Aiken, opens with the escape from Sing-Sing prison. John Blaine, imprisoned for assault (charged with intent to kill, though stated to be innocent), orchestrates an elaborate Sunday afternoon escape assisted by Jimmy Kent, the water-carrier. Blaine's crime involved self-defense against a mysterious long-pursued enemy during a midnight Broadway encounter. The escape employs resourceful sabotage: filing iron bars, tampering with gas lines and dark-lanterns, and cutting bell-ropes to delay alarm. News of the breakout reaches New York Monday evening, triggering emotional responses from multiple women connected to Blaine—a yellow-haired beauty on Madison Avenue, an olive-complexioned woman at a fashionable hotel, and a dark-eyed seamstress on Fourteenth Street. Each reacts with apparent recognition and distress upon learning of Blaine's freedom, suggesting interconnected relationships and future plot complications.