Beadle's Dime New York Library No. 301

Catalog Note This issue of *Beadle and Adams* contains the opening serial installment of "Bowlder Bill; or, The Man from Taos," a Western adventure tale by Major Sam S. Hall ("Buckskin Sam"), author of numerous dime-novel westerns including "Diamond Dick" and "Kit Carson, Jr." The narrative opens aboard a Mississippi steamboat, the River Rover, where Major Munroe Malcolm—a wealthy, stock-speculating ex-planter from St. Louis—travels with his beautiful seventeen-year-old daughter Maude. William Stone, a grieving young man of good birth but limited means who has recently lost his family to yellow fever, observes Maude from afar. They briefly meet when Maude drops her handkerchief, exchanging names and conversation before the boat's boilers catastrophically explode. Stone proves heroically calm amid the disaster, securing life-preservers, directing panicked passengers, and rescuing both Maude and her injured father from the burning wreck. The installment ends with Stone resuming rescue efforts while Maude, recovered and caring for her unconscious father, expresses her gratitude.