Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 54

"The Sportive Sport of the Foot-Hills" by Philip S. Warne This dime novel installment, from Beadle's Library No. 98, opens with a scene in a frontier saloon where an Irish laborer named Pat and an enslaved Black man named Sam perform a competitive dance—a jig and breakdown—for assembled rough frontiersmen. Their employer, the elderly Mr. Jasper Haveland, arrives and orders them away. A ruffian called Spanish Dave intervenes, claiming money has been wagered on the dance's outcome and preventing them from leaving. When Haveland strikes Dave with his cane, the crowd turns hostile. At this critical moment, a mysterious gunman called "The Sportive"—identifiable by his revolver marked "Always"—appears in the doorway, his mere presence dispersing the mob and saving Haveland. The narrative fragment concludes as The Sportive confronts Spanish Dave, suggesting an imminent confrontation.