Beadle's Dime Library No. 576

Catalog Note "The Grip-sack Stay Clean Sweep" by Jos. E. Badger Jr., a Western adventure pulp serial, depicts the schemes of "Silver-tongued Sid" Harper, a traveling medicine faker peddling Dewey's Magic Salve. In Capital City on a Sabbath morning, Harper shoots his assistant Johnny Mitchell repeatedly in a staged street demonstration, claiming the man insulted both him and his miraculous compound. When citizens threaten vigilante justice, Harper reveals the "killing" was theatrical—he revives the supposedly dead Mitchell by applying the salve to his wounds. The resurrection becomes a sales pitch: Harper offers boxes of the cure-all for twenty-five cents each, claiming the salve remedies everything from corns to old age. The narrative emphasizes Harper's glib persuasiveness and contempt for his audience's credulity, establishing him as a confidence artist exploiting frontier gullibility through sensational street performance.