Beadle's Dime Library No. 789

The Lawyer's Foxy Clerk This Beadle & Adams story by Joseph E. Badger Jr., serialized in the December 6, 1898 issue, opens with a desperate gambler marooned on a shrinking sandbar in the Mississippi River. As rising waters erode his refuge, he desperately searches downriver for rescue. The narrative shifts to the steamboat *Old Hickory*, heading toward New Orleans, where in the bar sits a handsome man named Sam with yellow hair and silk hat—identified as "Top-Sawyer Sam"—conversing with Elegant West, the clerk. Sam dismisses West's observation about three gamblers in the card room, claiming knowledge of their disreputable character. One player is a thin, foxlike man in worn black clothing, his covetous manner suggesting a card sharp rather than the preacher his garb implies.