Beadle's Pocket Library, No. 138

Bob Rockett, the Boy Dodger This dime novel by Charles Morris follows Bob Rockett, a sharp-faced, dwarfish street boy who dominates a gang of young vagrants living in New York's tenement districts. The narrative opens with Rockett entertaining his companions with a picaresque tale of stealing a monkey from an Italian organ grinder near Fulton Ferry, detailing how the animal escaped his pocket and caused chaos. After being kicked by Rusty Mike, a brutal local tough, Rockett provokes a fistfight with Paul Essex, a taller boy who defends Joe Linker from Rockett's kicks. The fight draws a crowd of onlookers until police arrive, scattering the combatants. The story then shifts to Rusty Mike's dingy room, where he dines with Beau Bink, a faded dandy, and Mrs. Sally. Mike cryptically references "Old Smudge" and prepares for some unspecified nighttime "lay," suggesting criminal enterprise.