Beadle's Pocket Library No. 71

Sharp Sam; or, The Adventures of a Friendless Boy This 1885 weekly publication serializes J. Alexander Patten's urban crime narrative. Sharp Sam, a friendless homeless boy seeking shelter from a torrential rainstorm in New York, accidentally enters a townhouse through a blown-open door and discovers a murdered woman. Arrested at the scene by a policeman suspicious of the "dangerous classes," Sam becomes the prime suspect. The actual murderer is revealed to be Henry Beekman, a wayward heir from an old New York family, who killed his miserly elderly aunt to rob her inheritance after being refused his share. Beekman's past includes family disgrace, self-imposed exile, and reckless behavior. He murders the aunt in cold blood during a confrontation over money, then flees into the storm. Sam is imprisoned in the Tombs awaiting trial for a crime he did not commit, devastated by his sudden loss of freedom and acute friendlessness.