Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 148

Sharp Sam: or, The Adventures of a Friendless Boy This serial by J. Alexander Patten, published in 1880 by Beadle and Adams, presents an urban crime melodrama. The narrative opens during a violent autumn rainstorm in New York City, where a friendless boy seeking shelter accidentally enters an old mansion on an uptown street just as a murder is being committed. The mysterious killer—Henry Beekman, scion of a prominent family—flees after murdering his elderly aunt, an eccentric miser, over her refusal to grant him his inheritance. Beekman murders her violently and steals money from her drawers. Sharp Sam, discovered at the scene by a policeman, becomes the prime suspect despite his protestations of innocence. The police constable, dismissive of the boy's claims and confident in his arrest's visibility at headquarters, hauls him away. Sam finds himself imprisoned in the Tombs—the famous New York City detention facility—where he confronts the reality of facing a murder charge for a crime he did not commit.