Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 209

This pulp weekly features "Fritz, the Bound-Boy Detective: or, Dot Leetle Game Mit Rebecca," by Edward L. Wheeler, author of the "Deadwood Dick" series. In Chapter II, eighteen-year-old Fritz—a sturdy, good-natured German boy with red hair and a prominent nose—is dismissed from servitude at the Shrimp farm after five years of labor. Though mostly ignored by the austere Mrs. Shrimp and her sour elder daughter Caroline, he receives support from spirited young Lotta, who gifts him forty dollars. Fritz departs for Philadelphia intending to become a peddler or merchant. The narrative includes family scenes in the parlor and follows Fritz's journey to the railway station at Waverley. An illustration shows Fritz triumphantly identifying "Mister Tom" as innocent in some detective matter, suggesting investigative adventures to come in subsequent chapters.