Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 887

1894 · 16 pages

Exhibition Note: Beadle's Dime Library, Vol. XXXV, No. 98 (July 24, 1894) "Rounding in the Western Sharp" by J. C. Cowdrick (author of "The Broadway Billy" series) commences a serialized tale centered on Battery Bob, a street boy operative at New York's Battery Park. The narrative opens with Bob preventing a young woman's suicide attempt at the sea wall. The distressed girl, later identified as Edith Allen through a dropped pearl-and-turquoise visiting card case, reveals her desperation over unnamed shame and family dishonor. Two men then attack them, seeking the girl; Bob enables her escape while alerting a nearby policeman. Bob recovers Edith's card case, discovers her address, and visits her mother's residence uptown. The mother confirms Edith departed hours earlier with a gentleman for an evening play, now overdue. This opening installment establishes the mystery-adventure framework with urban setting, working-class protagonists, and romantic melodrama typical of the dime serial format.

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