# Catalog Note: "The Lariat Queen"
Beadle's Dime Novels, Vol. XXVIII, No. 713 (March 24, 1891)
"The Lariat Queen: A Story of a Woman Righting a Wrong" by Col. Prentiss Ingraham follows May Lillie, an eighteen-year-old governess employed at Captain Vail's Texas ranch, who rides the prairie dressed in fringed buckskin and armed with rifle and revolvers. Carl Grafton, the reformed "Mad Cowboy"—once a reckless desperado now serving as captain of Vail's cowhands—waylay her on the trail to demand she marry him, claiming he saved her life from Comanches and reformed his wild ways for her sake. May refuses his passionate suit, ultimately revealing the reason: she is already married. The narrative explores the tension between Carl's reformed devotion and May's concealed matrimonial status, establishing a complex emotional triangle with hints of her love for another man. The serial combines frontier adventure, romance, and character redemption typical of the period's dime novel formula.
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About this artifact
- Date
- March 24, 1891
- Rights
- Public domain — free to view, share, and reuse.
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