Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 73

This issue of Beadle's Half-Dime Library (Vol. III, No. 73, 1878) contains "Deadwood Dick on Deck: Calamity Jane, the Heroine of Whoop-Up," a Western tale by Edward L. Wheeler. The story opens in Dakota's Black Hills, where two miners—gruff Colonel Joe Tubbs and the mysterious, quiet Sandy from New York—camp near Canon Creek. They hear a beautiful woman's song and learn from Tubbs that she is Calamity Jane, a reckless female scout in buckskin who drinks, shoots, and fights. Sandy discovers a substantial nugget of gold near their camp, which they name Satan's Bend. The narrative then shifts to Jane herself, descending a mountain path on horseback, heading toward Deadwood. She is portrayed as a woman aged seventeen to twenty-three, graceful and handsome despite lines of dissipation, with dark eyes and raven hair, dressed in buckskin trousers and beaded leggings.