Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 262

This issue of New York Weekly (October 31, 1883) features "Fighting Tom; or, The Terror of the Toughs," by Colonel Thomas H. Monstery, a tale of urban combat and rescue. On Decoration Day, a crowded Brooklyn Bridge stampede causes a fatal crush. A well-dressed young man who appears effeminate—derided as a "dude"—reveals unexpected martial prowess by saving a young woman from the panic. When the brutish Buck Jarvis, leader of a gang called "the Old Gang," attacks the young man for his heroism, a swift fight ensues; Jarvis is swiftly defeated through superior technique. The young man, Harvey, learns the rescued woman is Nina Somers and promises to find her missing mother. Jarvis, recognizing Nina, watches her depart with Harvey in a carriage. Harvey returns to the bridge seeking Nina's mother among the casualties.