Beadle's Dime Library No. 849

# Museum Catalog Note

The Longshore Skulkers of South Street by William H. Manning, serialized in this January 1895 issue of Beadle and Adams' dime novel publication. A detective story featuring Nathaniel Cooledge, a prominent New York police detective engaged to guard a half-million-dollar casket of jewels formerly belonging to the Empress Josephine. The jewels are being presented to Miss Vivian Lynnfield upon her marriage to Robert Houston at a society gathering hosted by her father, Walton Lynnfield. Count Altamonte, a European nobleman, brings the gems personally. During the wedding ceremony, a servant rushes in announcing that another servant named Thomas has been murdered near the rear door. Cooledge abandons his post at the jewel casket to investigate, despite having stationed old servant Cyrus Ames as a companion guard. The narrative establishes a mystery involving both the murder and the valuable jewels.