Deadwood Dick Library, Vol. 1, No. 1

This March 15, 1899 issue of the Half-Dime Library contains "Deadwood Dick, the Prince of the Road; or, The Black Rider of the Black Hills" by Edward L. Wheeler. The adventure opens on the plains between Cheyenne and the Black Hills, where a mule-train of miners halts for noon. The group includes Fearless Frank, a striking twenty-year-old in scarlet buckskin who claims to be an experienced hunter and guide; Geoffrey Walsingham Nix, a deformed old prospector of mysterious origins; and Charity Joe, an irascible but capable wagon master. When distant human cries are heard, Frank and Nix ride forth to investigate despite Joe's reluctance, suspecting someone in distress. The issue features extensive advertisements for other volumes in the Deadwood Dick, Jr. series—over fifty titles listing various adventures across American cities and frontier locations, priced at five cents per copy.