A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1885 — all 16 pages of painted-cover fiction magazines that launched science fiction, horror, and hardboiled crime, free to page through at ComicBooks.com.

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A complete issue · 16 pages · 1885

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 423

1885 · Free to read

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About this issue

This eighth-edition issue of Beadle and Adams's dime novel publication features "The Picayune Cashier" by Charles Morris, author of detective stories. The opening serial installment presents a bank robbery at the New York financial house of Ditson & Co. discovered upon opening on a November morning. Thieves have ransacked drawers and violently attempted to breach the safe, leaving behind a severed human finger wearing an opal ring caught in the iron door—later identified by the investigating detective as belonging to a woman of refined appearance. Investigation reveals twenty-five thousand dollars missing from the safe. The discovery particularly distresses cashier Foster, whose unusual emotional reaction attracts the detective's scrutiny. The narrative emphasizes the detective's methodical examination and swift analysis of evidence.

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Each page has its own page — the cartoon, who’s in it, and what the satire means.