A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1890 — 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 · 1890

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 693

1890 · Free to read

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About this issue

The Racket at Red Hot by William G. Patten appears in this issue of the Beadle and Adams pulp magazine (Vol. XXVII, No. 693, November 4, 1890). The serialized Western tale follows two dandified Boston gentlemen—the lisping dandies "Freddie" and "Cholly"—who arrive in the rough mining town of Red Hot, singing and displaying their fashionable black velvet suits, silk hats, and canes. They immediately offend the local roughs, particularly Red Hutch of the "Twin Bulldogs," a brutal pair of bullies who have terrorized the town. After the dandies insult the saloon patrons, Red Hutch threatens violence. Major Mars, an old Confederate soldier, intervenes and arranges a wrestling match between Red Hutch and the daisy-adorned dandy. The story promises that the apparently fragile Bostonian possesses unexpected wrestling prowess, setting up a confrontation between Eastern refinement and Western brutality.

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