A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1891 — 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 · 1891

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 742

1891 · Free to read

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About this issue

This issue of Beadle's Weekly (No. 742, Vol. XXIX, dated April 13, 1891) features "Breaking the Meshes of the Golden Coil" by T. C. Harbaugh, serialized in chapters. The mystery-detective narrative follows Billy Winks, a bell boy at Manhattan's Metropolis Hotel, who encounters two mysterious guests—Chuck Holcomb and Fred Phlox—from Philadelphia. The men examine Billy intently, discussing a "Pettibone" family resemblance and a quest for "lost heirs." Pappy Pink, an elderly inventor visiting Billy, sends Holcomb a cryptic letter offering information about his search. Holcomb is kidnapped by armed men who intercept him en route, searching his belongings and discovering Pink's letter. The narrative combines hotel melodrama, criminal abduction, and inheritance-mystery elements typical of the era's serialized adventure fiction.

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