Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 97

About this issue

The Outlaw Brothers; or, The Captive of the Harpes: A Tale of Early Kentucky by John J. Marshall occupies this issue of the publication. The serialized story opens at Coon's Tavern during a violent storm in northern Kentucky, where weather-bound travelers and hunters gather. Among them is Smith, a well-dressed Connecticut land-agent, who interacts with rough frontier characters including Old Hickory, a formidable sixty-year-old hunter. The men exchange tall tales, including an elaborate tall-tale narrative about a fisherman dragged downriver by a giant catfish from Ohio to New Orleans, and a dispute over a tooth-brush loan that nearly erupts into violence. During the storytelling, the group witnesses a woman's terrified face pressed against the tavern window, followed by a piercing scream. A massive enslaved man named Brutus appears, revealing the woman has been captured. Smith, Brutus, and Hickory pursue three fleeing figures into the storm-darkened road.