Beadle's Pocket Library No. 437

About this issue

This issue of Beadle and Adams' weekly (Vol. XXXIV, No. 98, copyright 1892) features "The Boy Vigilantes" by Major H. B. Stoddard, a frontier adventure serial. The narrative follows Restless Jake, a distinctive seventeen-year-old gunslinger dressed in striking frontier finery—ivory-handled revolvers, octagon-barreled Winchester rifle, white sombrero with silver band—stationed at "The Nugget," a mining-camp saloon in Colorado during an 1879 Fourth of July celebration. When a villainous miner leader attempts a toast to a mysterious "Cap," Jake shoots out his glass and reveals his identity via silver whistle, triggering a violent confrontation. After escaping through a window and using his horse as a decoy, Jake pursues his assailant through bushwoods, discovering him murdered. Another mysterious operative captures and interrogates the killer before being assassinated by an unseen rival. The serial continues with subsequent chapters set in an isolated Long Island cabin, introducing additional shadowy figures and intrigue. The OCR becomes increasingly corrupted toward the chapter's end.