Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 142

This issue features "Handsome Harry, the Bootblack Detective" by Charles Morris, opening a serialized adventure. The story begins in spring at New York's City Hall Park, where bootblack Harry Hunter presides over a group of street urchins. When a disdainful gentleman refuses payment for a boot polish, Harry retaliates by smudging his trousers with blacking. Later, a well-dressed Mr. Livingston hires Harry for an urgent errand: to take the Elevated Railroad to Harlem, deliver a note to Miss Gordon, and return with a package she provides. Harry, thrilled by his first elevated railway ride, travels to an impressive brownstone mansion in Harlem to locate the mysterious Miss Gordon. The narrative balances comedy derived from Harry's street vernacular and irreverent humor with hints of intrigue surrounding the mysterious errand.