Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 238

This issue contains a serialized western romance titled "Joe Buck of Angels, and His Boy Pard, Paul Powderhorn; The Three Wild Men of Eagle Bar," by Albert W. Aiken. The story opens in a saloon called the Crystal Palace, located in the remote Colorado mining camp of Eagle Bar. Two young women work there: one, a fair, innocent-looking organist barely fifteen; the other, a dark-haired female card dealer dressed in men's clothing. A scrappy orphan boy named Paul Powderhorn attempts to gamble his meager dust at the card table, but the dealer refuses him with maternal concern. When a brutish ruffian named Utah Bill arrives and harasses both the boy and the dealer, the girl stands firm against his bullying. The narrative establishes tensions between rough frontier miners and the enigmatic women operating the saloon's gambling operation.