Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 895

This issue of Beadle and Adams' weekly magazine features "Fifth Avenue Fred, the Valet Detective; or, A Corner in Rogues," by Jo Pierce (author of Messenger 999, Citizen Rube, and others). The serialized detective story follows Fred Ellis, a young American valet newly employed by the aristocratic Rosecastle family on Murray Hill, New York. The narrative opens in Central Park, where Fred encounters a mysterious man named John Brandt who questions him about his employers. Fred subsequently meets his friend Tip Higgins downtown, who has discovered what appears to be a criminal operation: he overheard two men discussing stolen jewelry and traced one to a pawnbroker's shop on Fourteenth Street, operated by "Mordecai Josephson." Tip aspires to become a detective but is warned by Fred that pursuing criminals is dangerous.