Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 931

The Sport in Velvet

"The Sport in Velvet," by Wm. R. Eyster, is a frontier adventure serial appearing in this 1895 Beadle and Adams publication. The narrative follows a well-dressed but penniless man known as "the Sport" who arrives in the mining town of Black Gorge. He meets Billy Bird, a precocious young boy whose mother possesses apparent clairvoyant abilities; Billy somehow knew the Sport was coming before the Sport himself knew it. Billy offers the Sport employment and they agree Billy will pose as his brother, renaming him "Sugar Sam."

Upon riding into town, they encounter Judge Lane addressing a crowd regarding three horse thieves awaiting judgment. The judge advocates mercy—banishment rather than hanging—though his motivations appear suspect to Billy. The narrative emphasizes questions of frontier justice, with tensions between swift mob punishment and more measured judgment.