Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 938

This issue of Beadle and Adams from July 16, 1895, features the opening serial "Jingo Jim's Jamboree" by Jo Pierce, author of Reddy Rusher and Ace High. The story follows fifteen-year-old Jingo Jim, an orphaned street peddler in New York who sells novelty toys like mechanical leaping kangaroos. After recovering from illness and paying debts, Jim finds an old discarded horse saddle near his tenement and brings it home to use as a pillow. Late that night, a thief attempts to steal the saddle; Jim fights him in darkness but the robber escapes. Convinced the saddle's value is not ordinary, Jim becomes determined to solve the mystery of why someone would steal such a worthless object. His roommates—fellow peddlers living in squalid shared quarters—initially believe Jim has gone mad, though wiser counsel prevails.