Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 210

This issue of Beadle's Weekly (Vol. XVII, No. 210, November 1, 1882) contains the opening installment of "Buccaneer Bess, the Lioness of the Sea," a serial romance by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, subtitled "A Romance of the Gulf of Mexico and Its Shores."

The narrative introduces three plantation estates along the Mississippi Sound: Cliff Cottage (home of the mysterious Juan Gito and his nineteen-year-old daughter), The Everglades (seat of the Mortimer family), and Lakelands (the Wyndham estate). A tragedy erupts when the hot-tempered Mark Mortimer, master of The Everglades, shoots and kills Juan Gito in the library, claiming self-defense. His sister Mabel, present at the scene, questions his account. Mark flees to New Orleans aboard his yacht, defying Mabel's authority over the family slaves and estate—which she controls through their father's will. The serial promises to explore family vendettas, romantic entanglements, and mystery surrounding the characters' pasts.