Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 243

# Catalog Note

The Pilgrim Sharp; or, The Soldier's Sweetheart, attributed to "Buffalo Bill" (William F. Cody), a serialized western adventure story set in 1857 on the Overland Trail. The narrative opens in a Leavenworth, Kansas saloon where an eccentric, unarmed eastern stranger—the "Pilgrim Sharp"—defeats the brutal bar-keeper Bruiser Dick in both hand-to-hand combat and quick-draw gunplay despite carrying his revolver concealed in his coat pocket. After winning over the crowd with drinks bought at his expense, the Pilgrim Sharp appears the following morning driving a hearse westward with an emigrant wagon train. He claims to be a former undertaker from the East, explaining his unusual conveyance. The story combines frontier adventure with humor derived from the protagonist's mannered eastern speech and unconventional appearance—frock coat, silk stock, ornate striped pants—contrasting sharply with rough western frontier culture.