# Pulp Magazine Catalog Note
This 1884 pulp fiction issue features "Po-8, the Lone Highwayman" by William H. Manning, a Western crime serial split across multiple chapters.
In the opening narrative, a grotesquely-disguised stage robber known as Black Bart or "Po-8" ambushes the Fort Ross to Russian River stage-coach, stealing a substantial fortune belonging to the brokerage firm Egerton & Wheatley. The robbery precipitates the death of partner Wilbur Wheatley via heart attack upon learning the financial disaster. Wheatley's daughter Editha and his young son Edgar return home to find the firm bankrupt and their family fortune lost.
Edgar vows action rather than despair. The narrative explores complications: agent Miles Gilbert claims he was ill when the robbery occurred, though suspicion falls upon him for permitting the money's transport by vulnerable means. Detectives pursue the elusive Black Bart, aided only by a cryptic doggerel message signed "Po-8" left in the empty treasure-box. The serial combines elements of frontier robbery, financial ruin, family tragedy, and detective mystery.
About this artifact
- Date
- February 27, 1884
- Rights
- Public domain — free to view, share, and reuse.
- Restoration
- Digitally restored and hosted by comicbooks.com.
Part of our mission to preserve and restore the public-domain heritage of the medium.