Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 339

This issue of the New York Weekly (April 22, 1885) features "A Romance of the Buffalo Range" by Jos. E. Badger, Jr., a Western adventure tale. The narrative opens with a hide-hunter protagonist known as "Spread Eagle Sam" engaged in hunting on the prairie near a dug-out cabin. Sam demonstrates his marksmanship by shooting both a coyote and jackrabbit in succession, then boasts exuberantly of his skill. The camp includes two other men: a grumbling cook from Missouri perpetually homesick, and a good-natured Irishman whose pranks provoke conflict. The text establishes the buffalo hide-hunting trade as central to the narrative, explaining how these hunters' work diminishes the buffalo herds and consequently undermines Plains Indian independence. Sam is portrayed as an exceptionally strong, skilled frontiersman in his prime, the most notable representative of a once-widespread profession now in decline.