Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 422

# "Blue-Grass" Burt: A Romance of the Southland

J. C. Cowdrick's serial opens in Kentucky bluegrass country near the town of Braddsbury. Burton "Blue-Grass" Burt Rosewell, a young Government detective renowned for his gold-star medal, arrives incognito as art student Walter Prince to investigate the disappearance of fellow detective Amos Norman, who vanished while pursuing a moonshining operation. On the hillside road, Burt rescues the beautiful Ettie Winton, nineteen, from a tramp's assault. They walk together into town, where Burt loses his prized diamond-centered gold star badge on the road. Ettie, though the belle of the county, lives unhappily in her stepmother's household—her father Abel Winton having remarried after her mother's death, with a half-sibling born later. The narrative emphasizes Burt's detective's oath to find or avenge Norman, and hints at romantic complication between Burt and Ettie.