Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 520

# Museum Catalog Entry

The Bad Man of the Bug Bayou, a serial adventure story by Albert W. Aiken, begins in this issue. The narrative opens at the Planter's Hotel in the fictional Caddoville, set in Louisiana's Caddo parish—a border region between Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas where outlaws seek refuge from law enforcement. Uncle Billy Coffee, the jovial landlord, receives a visit from Senator Mike MacMurphy, a wealthy entrepreneur who has arranged to purchase the Hazelhurst plantation (approximately five thousand acres) for fifty thousand dollars cash. The story introduces several principal characters: Mayor Felix de Grandville, Judge Lysander Waldron, and Marshal Tom Burleson. A rough-looking stranger calling himself Gid Beasley, claiming to be a stock trader, arrives and takes room number twelve. The episode develops tension around the senator's assignment to the unlucky room thirteen, though the judge dismisses superstitious concerns. The narrative emphasizes local dialect and regional character while establishing intrigue surrounding both the land transaction and the mysterious stranger's arrival.