Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 55

This issue of Beadle's Dime Novels contains "The Scalp-Hunters: A Romance of the Plains" by Captain Mayne Reid. Chapter I provides expansive descriptive passages of American western landscapes—flower prairies, grass prairies, rolling prairies, wooded "mottes," winter forests, Mexican desert regions with cacti and agave, and the Rocky Mountains—establishing the dramatic terrain for the story. Chapter II introduces the protagonist, a gentleman arriving in St. Louis in April carrying a letter of introduction to M. St. Vrain. After a three-day wait at the Planters' Hotel, he observes a group of well-dressed, distinctive men and learns they are Santa Fé traders: Bill Bent, young Sublette, one of the Choteaus, and Jerry Folger. St. Vrain himself arrives and welcomes the protagonist into their circle, inviting him to join them for refreshment as spring weather arrives.