Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 883

# Museum Catalog Note

Detective Burr's Wall Street Stroke, or The Shylock Pawnbroker, by Harold Payne, is a detective mystery serial published in this 1895 Beadle and Adams dime novel. The narrative opens with a bold daylight robbery on Wall Street, where masked thugs ambush a messenger and two armed guards carrying a valise of securities valued at several hundred thousand dollars. The thieves escape by carriage. Brokers Colonel Spofford and Mr. Gamm—a pompous and diminutive pair—arrest their own guards despite the guards' inability to prevent the attack. A young Western investor, Manton Hargrave, is awaiting news of his gold shipment to the same brokerage firm, becoming alarmed when he learns of the robbery coinciding with the arrival of his funds. A gossipy Jewish informant named Israel brings news of the theft. The plot hints at possible complicity by the brokers themselves.