Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 91

This issue of Beadle & Adams publications from April 7, 1880 (No. 91) features the opening of a serialized novel titled "The Black Sheep" by Albert W. Aiken, author of "The Police Spy" and "Injun Dick." Set in Cambridge and Boston, the story follows Harrison Grahame (alias Harry Gray in sporting circles), a blue-blooded Bostonian and unscrupulous gambler who arrives by train. He encounters General Lycurgus McShouter, a disreputable old sporting man and chronic bettor, on Brighton Bridge. Both men have wagered heavily against Harvard in an upcoming rowing race against Yale, despite observing an exceptionally skilled Harvard crew training on the Charles River. The narrative establishes Grahame's scheme to involve the general in some nefarious plot connected to the race, introducing Grahame's cousin Otis "Bub" Lawrence as the Harvard crew's stroke oar.