Beadle's Pocket Library, No. 21

# The Boy Clown; or, The Queen of the Arena

Beadle's Dime Novel Library (June 4, 1884)

Serial: "The Boy Clown; or, The Queen of the Arena" by Frank S. Finn

Featured Content: Circus adventure and melodrama following Henry Needhurst (stage name "Henri De La Forest"), a fourteen-year-old equestrian and trapeze performer with Copenhagen's Mammoth Circus. The narrative opens with the circus arriving in Frenchville, where Henry executes an evening trapeze act. Murker, a drunken circus employee recently discharged through Henry's supposed betrayal, sabotages the trapeze ropes with a knife, causing Henry to plummet during his performance. Following the catastrophe, Murker flees to a remote cabin inhabited by Jessie, a beautiful fourteen-year-old girl, and her elderly grandmother, where he recognizes Jessie's exceptional singing voice as a potential vehicle for wealth and decides to manipulate circumstances to gain control of her.