Diamond Dick Jr. #601

This issue of Diamond Dick, Jr.—The Boys' Best Weekly (No. 601, April 18, 1908) contains the opening installment of "Diamond Dick in the Canal Zone; or, Varola, the Voodoo King" by the author of Diamond Dick. The serial begins with Handsome Harry, a red-bearded giant known as "the old Sarpint of Siskiyou," being forcibly ejected by crew members of a schooner docked in Panama. Harry, who was shanghaied in Acapulco and terrorized the ship's crew during the voyage, searches the growing city of Panama for his old friend Diamond Dick. Roaming the streets amid American laborers and construction of the canal, he eventually encounters Lucky Luke Lockhart, another acquaintance from frontier days, now reduced to selling soap from a street box. The narrative emphasizes action, colorful dialect, and adventure in the tropical setting.