Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 349

About this issue

This issue contains the first installment of a serialized Western tale, "Wild Wolf, the Waco: or, Big-Foot Wallace to the Front," authored by "Buckskin Sam" (Major Sam S. Hall). The narrative opens in 1860s Texas near Castroville, introducing Gracie Greene, a sixteen-year-old horsewoman riding across the prairie. Gracie discovers her family's ranch ablaze along Cottonwood Creek and hears Apache war-whoops; her horse bolts, throwing her unconscious into the timber before galloping back onto the plain. The story then shifts to describe Greene's Ranch itself—a substantial log dwelling with central open-air corridor, corrals, and outbuildings—and begins introducing the ranch owner, George Greene, suggesting impending Apache conflict. The narrative emphasizes frontier Texas landscape, horsemanship, and frontier domestic architecture while developing adventure plot elements.