Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 367

About this issue

Wide-Awake Joe; or, A Boy of the Times by Charles Morris, serialized in this 1884 Beadle and Adams dime novel weekly. The story follows Jolly Joe, a resourceful fourteen-year-old orphan vagrant in New York City. In Chapter I, Joe enters a private garden seeking food and encounters Miss Maud, a kind young woman gathering flowers. Despite his ragged appearance and aggressive hunger, Joe's evident pride and honesty impress her. She feeds him bread with preserves and preserves. When Maud's stern uncle—a prosperous businessman—discovers the boy, he refuses to employ Joe, viewing him as worthless. Joe's attempt to talk back results in threats; he flees into the garden. Chapter II, set weeks later, finds Joe seated on a fire-plug contentedly eating pie and a sandwich. When the same uncle appears and insults him, Joe responds with defiant wit, claiming equal rights to the street and threatening to report the man to a policeman. The narrative emphasizes Joe's scrappy independence and resourcefulness despite poverty.