Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 576

About this issue

This issue of Beadle and Adams (vol. XXII, no. 576, August 1888) features a Western serial, "The Silver Sport," by an unspecified author. The story opens with a stagecoach robbery attempt on the trail between Rocky Butte and Bullion City. Passengers include mining property owner Lucas Waldo, his daughter Jennie, and a dashing stranger known as "Sunny Selim, the Silver Sport," identifiable by his silver-adorned Mexican jacket and mounted revolvers. When masked bandits command the stage to halt, the Silver Sport draws his revolvers and—despite concerns for Jennie's safety—stages an audacious counterattack, killing the bandits restraining the horses. The desperate dash succeeds, though the Sport is creased by a bullet. Waldo, grateful and impressed, reveals he was carrying ten thousand dollars, which he'd partially transferred to Jennie. In Chapter II, a gangly Vermont youth named Josh Peppermint arrives in Bullion City riding a stubborn burro, seeking someone named Primrose. His comical arrival—the burro bucking wildly through town—draws crowds outside the Primrose Palace saloon. After verbal sparring with onlookers, Peppermint calls down to proprietor Caleb Primrose, introducing himself and claiming acquaintance from Vermont.