Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 907

About this issue

This issue of Beadle and Adams's dime novel presents the opening installment of "Powder Johnny's Snag-Strike" by Jo Pierce. The featured serial concerns Reddy Rusher, a bell-boy at the Kinglike Hotel on the Bowery, who becomes entangled in a theft mystery. A guest named Israel Robbins, a farmer from Ulster County, reports that a bag containing ten thousand dollars in gold dust—brought from the Australian diggings by his cousin Hearty Jack Robbins—has been stolen from his room. The chambermaid testifies she witnessed the gold and overheard Robbins with an unidentified boy, though Israel denies any visitor's presence. The hotel clerk remains skeptical about the robbery's authenticity. Undeterred, Reddy decides to investigate personally, trailing the suspicious Robbins down the Bowery where the farmer accosts a well-dressed young man in a chance encounter, suggesting prior acquaintance.