A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1883 — all 32 pages of painted-cover fiction magazines that launched science fiction, horror, and hardboiled crime, free to page through at ComicBooks.com.

Home › Exhibition › Pulp Fiction › Read

A complete issue · 32 pages · 1883

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257

1883 · Free to read

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 2 of 32 — 2 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 3 of 32 — 3 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 4 of 32 — 4 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 5 of 32 — 5 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 6 of 32 — 6 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 7 of 32 — 7 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 8 of 32 — 8 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 9 of 32 — 9 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 10 of 32 — 10 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 11 of 32 — 11 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 12 of 32 — 12 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 13 of 32 — 13 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 14 of 32 — 14 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 15 of 32 — 15 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 16 of 32 — 16 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 17 of 32 — 17 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 18 of 32 — 18 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 19 of 32 — 19 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 20 of 32 — 20 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 21 of 32 — 21 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 22 of 32 — 22 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 23 of 32 — 23 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 24 of 32 — 24 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 25 of 32 — 25 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 26 of 32 — 26 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 27 of 32 — 27 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 28 of 32 — 28 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 29 of 32 — 29 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 30 of 32 — 30 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 31 of 32 — 31 / 32

Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 257 — page 32 of 32 — 32 / 32

About this issue

This issue of Beadle's Weekly contains "Death-Trap Diggings: or, A Hard Man from 'Way Back" by Joseph E. Badger, Jr., a gold-rush adventure serial. The narrative follows Ralph Burnham and his mining party, who discover an exceptionally rich gold deposit in a hidden valley during the pre-transcontinental railroad era. To extract the treasure, Burnham engineers an ambitious dam and drainage system, creating dangerous conditions—the pent-up water behind the dam could catastrophically flood the valley. The story centers on Burnham's concealment of the total gold amount (approximately one hundred thousand dollars) from his workers and his haunting fears about the dam's stability. A secondary romantic tension develops between Clay Benedict and Burnham's daughter Bertha. The narrative emphasizes the miners' desperate labor, the precarious safety situation, and moral questions regarding Burnham's honesty and leadership as the operation nears completion.

Browse this issue page by page

Each page has its own page — the cartoon, who’s in it, and what the satire means.