Beadle's Pocket Library No. 135

About this issue

This August 1886 issue of Beadle's Weekly features the serialized story "Deadwood Dick of Deadwood: The Picked Party" by Edward L. Wheeler, author of the Deadwood Dick series. The narrative follows Edwin Booth Snowbank, a Black banjo-playing aspiring Shakespearean tragedian traveling to Skeleton Bend to meet Colonel Yankee Doodle Yuba. Snowbank is accosted by Captain Calvin Cutthroat, a masked outlaw leader of a criminal gang called the Picked Party. After questioning Snowbank about his destination, Cutthroat permits him to proceed. The story then shifts to Cutthroat's camp in the Cat-Gut ravine, where his gang has captured a young, beardless miner of approximately twenty-three years. Cutthroat reveals his identity to the captive, who responds defiantly, refusing to show fear at the outlaw's notorious reputation. The exact reasons for the capture remain unclear at this point in the narrative.