A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1886 — all 32 pages of painted-cover fiction magazines that launched science fiction, horror, and hardboiled crime, free to page through at ComicBooks.com.

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A complete issue · 32 pages · 1886

Beadle's Pocket Library, No. 138

1886 · Free to read

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About this issue

This dime novel by Charles Morris follows Bob Rockett, a sharp-faced, dwarfish street boy who dominates a gang of young vagrants living in New York's tenement districts. The narrative opens with Rockett entertaining his companions with a picaresque tale of stealing a monkey from an Italian organ grinder near Fulton Ferry, detailing how the animal escaped his pocket and caused chaos. After being kicked by Rusty Mike, a brutal local tough, Rockett provokes a fistfight with Paul Essex, a taller boy who defends Joe Linker from Rockett's kicks. The fight draws a crowd of onlookers until police arrive, scattering the combatants. The story then shifts to Rusty Mike's dingy room, where he dines with Beau Bink, a faded dandy, and Mrs. Sally. Mike cryptically references "Old Smudge" and prepares for some unspecified nighttime "lay," suggesting criminal enterprise.

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