Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 130

This 1880 Beadle and Adams dime novel serializes "Detective Dick: or, The Hero in Rags" by Charles Morris. The story follows Dick, a street boy of sixteen dressed in tattered cast-offs, as he delivers a letter from H. Wilson Harris to Ned Hogan, a middle-aged detective. The letter, read aloud with comic interruptions, complains of Dick's impertinent behavior and summons Hogan to Chester, Pennsylvania on urgent business involving a schooner called the Lucy and its red-haired mate. Hogan rushes to telegraph Harris in cipher, then stations himself outside a stylish townhouse to conduct surveillance. Meanwhile, inside that house, a sweet-voiced lady practices music at the piano. The narrative balances street-dialect comedy with detective intrigue involving mysterious cargo and suspects.