From the exhibition
Beadle's Dime Library No. 954: Joe Phenix in Chicago
· February 3, 1897
This issue contains the opening installment of "Joe Phenix in Chicago, or The Serio-Comic Detective" by Albert W. Aiken, author of the Joe Phenix novels and other adventure tales. The mystery unfolds when English businessman Carroll Berkeley meets his old acquaintance MacKensie on a train and reveals that his brother Marshall has vanished in Chicago. Marshall cashed a forged check for five thousand dollars (allegedly for property) two days before disappearing—a signature Berkeley suspects is counterfeit. The Chicago police attribute it to bunco-men in low establishments, but the renowned detective Joe Phenix, engaged by Berkeley, theorizes the crime is the work of clever European criminals. Investigation reveals Marshall frequented the Glorious Alcazar, a beer-garden music-hall in the Fair District. Phenix accepts the case and prepares to travel to Chicago to investigate.
Public domain (pre-1929), restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain