Beadle's Pocket Library, No. 57

This issue of *Beadle and Adams' dime novel series contains the opening chapter of "Calamity Jane, the Heroine of Whoop-Up: A Story of Dakota" by Edward L. Wheeler, author of the Deadwood Dick novels. The narrative begins in Canyon Gulch in the Black Hills, where two miners—Colonel Joe Tubbs and a mysterious young man named Sandy from New York—discuss the beautiful singing voice they've heard. Tubbs identifies the singer as Calamity Jane, a reckless but honorable woman known throughout the region who wears men's clothing and possesses skills in shooting, gambling, and prospecting. After Sandy discovers a large gold nugget near their camp, which they name Satan's Bend, the story shifts to follow Calamity Jane herself, portrayed as a handsome woman in her late teens or early twenties, richly dressed in buckskin and adorned with diamonds, traveling on horseback toward Deadwood.