Show UNCOMMON AMERICANS 9 0 by elmo a western newspaper Newt paper 0 tr A scott acott watson union father of the dime novel A A PEW FEW years before the opening ti of the civil war a printer in buffalo N X Y began issuing a magazine called the youths casket and a little later another called the home monthly neither was much of a success more success ful was his brother who ran a newsstand and began selling songs on single pages in much the same fashion as the ballad hawkers of an earlier day then the printer brother published a number of these songs in a 1 pamphlet called the dime ime song book and it sold so well that they decided to move to new york city and publish other books for ten cents thus it was that a great amerl american institution was born for these brothers were erastus F and irwin P beadle and they were the he fathers of the dime novel they took into partnership another native of buffalo robert adams and tor for the next three decades there thera came from the presses of beadle and company and beadle and adams a perfect flood of little books the pocket library the half dime library and the dime library to thrill the souls of american boys and to flu fill the hearts of american parents with fear that their sons were being corrupted beyond all hope by these yellow backs how groundless that fear was is shown by the fact that some of the most distinguished americans of today grew up on a reading diet of beadles dime novels exciting and thrilling those stories may have been opening ening as so many of them did with baegl bangi B bang angl three shots rang out and another redskin bit the dust but they were also highly moral for the villain was always tolled foiled virtue always triumphed and it is doubtful it if a single boy ever was vas ruined by rading one of them hem t irwin beadle retired from the firm in 1862 robert adams died in 1866 and his two younger brothers william and david succeeded him with amin as partners erastus beadle carried the dime novel to the heights ot of its success he continued in the business until then he retired with a fortune built up by the dimes and nickels of young america lie he died in 1891 1894 too early to realize that certain of the little yellow backs which he sold for a dime would later sell for hundreds of dollars because they are americana and collectors I 1 items hemsi she wanted to be president ILE wanted to be president of SHE the united stites states but it ever there was a forlorn hope it was that ambition of victoria clafin woodhull she started under the handicap of being born in ohio to a family that was vas not only poor but disreputable and ad neither she nor her sister tennessee clafin or Terin tennie le C as she wrote ili it ever tried to retrieve the family reputation instead both of them added several shocking items to puritanical americas low estimate of the for one thing they went in for spiritualism and what was worse they became free love advocates victoria first married dr can soon him for col james H blood a handsome and distinguished civil war veterans veteran and a kindred spirit whom she later married tennessee went to td new york and won woh the admiration of commodore vanderbilt who set her and her sister up as brokers having thus entered the afie business world the sisters set out to prove P rove that women were just fast as capable as me men a in other I 1 lines ines of activity they began publishing woodhull and weekly and with it victoria started her own boom for president she ran for that high office on a platform of rights and kept right on running tor for many years she went to washington and appeared before the tha judiciary committee of the house of representatives to demand the right to vote of course she failed to win that right just as she failed to got get anyone to take her presidential candidacy seriously so she finally gave up the attempt discarded colonel blood and went to england where she acquired another husband as did her sister then both of them disowned free love won their way into english society and tor for many years published a magazine devoted to advanced views on many subjects eventually victoria settled down into a placid existence as the lady bountiful of a small town in worcestershire cester shire and became known as a social reformer who suffered tor for views now generally accepted when she died in 1827 1927 at the age of ninety the vicar who preached her funeral sermon told his hearers we have been privileged to have had one of the worlds greatest personalities among usi us I 1 |