Hook and Ladder No. 2 by WARDEN, Ex-Fire Chief - 1902

New York: Frank Tousey, Publisher, 1902. Paperback. The October 15th, 1902 edition (No. 228) of "Pluck and Luck: Complete Stories of Adventure." 4to. Pictorial color wrappers. 29pp, (3pp ads). Very good. Inner text pages mildly and evenly age toned, as usual, and free of the edge tears and chips that plague most dime novels. Handsome, tight issue of this adventure weekly. Bright, vibrant chromolithograph front wrapper graphic shows a row of red-cloaked firemen pulling a wagon toward the viewer, the fire chief in front staggering from a gunshot wound fired from another firefighter off to the side. Reads the caption, "Only one man saw Ashton snatch a revolver from his pocket. As the men sprang to right their truck, he who had started the fire at the hut saw Ashton aim carefully at the proud and manly figure of the foreman of No. 2...." Firefighting was an extremely popular topic. A far better than average dime novel (actually, "Price 5 Cents") or "penny dreadful," with text printed in two columns.