Lost in a Comet's Tail, or, Frank Reade, Jr.'s Strange Adventure with his New Air-Ship
AUTHOR:
The author, Luis Philips Senarens published mainly under the pseudonym “Noname”. He was also published under 26 other pseudonyms such W. J. Earle, Don Jenardo, and Ned Sparling. He was said to have published his first book at 14 in the Boys of New York and was the editor in chief for Tousey’s publications from 1885 to 1923. Senarens wrote the Frank Reade Jr. series. Other stories he wrote were Happy Days and Jack Wright series for Boys of New York, and Boys Star Library & Golden Weekly. He was later published in the Pictorial Printing Co.’s Nickel Library and Border Boys Library. (DNC 237)
CHARACTERS:
Frank Reade Jr. - Son of the famous inventor Frank Reade. He invented the Steam Horse and the wagon attached to it.
Texas Jack- He is a cowboy and a famous scout that aids Frank in his journey to find the ancient mine.
Pomp - He is an African-American servant to Frank Reade Jr.
Barney - He is an Irish-man who serves under Frank Reade Jr. and his expeditions
Jack Snyder (Black Plume) - He is a renegade white man that acts under the pseudonym of Jack Howard to trick Pomp and Barney. He is the leader of the Apaches nation located in the Los Pinos Mountain region.
Mary Barstow – Widow of Bill Barstow. She is the heir of Bill’s Spanish mine. She is on the edge of poverty with her children. Frank Reade Jr. pays her debts and goes to find her inherited claim.
SETTING:
The dime novel is set in Wild West of America and includes trips to the Los Pinos Moutains.
PLOT SUMMARY:
As the Dime Novel opens Frank Reade Jr. is explaining his newest invention The Steam Horse. He meets Texas Jack who shows interest in the machine. Frank explains his mission to find the mine claim that rightfully is owned by Mary Barstow. Since Texas Jack knew Bill Barstow before he died, Texas Jack decides to aid Frank in his quest. Frank, Jack, Pomp, and Barney set out to find the mine. Along the way they have a battle with some Apaches, but the Indians are no match for The Steam Horse.
Stopping by a mountain lake, Frank and Jack explore while Pomp and Barney fight, and have to rescue the Steam Horse from Apaches. While Frank and Jack are gone Pomp and Barney get into a fight and lose track of the Steam Horse. Meanwhile Jack and Frank discover an underground network, which turns out to be the mine.
Pomp and Barney demoralized, find the Steam Horse with a man named John Howard. John convinces Pomp and Barney to climb aboard and they will find Frank and Jack together. He later reveals that John Howard is Jack Sndyer the Black Plume.
Frank and Jack are at the ancient Spanish mine when they run into the Black Plume. The Apaches and the Black Plume capture Frank and Jack and torture Pomp and Barney. The four of them eventually break free when the Apaches are distracted by their medicine man. An earthquake suddenly happens and falling rocks fall on the Black Plume and his band of Apaches killing them. Frank and his crew ride to back to Mary and give her the claim that is rightfully hers.
THEMES:
One of the main themes is the benefit of working together regardless of race or class. Pomp and Barney are portrayed as lower class servants to Frank through their slang vernacular. Characters other than Frank and the Black Plume are portrayed to be a lower class. The Black Plume takes advantage of Pomp and Barney and their ignorance when he passes himself off to be John Howard. Texas Jack also doesn’t speak as proper as Frank Reade. This brings up the theme of race and class because they all work together throughout the story to see through a noble cause. Apaches are portrayed as “savages” and even Pomp realizes this after they are captured.
CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS:
This Frank Reade story has a theme about US expansion and conquest. Frank travels all over the world with his American made technology to Antiartica, Africa, Canada, India, and Mexico. This literature addresses the themes of American expansion with technology (Williams 287). Frank sets out to solve the big question of what the comet’s tail made of. Frank uses an American made ship from Readestown, which closely resembled Edision’s Menlo Park in New Jeresy (Sheffield). Like Sheffield, Carano, and Berson state that the science fiction dime novels “created a national optimism regarding the future benefits of technology. The lure of new technology and the possibilities it promised seeped into American popular culture.” (Sheffield). The public was able to relate to the technology because Luis Senerans used American Guilded Age technologies (Sheffield).
Works Cited
Cox, J. Randolph. The Dime Novel Companion: A Source Book. Westport, CT:Greenwood, 2000. Questia. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.
Senarens, Luis. Lost in a Comet's Tail, Or, Frank Reade, Jr.'s Strange Adventure with His New Air-Ship. New York: Frank Tousey, 1895. Print.
Sheffield, Caroline C., Kenneth T. Carano, and Michael J. Berson. "Steam Man and Airships: Technology of the Future in the Past." Social Education 72.3 (2008):124-9. Print.
Williams, Nathaniel. Frank Reade, Jr., in Cuba: Dime-Novel Technology, U.S. Imperialism, and the “American Jules Verne”. 83 Vol. , 2011. Print.