Black Cat Vol. 01 No. 04 January 1896

The Black Cat magazine arrived in 1895 with a mission: to publish strange, uncanny, and utterly original short fiction from voices both famous and forgotten. This January 1896 issue, the fourth volume, captures the magazine at its most daring. Here are seven stories of survival, love, cowardice, and courage. A man lost in Solomon's Caverns fights through darkness and despair. A tenderfoot returns after two years to prove himself worthy of love. A baby hangs from a rooftop in Miggles' Alley, and no one knows who will reach her in time. A witness to murder grapples with whether to act or flee. Two girls accept a challenge that will test their nerve entirely. The magazine that published these tales helped launch careers and thrilled readers with stories that wandered into the uncanny and the supernatural. For anyone who loves late Victorian short fiction, who wants to glimpse what Americans were reading at the turn of the century, this issue delivers seven compact worlds in miniature, each one a small machine for wonder and unease.