ntly able to fit in ones back pocket, were carried everywhere. Reading was a way of passing time during the commute, and even more intriguing, a way of passing the time during work breaks. The fact that the stories were taken across and between the boundaries of home and work indicates that they were providing their readers with something they were unable to get from work. In this respect, dime novels were an escape from the harsh reality and working conditions of factories and other places inhabited by the working class. They were so pervasive that some workers would read them as they worked, unable to leave the tales of adventures until the ride home.Some interpreted the passion for reading as an inability of the working class to do nothing more with their free time than merely be entertained. Long hours, said one Detroit Knight of Labor, made workers incapable of doing anything requiring thought. . . They will read trashy novels, or go to a variety theater or a dance, but nothing beyond amusements (Denning, 45). While long days did tend to drain workers, they did not read as passively as this Knight of Labor suggested. Sometimes I wonder how it would seem, said one tailoress, if I should have the luck that you read about in the novels--get rich all of a sudden and have your fine house and carriage as some of the girls have that I used to go with (Denning, 35). In fact, reading about the lives of those such as Buffalo Bill and Willful Gaynell did exactly this: provide a sense of wonder, the possibility that the rags to riches story would one day be their own. On the surface, dime novels appeared solely immoral and profane. The Indian-scalping and gun-happy adventures of Buffalo Bill, in particular, were disconcerting to critics and the cause of their unrest about the contamination of the morals of the working class (Reading the West, 3). But the actions of Buffalo Bill seemed justified enough. When he killed others, it was...
