The February 13, 1926 issue of Argosy All-Story Weekly featured four serials, including the start of Charles Francis Coe’s The Ranch Beyond, one novelette, four short stories, five poems, and a special insert that is a tribute to Frank A. Munsey, the founder of the magazine, who had passed away on December 22 of the previous year. I skipped the serials, as per my usual practice when I lack all the parts, but I read the remaining content.

The novelette, Florida’s Beautiful Dumb-Bell, by Loring Brent (a pen-name for George F. Worts), was another in a series of stories about the Florida town of Vingo and its inhabitants, a romance centered on a young woman who moved into a dilapidated inherited house and pursued odd opportunities for making money. I had previously read and enjoyed The Lost Orange Grove from the series and so was prepared to like this one as well; it did not disappoint.

Gip Akin’s “The Mangy Cur” is an OK dog story, in which a tough rancher learns a little softness, while “Pitiless Publicity,” by Gordon Stiles, is a humorous tale of how others’ greed and a little trickery help an old man to spend his last days in comfort. Fred MacIsaac’s “The Peerless Pishkin” is another comic story, this one involving a show promoter and a Russian ballet troupe — slight but amusing enough. Finally, Olin Lyman relates a day of lows and highs for a young salesclerk who faces robbers and the complexities of a new car in “It’s a Great Life!”

All in all, an OK issue, with perhaps too little adventure in the stories (though doubtless plenty in the serials).