Literature · Crime, Thrillers & Mystery

Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison 1

Opening pages

BidwellEnglish

BIDWELL'S TRAVELS.

FROM

Wall Street

To London Prison

Fifteen Years in Solitude.

FREED A HUMAN WRECK, A WONDERFUL SURVIVAL AND A MORE WONDERFUL RISE IN THE WORLD. TO-DAY HE HAS A NATIONAL REPUTATION AS A WRITER, SPEAKER AND IS CONSIDERED AN AUTHORITY ON ALL SOCIAL PROBLEMS. HE WAS TRIED AT THE OLD BAILEY AND SENTENCED FOR LIFE. CHARGED WITH THE L1,000,000 FORGERY ON THE BANK OF ENGLAND.

THIS STORY SHOWS THAT THE EVENTS OF HIS LIFE SURPASS THE IMAGINATIONS OF OUR FAMOUS NOVELISTS, ITS THRILLING SCENES, HAIR-BREADTH ESCAPES AND MARVELOUS ADVENTURES ARE NOT A RECORD OF CRIME, BUT ARE PROOFS OF THAT

IN THE WORLD OF WRONGDOING SUCCESS IS FAILURE.

490 Pages. 80 Graphic Illustrations.

Copyrighted 1897 by BIDWELL PUBLISHING COMPANY, HARTFORD, CONN.

Editorial New York Herald.

Referring to a Whole Page.

"If an American dramatist or novelist had taken for the ground work of a play or work of fiction the story of the Bidwell family to-day related on another page of the Herald, all European critics would have told him that the story was too 'American,' too vast in its outlines, too high in its colors, too merely 'big' in fact.

"The story has its lesson. The play is not a mere spectacle. The lesson is that in the doing and undoing of wrong the Bidwell family expended enough ability and energy to stock a good many reigning European families for generations.

"Let the Comedie Humaine write itself and it will outwrite Balzac."

Hon. Lyman J. Gage.

Having read the Bidwell book I believe it will benefit every one to read this marvellous history of human experience.

Aside from its dramatic interest there are great moral lessons involved of especial value to young men and employees in positions of trust.

Therefore, I recommend this book as unique and a valuable acquisition for home and office.

From Chas. M. Stead, Union League Club, New York.

"Dear Sir--I read your book with a good deal of interest, and would like to change it for a higher-priced binding if you have one."

The Worcester Spy.

"Mr. Bidwell's book has been compared with Dumas' famous 'Monte Christo.' The extraordinary character of its adventures, indeed, would render it dramatic and powerful as fiction; as human truth, it is simply overwhelming. No one can read this book unmoved. From every conceivable standpoint, physiological, sociological, and literary, it is a marvel."

Philip W. Moen.

Mr. Moen, of Washburn & Moen, Worcester, Mass., writes: "I have read Mr. George Bidwell's book with the deepest interest. It is a book that deserves to be widely read, and I am very glad to recommend it."

A Niece of Oliver Wendell Holmes

writes: "Few books have so stirred my mind for years as the book by George Bidwell. Hearing of the book, prejudice immediately seized me against it. The history given by himself, to be interesting at all must be sensational, therefore disastrous to morals. So avowed prejudiced thought; and, determined to find fault, I began this remarkable history. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND FAULT WITH THE BOOK, WHICH IS VALUABLE AND WONDERFULLY ABSORBING."

From Ira D. Sankey, Esq.

"MR. GEORGE BIDWELL, Dear Sir--I have read with great interest your book, and believe it will do much good among young men wherever read. Your life is a proof and your book a burning record of the truth that 'Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.' I believe in throwing light into all the dark places of this life, that men, seeing the dangers, they may avoid them. I wish you success."

From Hon. Robert G. Ingersoll.

"GEORGE BIDWELL, ESQ.:

My Dear Sir--Knowing as I do that you will tell a candid story of your career, I believe you will do good. Crime springs mostly from a lack of intelligence and imagination. Only the foolish can think that the practice of vice is the road to joy. As a matter of fact, the wrong does not pay. You have, in your remarkable book, made this fact perfectly clear, and you will enforce this great truth on the platform. In the world of crime success is failure. Good luck to you."

Rev. Dr. Edward Beecher

writes; "I recommend this book to the friends of morality."

Office of Street's Insurance Agency, Hartford, Conn.

"MR. GEORGE BIDWELL, Dear Sir--A clergyman consulted with me regarding his son, who had fallen into bad associations, taken part in many small thefts, and seemed hardened against shame or dread of exposure. I believe the mean, dangerous boy has become a man by reading your book." Yours very truly,

F. F. STREET, Hartford, Conn.

Hartford Daily Times.

"This autobiography is a story of thrilling interest."

CONTENTS.

A NEW YORK HERALD EDITORIAL.

Brooklyn Public Schools in the Sixties--Old. No. 13--Parents Suited to the Golden Age--A Curious Preparation for the Battle of Life--Knew that Brutus Slew Caesar--George the Third Was a Bad Fellow Who Got a Tea Kettle Thrown at His Head In Boston Harbor--My Model Home Library--An Innocent Leaves Home. 19

In a Broker's Office--A Nice Old Gentleman--Situation in Wall Street--An Up-to-Date Young Man--Visions of Wealth--Speculations--Wall Street in the Sixties--The Hon. John Morrissey, ex-Pugilist--His Famous Gambling House--I Try a Game of Faro--Midnight Banquets--I Have Entered the Primrose Way. 24

Pleasure Before Business--Result of That Method--On Financial Rocks--James, Otherwise "Jimmy," Irving--He Was a Model Chief of Detectives--Police Headquarters, 300 Mulberry Street, in the Early Seventies--He Takes Me for a Drive out Harlem Lane--A Trio of Detectives--They Make a Startling Proposition--A $10,000 Temptation--Mental Conflicts--I Dare Not Be Poor--C'est le Premier Pas Qui Coute. 28

History of the Famous Lord Bond Steal--"On the Office"--Three Sneaks Stumble on a Fortune--A $1,250,000 Tin Box--Dazed Crooks--What to Do with Their White Elephant--Excitement at Police Headquarters--Bullard et al.--A Violin Virtuoso--Superintendent of Police Kelso Presents a $500 Silver Punch Bowl to the Daughter of Boss Tweed--Paid for with Stolen Cash. 36

Police Protectors--New York Gangs--Irving & Co. Give Me $80,000 Lord Bonds to Sell Abroad--A Midnight Farewell--Alone on the Sea--When Jim Fisk Owned Our Judges--Chief Irving Plans a Famous Bank Robbery--His Three Burglar Confederates. 48

The Bank Looted--Irving Notified by Bank Officials--His Feigned Surprise--Hunts the Burglars, but Divides the Plunder at His Own House--Count Shinburne and His Palace on the Rhine--Twenty Years Later. 58

I Arrive in Paris--Field of Waterloo--Meet the Antwerp Chief of Police--He Is on Trail--A Dutch Van Tromp and the Countess Winzerode--His Dream of Bliss and Tragic Death--My Negotiations in Frankfurt-on-the-Main. 65

Marpurgo & Weisweller, Bankers--Francoise Blanc, the Gambler King--His Casinos at Monte Carlo, Homburg and Wiesbaden--I Meet Van Tromp's Countess--Outlived Her Beauty--Now a Hanger-on at the Rouge et Noir Tables--Takes My Advice--Marries a Rich Burgher--Becomes a Good Stepmother--Her Pious End and Epitaph. 73

I Sell the $80,000 Bonds--Reach London Safely--Drifting--Success in Crime a Failure--A Desolate Woman--Beautiful Barmaid Show--Westminster Abbey--Good Resolutions--Sail Home--Irving at the Wharf--Meet at Taylor's Hotel--The Total: "I Have Another Job for You"--A Fool's Game. 84

Edwin James, Q.C., and a Possible Lord Chancellor of England--His Extravagance--On the Border Land of Crime--He Oversteps--Disbarred--Comes to New York--Richard O'Gorman's Great Heart--The Brea Will Case--A Dark Plot--$20,000 out of Wall Street--Jay Cooke & Co. Narrowly Escape Loss of $240,000--Chief Irving in the Plot--Detective George Elder Not in Our Ring--Accidentally He Appears and Thwarts Our Plans. 94

Eastward Ho!--The James and Brea Exit--Ezra, the Shrewd Lawyer--Three Unhappy Daughters--He Marries One--Detects Forged Will--Flight of Brea to Montana--A Sunrise Surprise at Butte City--James Returns to London--Fills a Pauper's Grave Instead of a Lord Chancellor's. 114

Bordeaux, Marseilles and Lyons "Donate" $50,000--A Bad Quarter of an Hour--Eggs and Peasant Women--"Sweets to the Sweet"--A Mysterious Stranger Disappears Among the Tombs. 123

A Starry Talk--Contrast Between Mac's Philosophy and His Errand--A Financial Trip Through Germany--From Leipsic Fair to London--Return Loaded with Thalers. 132

A Drive to Hampton Court--Send $10,000 Police Tribute to New York--Discussing the Bank of England in the Throne Room at Windsor Castle--Believe It to Be a Fossil Institution--Greene, the Tailor--Introduces Me to Bank--No References Required--Joy That Ends in Sorrow. 142

Voyage to Rio Janeiro--The Lady of the Lucitania--A Swedish Colonel's Party of English Engineers--A Bibulous Chaplain--Modern Buccaneers--Scenes at Bordeaux--Crossing the Line--Father Neptune's Visit--Fun at Sea--Arrival in Rio--Maua & Co.--Our Plans. 154

Fifty Thousand Dollars on Bogus Letters of Credit--Visit to a Coffee Plantation--Slaves Dining--Dangerous Errors in Letters of Credit--A Nervous Day--An Eagle-Eyed Hebrew--"Show Me Your Letter of Credit"--Mac in a Corner--A Bold Coup--Strategy--Can We Get Out of Brazil? 160

Brazilian Law--Visit Police Headquarters--A Douceur to the Chief--In a Tight Spot--A "Doctored" Passport--A Detective on Trail. Who Ingratiates Himself into Mac's Confidence--Manoeuvres--The Detective on a "Wild Goose Chase"--Safely on Board--A Distinguished Party in a Rowboat--A Stern Chase--Off at Last. 173

Rio to Buenos Ayres--Return and Meet Mac in Paris--Determine to Abandon a Dangerous Business--Vienna--Watching the Game--Must Have More Money--Good Resolutions Vanish--Return to London--Determine to Assault the Bank of England--Deposit $67,000. 186

Bank of England Requires No References--Letter from Paris--A Gilded American Young Man--Duped into Marriage with a Parisienne Moendaine--A Ghost at Monte Carlo--In a Greenwood Mausoleum--Earthly Happiness and the World to Come. 193

A Council of War--Description of Bills of Exchange--Frederick Albert Warren, the Great American Railway Contractor--The Great Bank Proves Fallible--Discounts Bogus Bills of Exchange. 200

Draw Fabulous Sums--Bags of Sovereigns by the Cab Load--In a French Railway Wreck--Baron Alfonse de Rothschild, Head of the Paris House--A Famous L6,000 Draft. 206

Last Call at the Bank of England--Noyes Arrives in London--An Artful Plot--Introduce Noyes--Plan Now Complete--Our Wise Forefathers--No Change in a Century--Our Paper Is Discounted--Prepare for Flight--Thou Shalt Not. 214

Fifty Thousand Dollars a Day--The Golden Shower Continues to Fall--Operations Shrouded in Midnight Darkness--No Possibility of Discovery--Finish and Begin Again--Amazing Oversight--Pitcher Goes Once Too Often--Noyes Arrested--Unparalleled Excitement on the Stock Exchange. 224

Consternation--A Mob of Bankers--The Financial World Shaken--Noyes Taken to Newgate--Mac Cables Irving--His Flight to France--Sails from Havre on Board Thuringia--Arrested at Quarantine--The Pinkertons on Trail. 236

Hunted Through Ireland--$2,500 Reward for My Capture--Detectives "Spot" Me at the Cork Railway Station--Obliged to Abandon Taking Passage by the Ill-Fated Atlantic--A Game of "Hare and Hounds"--Eluding a Detective "Trap"--English Misrule in Ireland--Am Taken for a Priest--A Typographical Thunderbolt at Lismore--An Early Morning Walk--A Ride on an Irish Jaunting Car--"On the Road to Clonmel"--Shelter in a "Shebeen"--How Thirsty Souls Get the "Craythur" In Ireland--A Good Old Irish Lady--Pursuit and Refuge in a Ruined Cottage at Cahir. 248

An Unceremonious Call--"I am a Fenian Leader"--A "Story" Told in the Dark--Maloy Helps My Escape on an Irish Jaunting Car--Eggs--A Policeman Anxious to Obtain the Five Hundred Pounds Reward--Dublin Again--A Jewess' Blessing--I Turn Russian, and Later Become a Frenchman--Belfast Detectives--Escape into Scotland--The Other Side of the Story--A Bow Street Detective's Adventures While Hunting Me Through Ireland --Cross-Questioning--My Jaunting Car Driver--"A Cold Water Cure"--Hot on the Trail--Not in the Fort--A Fruitless Hunt--Many Innocents Arrested--Maloy Becomes a "Know-Nothing." 261

A Marriage at the American Embassy in Paris--Anxious Moments at Versailles--Off for Spain--Crossing the Pyrenees--Gunshots--Train off the Track--Captured by Carlist Bandits--Released--Through the Pass on Ox Carts--A Mountain Blizzard--Camp in a Snowstorm--Mutiny--A Morning Dream. 275

A Carlist Officer--A Picturesque Caravan--Arrival at Burgos--Startling Telegrams--Revolution at Madrid--The Railway Seized--My Party in a Trap--Madrid Cathedral and a Bull Fight--A Special Train Proves a Slow Train--No News Good News. 292

Arrival in Santander--Gloomy Forebodings--Sail for Cuba--Watch the Pyrenees Sink in the Sea--Two Sisters of Charity, Innocents on a Voyage--Circus at St. Thomas--Sunset Gun in Havana--Thirty Seconds Change My Destiny. 301

Slavery in Cuba--Life in Havana--The Million-Pound Forgery Discovered--My Opinion Asked--Trip to the Isle of Pines--The Cuban Rebels--A Battle Field--A Slave Cook--The Missionary and the Cannibal--Going into the Interior. 312

On the Caribbean--A Motley Cargo--Turning Turtles and Shark Fishing--A Dinner Party in Havana Proves a Surprise Party--Capt. John Curtin of the Pinkertons Appears on the Scene--Consternation Among the Diners--Offer the Captain $50,000 for Ten Minutes' Start--No--I Shoot Him--Struggle and Capture--In the Arsenal. 327

Friendly Spanish Officials--Plots to Escape--Leap for Liberty--Escape out of Havana--Travel the Beach Nights--Refuge in the Jungle Days--Construct a Raft--Food and Water Gone, but Pluck at the Fore--I Will Join the Rebels And Win Military Laurels--Man Proposes, but---- 338

Creeping Across a Bridge--Sentries Discover Me--They Challenge: "Quien Va?"--They Fire--Flight and Escape on the Raft--A Tropical Night Swim--Sharks Everywhere--Knife Between My Teeth--Regain the Shore--Nearing the Rebel Camp--The Black Soldiers Surprise and Capture Me--I Strike the Captain--He Dashes at Me with a Bayonet--Stopped by a Woman--Desperation. 355

Back in Havana--Curtin's Story--Extradited--Spain Delivers Me to England--Pinkertons Escort Me on Board Steamer--Arrival at Plymouth--Newgate at Last--When Time is Old and Hath Forgotten Himself. 372

Life in Newgate--Legal Sharks--A Pattern Solicitor--A Lame Defense --Before Lord Mayor Waterlow--Trial at the Old Bailey--Thronging Crowds--Days of Mental Torture--Jury Retires--Suspense--Guilty. 383

A Modern Jeffreys--Penal Servitude for Life--End of the Primrose Way--A Resolve--Will Fortune Ever Smile Again?--Newgate to Chatham Prison--A Cocky Little Major--You Were Sent Here to Work--In the Mud--Night and Silence. 387

Events of the First Day--Hopeless Outlook--Lack of Mental and Physical Food--A Shakespeare Won and Hope Dawns--In the Infirmary--Effects of Prolonged Imprisonment. 401

Prison Management--Warders Under Military Discipline--Their Long Hours and Small Pay--Their Character and Antecedents--English Prison System Not Reformatory--Turns Out Murderers--Prison Pets--Rats, Mice and Beetles. 404

A Genius--Strange Story of Arthur Heep--Unwise Parents--Driven from Home--Temptation and Fall--In a Lunatic Asylum--Escapes Naked in a Storm--Clothes Secured from a Scarecrow--Rearrested--Serves Five Years--To America and Return--Again Behind the Bars. 417

English Prisons Schools for Crime--Two Prison Aid Societies--United States Laws Evaded--Snug Berths for Reverend Barnacles--Contributions Go for Salaries--No Benefit to ex-Prisoners--How Discharged Prisoners Are Hustled to the United States. 426

Rev. Mr. Whiteley--How to Stop Influx of Foreign Criminals--Foster an Example--Whiteley, Secretary of Aid Society, Sends Foster to Sea--His Arrival in Chicago--Meets an Old Prison Chum--Turns Detective--Chicago Justices--Foster's Story--Human Tigers--A Plot and $20,000--A Letter and Diamond Pin--In the Toils Again. 430

A Gettysburg Veteran--In the Wethersfield, Ct., State Prison--Makes and Conceals a Set of Burglar's Tools--Liberated--Returns and Burglarizes the Prison--Boat Load of Plunder--Captured--Sixteen Years More in Prison--Then Goes to England--Gets Twenty Years--Joins Me at Chatham. 436

The Fenians at Chatham--Dr. Gallagher--McCarty, O'Brien and Others--We Become Friends--Excavating the Chatham Ship Basin--Starvation and Despair--Self-Mutilation of an Arm or Leg to Reach the Hospital--Release and Death of McCarty--Gallagher Breaks Down--Speedy Release or Death for Him. 443

Fenian Prisoners in English Prisons--McCarthy, O'Brien--A Plan Miscarried--In the Tolls--Severe Punishments--Curtin, Daly, Egan--Poor Dr. Gallagher. 447

A Dictionary and Life of the Prophet Jeremiah vs. a Shakespeare--Prison Hospital Proves a Paradise--Nature's Compensations--Reality Not So Terrible as Imagined--Human Nature Unchangeable. 453

Public Opinion Within Says the Same as Outside--A Sensible Fellow--Pluck Wins--Roses Scarce, Thorns Plenty--Woe to Mutineers for "More Bread"--Sentiment Banished--Resistance Crushed--English Judges Are Autocrats--No Appeal. 459

Hard Lines--A Boaster--A Veneered Flunkey--Billy Treacle's Aunt Dies Again--Frederic Barton and His Vain Petitions--I Give Him a Pointer--His Inherited Fortune Fake--Surreptitious Mail Route--Warders as Letter Carriers. 463

Sixteen-Thousand-Acre Tea Plantation in India and Sixty Thousand Pounds Imaginary Inheritance--Barton Becomes a Great Man--The Plot Thickens--Letters from London--Smith Discharged--Petition for Barton--Smith Presents It at Home Office--Home Secretary Swallows the Bait--Barton's Triumphant Release--His Imaginary Fortune Does Not Materialize. 466

Tantalizing the Home Secretary--Refused a Letter Sheet--Petition the Home Office for One--Sarcasm About Barton's Release on My Sub-Rosa Petition--Good Conduct Fails--Feigned Wealth Wins Freedom for Barton--Apropos Quotation from Goethe--Sir Vernon Harcourt and His Opinion--I Tread Dangerous Ground. 471

Niblo Clark--The Mysterious Three R's--His Characteristic Verses--My Tenth Anniversary at Chatham--All Efforts Fail and Fifteen Years Gone Forever--Despairing When Good News Comes--My Sister in England--George Freed--Hope Returns and Abides--George Gets James G. Blaine, J. Russell and Others to Intercede--Fresh Failures--Home Secretary Matthews Won't--George and My Sister Will--Which Will Wear the Other Out--George and Sister Win--Night and Gloom in My Cell--These Walls Have Frowned on Me for Twenty Years--Warder's Tramps on Stone Corridor Arouse Me--Door Opens--"You Are Free"--First Sight of Stars in Twenty Years--I Shout, 'Twas Like a Prayer: "God Is Good." 478

NOTE TO THE PUBLIC

The Hon. Lyman J. Gage, Dr. Funk and hundreds of others have said that my book should be put at a price which would place it within the reach of every young man, etc.

Hitherto, it has been sold by subscription at $3.50, $5 and $10 per copy--the five editions printed having been easily sold at those prices.

Notwithstanding the thousands of friends their circulation has made, I did not care to have my family name go any further in this connection than financial needs required in working for the release of the men still undergoing life sentences in English prisons.

At last, however, certain influence causes me to let it go in the revised and improved form here presented, and may it prove as valuable and engrossing to the general public as it has to 20,000 subscribers to former editions. GEORGE BIDWELL.

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