Chapter I: Front Matter

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.

CHAPTER I.

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

CHAPTER II.

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

CHAPTER III.

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

CHAPTER IV.

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

CHAPTER V.

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

CHAPTER VI.

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

CHAPTER VII.

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

CHAPTER VIII.

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

CHAPTER IX.

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

CHAPTER X.

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

CHAPTER XI.

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

CHAPTER XII.

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

CHAPTER XIII.

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

CHAPTER XIV.

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

CHAPTER XV.

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

CHAPTER XVI.

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

CHAPTER XVII.

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

CHAPTER XVIII.

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

CHAPTER XIX.

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

CHAPTER XX.

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

CHAPTER XXI.

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

CHAPTER XXII.

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

CHAPTER XXIII.

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

CHAPTER XXIV.

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

CHAPTER XXV.

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

CHAPTER XXVI.

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

CHAPTER XXVII.

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

CHAPTER XXVIII.

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

CHAPTER XXIX.

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

CHAPTER XXX.

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

CHAPTER XXXI.

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

CHAPTER XXXII.

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

CHAPTER XXXIII.

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

CHAPTER XXXIV.

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

CHAPTER XXXV.

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

CHAPTER XXXVI.

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

CHAPTER XXXVII.

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

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

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

CHAPTER XXXIX.

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

CHAPTER XL.

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

CHAPTER XLI.

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

CHAPTER XLII.

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

CHAPTER XLIII.

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

CHAPTER XLIV.

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

CHAPTER XLV.

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

CHAPTER XLVI.

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

CHAPTER XLVII.

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

CHAPTER XLVIII.

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

CHAPTER XLIX.

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