Bidwell's Travels, From Wall Street to London Prison: Fifteen Years in Solitude is a public-domain classic of history by Austin Bidwell.
The complete text is on this page and the chapter pages below — all 98 chapters, about 135,735 words (~11 hours of reading), free to read online with no signup. Chapters include “CHAPTER III.. Pleasure Before Business--Result of That Method--on Financial”, “CHAPTER IV.. History of the Famous Lord Bond Steal--"on the Office"--Three”, “CHAPTER V.. Police Protectors--New York Gangs--Irving & Co. Give Me $80,000”, and more.
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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 Möndaine--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 £6,000 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
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