Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison. English-only reading by default; switch among English, Chinese, and Spanish, or compare languages side by side.
This chapter develops the memoir’s account of Chapter X. A NINETEENTH CENTURY PRODIGAL., connecting personal narrative with the financial, legal, and prison-world setting of the period. The chapter’s opening perspective is: Let no man who may be tempted to commit a crime ever fancy that if he takes the first step down hill he will stop until he reaches the bottom. If one of my readers flatters himself he can go one step, with no more to follow, on the downward road, let such an one read this story to the end and then forever abandon such an idea as a fancy born of inexperience.
This chapter is for readers following Bidwell’s memoir chapter by chapter, especially the section titled “Chapter X. A NINETEENTH CENTURY PRODIGAL..” It is most useful for readers interested in financial crime history, nineteenth-century banking culture, criminal justice, prison memoir, and the social setting of the period.
Read “Chapter X. A NINETEENTH CENTURY PRODIGAL.” as a historical memoir rather than guidance. The banking procedures, legal assumptions, public reputation, social judgments, travel conditions, and prison practices described belong to Bidwell’s nineteenth-century setting and may not match modern institutions.