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 XVI. “SHOW ME YOUR LETTERS OF CREDIT.“, connecting personal narrative with the financial, legal, and prison-world setting of the period. The chapter’s opening perspective is: Fate, Providence, call it what you will, seldom fails to upset wrongdoing, making it rocky for the wrongdoer. By an irony of fortune we carried with us that which was going to balk all, or nearly all, our fine scheme.
This chapter is for readers following Bidwell’s memoir chapter by chapter, especially the section titled “Chapter XVI. "SHOW ME YOUR LETTERS OF CREDIT.".” 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 XVI. "SHOW ME YOUR LETTERS OF CREDIT."” 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.