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 XXXVI. “NOTHING LEFT US BUT A GRAVE, THAT SMALL MODEL OF THE BARREN EARTH,“ WITH DISHONOR FOR AN EPITAPH., connecting personal narrative with the financial, legal, and prison-world setting of the period. The chapter’s opening perspective is: Judge Archibald proceeded to pass sentence. He began with the interesting and truthful remark: “I have anxiously considered whether anything less than the maximum penalty of the law will be adequate to meet the requirements of this case, and I think not.“ We had information that a few days previously a meeting of judges had been held and that he had been advised to pass a life sentence.
This chapter is for readers following Bidwell’s memoir chapter by chapter, especially the section titled “Chapter XXXVI. "NOTHING LEFT US BUT A GRAVE, THAT SMALL MODEL OF THE BARREN EARTH," WITH DISHONOR FOR AN EPITAPH..” 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 XXXVI. "NOTHING LEFT US BUT A GRAVE, THAT SMALL MODEL OF THE BARREN EARTH," WITH DISHONOR FOR AN EPITAPH.” 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.