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 XL. WE WILL FERRY YOU OVER JORDAN THAT ROLLS BETWEEN., connecting personal narrative with the financial, legal, and prison-world setting of the period. The chapter’s opening perspective is: Once convicted of a crime in England it is impossible, unless a man has money or friends, for him to obtain an honest livelihood unless he is the happy possessor of a trade. All the great corporations demand references that will cover a series of years of the applicant’s life, and, above all, strict inquiry is made as to his last employer.
This chapter is for readers following Bidwell’s memoir chapter by chapter, especially the section titled “Chapter XL. WE WILL FERRY YOU OVER JORDAN THAT ROLLS BETWEEN..” 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 XL. WE WILL FERRY YOU OVER JORDAN THAT ROLLS BETWEEN.” 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.