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 XLVII. HIS ROW BECOMES FILLED WITH VERY SHARP-EDGED STONES INDEED., connecting personal narrative with the financial, legal, and prison-world setting of the period. The chapter’s opening perspective is: The inhabitant of a cell has a very rough row to hoe under any circumstance, and it has to be hoed, but there is no necessity for him to fill his row with stones and to plant roots in it himself. He soon finds his level, and the impression he makes on his arrival is the one which, as a rule, clings to him to the end.
This chapter is for readers following Bidwell’s memoir chapter by chapter, especially the section titled “Chapter XLVII. HIS ROW BECOMES FILLED WITH VERY SHARP-EDGED STONES INDEED..” 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 XLVII. HIS ROW BECOMES FILLED WITH VERY SHARP-EDGED STONES INDEED.” 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.