A Ticket of Leave Man.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 343, 16 February 1889, Page 5

A Ticket of Leave Man.

Gkokge Bid well, fchemosl famous ticket of leave man in the world, spent a night in one of fche most fashionable hotels in this city. Not one of those who saw the neably dressed man eauntci up and down the cor" vidor of the Fifth Avenue dreamed that he was tho man who 15 years ag » stai tie i all England by the most gigantic fiauds that were ever planned. Ho has refoi mcd now, and has come to tins city to bury hi* past in a better future. Fourteen yenit ol prbon life, hard -and ligoious, have bireakod his hair with £icy. A halting walk and hands that are defunned aie thu legacies that the bracelets and the chains have leib him. His story reads like a romance, and as he told ib last night there evidently came across him memories that he might wish had boon buried. He is well educated, courtly in manners and a most interesting talker. ' Your visit,' he saidj when approached, 'is most unexpected. 1 had hoped to have come here quietly and lived my life anew. Still there is nothing in my piesenb condition of which I need be ashamed, and I shall speak freely. I intend to settle down in this city, and ha%e rented an office in the Yandeibilb Building:, at 132, Nassau-street. I have just issued my autobiography, and tho salo of that, with possibly some pictures, will occupy my whole attention. Tho money I make shall be applied to two purposes — the support ot my wite and myself and for the securing of lhe paulon oi my biother Austin, who was convicted with me, and who is now under a life boutenee for complicity in a crime in which he had no part/ 'You mean that he was innocent?" ' ] do. Austin had no more to do w ith the frauds on the Bank ot England than you had. I had, and so had my thiee partners. Wo wcie justly convicted, but at the times of these frauds Austin was actually away on his wedding t ur. lie was arrested by cablegram, bi ought back and was tiicd jointly with us undei the same indictment. That was what convictolhim. He had been with me befoie, but he was mnoicnt of the charge for winch lie is nou weaiing out his life. Tlib imprisonment wonies me vei\ much, for he "as my younger bi other, and i lo\ed the boy." ' Hir. e \ou a.Ty objections to tell the stoiy of the fiaiuU '!' ' Well, no : I have none. But t'nsfc let me say that they \\e i e by no means the lesult of caily ti .'lining. I was well bi ought up. My nnco-tor* fo> 200 years back were Pun'fan-s on both sides, find I was religiously cared for. i need not tell the story of my fall. It was the billiard-ioom and the bar room They became too expensive to «uppoit legitimately, and I fell. I then became a man who was really dangerous to the bankers of the rountry. Three others formed a port of paitnership with me, and together we went to Europe to work the monetary in a titution c » theie. We stayed about London for some time, and after a little thought I came to the conclusion that the lichesb bank in the world would pi obably be careless in some spot, and I began to piobe foi it J found it in their system of transacting business on bills of exchange, and ic-ohed to take adxantago of it. One of oho party was sent to Birmingham who would do to accept the bill«, and two staved in London with mo, one of them the diawcr of the bills and the other an ondoisee. I was behind the scene*. The bills, of course, were bogus, and they were in due course accepted by the pal in Biimingham. Then the ba.ik discounted them and placed them to the credit of the endorsee, who drew out the cold cash by cheques. It seems inciedible almost to me at this day to think that any institution would do business with utter strangers in that way, but they did it. Hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars passed into our hands, but fheie we were, the four of us, with the Bank of England paying out its money to one of us on the demand of the other.' ' How much did the frauds in all amount to?' ' I really don't know. They were so large and of such almost daily occurrence that I never counted it. Ib was like receiving a cab full at the time. Ifc was only a question of but a very short time until we would have drained it out. Then came the detection— a slight omission in the endorsement, and then the arrest and conviction. We fought the case ; our solicitor, who was subsequently debarred, sold us out and we were sentenced for life. Fourteen years and five months I spent in prison, and they have left their marks upon me. My stooping shoulders and halting gait and hands yet twisted toll of what I suffered. The London " Times " and the Rothschilds said I was the cleverest banking man on earth, and that helped to make the officials doubly severe upon me. My leasb movement was regarded with suspicion, and many a time I was punished wrongfully." c What became of the money ?' •I do not know, and Ido nob care. Ido know that my solicitor got every cent I had, and then got an order for a set of diamonds which belonged to me and worth 10,000dol. 1 After 14 years and 5 months' imprisonment I was given a ticket of leave, and came here a little more than a year ago with absolutely nothing. I meb Sir Roger Tichborne when I came hero. He was a fellow prisoner with me at Dartmoor, and he told me that one of ray comrades had £60,000 of the money secreted in this oity. I told him that I would not touch it with a 10,000-feeb pole, and I never shall. The years of reflection in that English prison have set me back on fche path which I should never have foi-saken, When I arrived here I went at once bo my home in East Hartford, and have there lived down the sins of 15 years ago, My life is a warning to young men, and I mean it to be such. If they have already taken fche first step in fraud let them hesitate. I defrauded fche biggest institution in the world on the most gigantic plan that was ever attempted, and I was caught, and have only remorse now for my wickedness. If they have taken fche first step let them reform afc once, and do so openly and manfully. I have seen mosb of fche noted forgpis in my day, both in prison and oub of ib. They may flourish for a while, bub their day comes when they are ruined. There i& a retributive justice that follows them, ib may be slowly, but still surely.' Bidwell is 55 years old, and is wonderfully preserved, considering the prison life he had to endure. His ancestors came over in fche Mayflower, and one of them, John Bidwell, builfc fche first; grisfc mill with Cotton Mafcher afc Hartford. — 'Sb. Louis Daily Globe Democrat. 5

'My friend,' said the head waiter ab hotel, as he tapped significantly on the shoulder of a man who was making his exio from the dining-room. ' I have dropped on to your little game. This is the ninth time you have eaten dinner here without paying.' 'Sir,' exclaimed the man, drawing himself up with an offended dignity a.nd looking the presumptuous official sternly in the eye, ' it's the fifteenth.'