Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-04-27
"FORGING HIS CHAINS"

ordinary interest. 1t Is not so much, however. the fascinating interest of the story told in it's pages as the moral that | the observing reader must draw there l from that makes the book of value and importance. It occupies a unique place | in the literature of the day because it is at once an entertaining narrative and l moral instructor. It proves anew that truth is stranger than fiction, and that honesty is the only avenue to ultimate peace and comfort.
 Forging His Chains is the story of the dishonest career led by MT George Bidwell and the untoward circum- stances that led him through all the slough and despond of the criminals life into the open of honesty and upright manhood where he TOW stands brave, resolute and determined. Fifteen years ago the financial magnates of Europe were astonished by immense frauds upon the Bank of England, for which four Americans were sentenced to penal servitude for life. One of these men was George Bidwell, and for more than fourteen years he lay in British dun geons shut away from the sunlight and suffering all the horrors of living death. At last the doors of his prison opened and he walked out a free man on ticket of leave. In the wonderful au- photography he has published he gives the history of his checkered life, reveal ing every thought, every aspiration and
 motive which, in the course of his crim-
 inal career served to forge upon him the chains of crime. It has been said, prob ably with truth, that mo other man in all the world who has the capabilities and inclination to do so has had the pc culiar experience which would enable l him to write such a book The author 1 has not written for the single object of
 making an attractive story of crime, but
 stripping off the glitter and tinsel he l pictures crime and its results as they
 must surely come, aiming to teach a les
 son he learned by most bitter eNperienc
 and to give a warning to hundreds of
 young men who are constantly and i'm
 perceptibly tempted to enter path the
 end of which, though they cannot see it, Is irretrievable.
 And in the object and method of MT
 value. To teach young men the folly of beginning a life of crime by revealing in all its hideous details the limbo through which he has gone is, indeed, praise
 worthy, and nothing could be more eff
 fectlve than the thoroughly fascinating
 interest with which he las pictured his
 terrible experience. There are thousands of young men in the cities of the United
 States whose early experiences have
 been much like MT Bidwells, who have
 been reared in similar surroundings,
 who have been cradled ill like circum-
 stances, who have been beset by the
 same temptations, and who, perhaps,
 have fallen or will fall in exactly the
 same way as he did. To these young
 men Forging His Chains," if read with observation and a proper spirit, will
 come like a gleam from the angel of
 mercy. Written with graceful diction
 and in simple but fascinating literary
 style the book attracts the reader more
 than any work of fiction possibly could
 for many of the incidents narrated are
 stranger than ever were pictured to the
 imagination of a Dickens or Dumas
 Once taken in hand the reader is pos
 sessed with a consuming desire
 to hasten through to the
 end, and few there are we
 think who will be satisfied with single
 perusal. And to any man, even the cor
 rectest and most exemplary man of busi ness, the book is instructive in it's reve
 lation of methods that are resorted to by
 accomplished swindlers and confidence
 operators who are always going about
 seeking for some business man to de vour. Forging His Chains reveals } wonderful intimacy, on the part of M Bidwell, with the ways of the business
 world, and reveals in an astonishing <, manner how easily the most astut l bankers and the shrewdest men of busi 5 ness can be taken in by sharpers ant rogues.
 } As work of interest and an instru 5 ment of moral instruction Forging Hi Chains is perfect. That it will have s wide circulation, as well for the good i , will accomplish in its revelations t. : those who are morally loose in thei f business methods and its warning t l others who are beset with temptation a s for the help it will give its author t e complete his life work of setting a re t formed bl other free, will be the heart s wish of all who respect the strength o f character and moral springs that hay r made of a criminal and forger an honest s upright and conscientious citizen. God speed George Bidwen in his noble work o Pulling the wool over your eyes is, t |. speak plainly, cheating. Our compet tors resort to that when they ask $375 fo