The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1896-01-16
WALL STREET TO NEWGAT6
Austin BidWell's Thrilling Tale
of Life via the prlm.
rose Way.
The Tweed Ring of New York
His First Educator in
Crime.
CONTINUED.

The evening Of the day of my arrival
in Paris found me on the express speed
ing to Calais. Two hours past midnight
I was on the miserable little passenger
| steamer that plies across the chopping
channel and which I suppose has seer
more of human misery than all the
fleets that sail the Atlantic, for the
channel has strong countercurrents, and
wind, tide and currents seem ever to be
in violent opposition, and here
Fer across the main doth float
| A sad and solemn swell,
The wild, fantastic, fitful note
OF Triton's breathing shell.
And Triton Gold Neptune's other
name) makes all passers over this part
Of his realm pay ample tribute for 'his
fantastic, fitful note"
The Paris night express lands one at
early dawn in London, nearly always
weak on the legs, however. breakfast
ed with Mac, and after that took the
bills to the various banks on which they
were drawn, and leaving them for &C
ceptance I called again the next day and
received them back, bearing across the
face the magic words:
LONDON, Aug. IA, 1872
Accepted for the Union bank of London.
E. BARCLAY, Manager.
j. WAYLAND, Assistant Manager.
Then I hurried to the Grosvenor, and
we all looked at them with curiosity,
for it was upon the imitation of just
such acceptances that our whole plan
was based.
Of course the success or failure Of our
whole plan turned upon this point. Is
it the custom of the Bank of England
Tin 1879 to send acceptances offered for
discount to the acceptors for verifcation
of signatures?
This is always done in America, and
had this very requisite precaution been
used by the Bank of England our plan
would have been fruitless.
Taking my deposit book and the gen.
uine bills, I went to the bank and left
the bills for discount. This was at once
done, and the amount placed to my
credit. drew 100000, and that night
found me once more one of 500 unfor-
Inmates paying tribute to Neptune. This
time landed at Ostend and took the
train for Amsterdam. There repeated
the Paris operation, securing e1O, 700 in
genuine bills. returned to London and
as before left them for acceptance. Then
my companion manufactured a lot of
limitations and put them away with
those previously manufactured to be all
ready when the day came to use them.
The genuine bills were then discounted
All the details Of events leading
through the long summer and autumn
days Of 1872 up to the hour when the
golden shower began to fall on us are of
intense, even dramatic, interest. will
not, however, lengthen the narrative by
giving here any further account of them,
but will merely relate the story Of the
last five days before the actual presenta-
tion of our home brewed acceptances.
The bank had been discounting for
weeks comparatively large sums for me
Of the genuine article, and our imita-
tion was close copy. Many thousand
pounds Of the genuine article discounted
for me had matured and had been paid,
and more thousands were still in the
vaults awaiting maturity and would fall
due while our home manufactured bills
would be laid away in the vaults, there
to remain for four or five months until
due. Of course a full month or two
months before that we could pack our
baggage and be on the other side of the
world.
But, as the sequel will show, the
reality took on different complexion
from the ideal
Ny credit at the bank was solid as
rock. That means I had gone through
the red tape routine. It only behooved
Us to use circumspection enough to avoid
making mistakes in our papers, and
fortune was ours. knew everything
was all right, but George, being thor
ough business man himself, could not
comprehend that it could be quite right,
and he insisted upon one supreme test.
Any single bill Of exchange is seldom
drawn for more than 81, 900, rarely for
$4,000, and one of e6, 900 is almost un-
heard of. But George had made up his
mind that as a test, and to make an i'm
preston upon the bank manager, I
should go to Paris and get bill on Lon
don from Rothschilds drawn to the Or
der Of F. A. Warren direct. Gould this
be done it would Of course make it ap-
pear that I had intimate relations with
the Rothschilds, and as a minor consid-
GRAFTON we could use the Rothschilds' &C
ceptance-a pretty nervy thing to do, as
Sir Anthony de Rothschild, the head of
the London house, whose name we pro-
posed to offer, was a director of the
Bank Of England and would have to
pass his own paper for discount-that
is, paper bearing his name, manufac-
tured by ourselves.
We tried to talk George out Of this
notion, which Mac and I regarded as
freak unnecessary in the first place and
impossible anyhow. But he was persist
emit, and I had to start out and try. At
Calais I took my place in what the
French call a coupe-that is, the end
compartment on a car, which, by pay
| ing 10 francs extra, you can Occupv