The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-03-13

thought occurred to the lecturer, as
it did to some of his listeners, but II
it did the truth embodied in those lines
must have come home to hun with
diScouraging force. Had he been the
central Inquire of some farce instead OF
Il pitiful tragedy he would doubttess
have looked out over a sea of faces
but it was his hour to weep. and he
wept alone, or pretty nearly alone, for
Il scant handful of people We're scat
tered over the house to listen to ms
lecture. The audience was not 2oth
part of what was necessary to meet
the object for which the lecture was
given, which was to raise funds to de-
tray the expenses of burying the lee
turer's brother, who died here one day
last week, The aged lecturer seemed
to feel the situation keenly, for there
were tears in his voice and he clicked
perceptibly as he began, saying:
There is divinity that shapes our
ends, rough heW them how we may,
giving the lines new meaning by put
ting especial emphasis on the rough
and pausing before finishing the SEN
tence. And it was disheartening
enough to impel any one to sympathiZe
for while the Bidwells had been great
criminals in their time, had planned
and executed the greatest bank rob-
berry in the history of crime, still they
had paid the penalty and their pro
fessions of reform were sincere, for all
any one in Butte could say to the con-
trary. The brothers had been so close
ly associated all their lives it was nat
ural that they should have great af-
lection for one another, and the sur
viving one feels bitterly his loss in the
others death. So, also, to one who
had in his time helped spend thou
sands for trif1es, the thought of vlr-
charity to give the dead a decent burial
was bitter one. All these things were
so plainly depicted in the air and bear
ing, the choked utterances and panied
countenance of the man, one could not
but sympathze and believe that he
spoke the truth when he said:
q II have known many tragedies and
+ met with many rebuffs in my life time.
but none have equaled this, none have
4 come so near killing me"
The lecture was brief synopsis of
the account of the robbery of the Bank
of England, the chase the Bow street
officers had in capturing the lecturer
and his life in the English prison, as
given in the book written by the dead
Bidwell, and was quite interesting.
Beginning with the voyage to England.
the speaker went quickly to the dis
covery of a flaw in the Wanted impreg-
inability of the century-old methods of
the Bank of England. A scheme for
taking advantage of it was evolved
which eventually poured s5,00000O of
Bank of England gold into the pockets
of the four schemers by means of
forged bills of exchange which We're
discounted at the bank. Then came
the discovery. The lecturer fled to
Ireland and was followed. From one
end of the island to the other and back
and across he led the officers of the
law, his many narrow escapes and his
shrewdness and ingenuity in eludlng
the detectives being very interesting.
Finally he was captured in Edin-
burgh and was taken to NeWgate.
h Eventually he was sentenced to life
D imprisonment. The description of life
Tin an English prison was horrfying.
" The lecture having failed of it's pur-
pose, the body of Austin Bidwell will
be placed in a vault and held here till
the brother succeeds in raising funds
| by the sale of his book to defray the
expenses of shipping it to Chicago.