Omaha daily bee., 1899-02-16
BEL LINES.

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on the streets Of omaha last sunday were
two men-one about 80 years OF age with
keen dark eyes, iron gray hair and a griz-
2led, closely-cropped moustache and the
other somewhat younger, taller and not so
stout, but closely resembling the one first
described. Neither would particularly at
tract attention and yet they were decidedly
not OF the ordinary. They were brothers
and their names were Austin and George
Bidwell. Twenty years ago that name
would have created as much interest In
Omaha as would the arrival Of any crowned
head Of Europe, but the flow of twenty
years washes out many old memories and
there are probably not a dozen people here
that recall at once the potency Of the name
of Bidwell.
II is an old story, but an interesting one.
During the wild days of 1878. when the
crime was being committed that our demo-
cratic friends love so we'll to talk about, the
Bidwells were noted as among the shrewdest
Stock gamblers on Wall street. They had
gone TO New York from somewhere in the
west and rapidly succeeded in amassing a
large sum of money. Fortune withdrew its
favors, however, as suddenly and Caprici-
ously as it had extended them and in n day
the Bidwells we're reduced from afluence to
nothing. Whether from the encouragement
of the panic or from the fact that they had
discovered a broader field of usefulness
elsewhere they did not appear again to take
part in the combats between the bulls and
bears and for months their old associates
knew not of their habitation.
Finally, however, news drifted across the
Atlantic CT the wonders that were being
accomplished by the Bidwell Brothers, "A
new firm of inanciers that had taken Lon
don by storm. Not since the days OF Mr..
Tigg Montague and the United Benevolent
Disinterested Loan and Life Assurance
company had anything struck London quite
so popular and profitable as the new fnan-
cial luminaries, Bidwell Brothers. They
subscribed to charities and they invested
for dukes and dowagers and their touch,
like that of Midas, turned everything to
gold. The Bank of England loved them like
brothers and it was no infrequent thing to
see the governor of that royal institution
complacently jogging along Soho or dash
ing down the Strand in the fashionable
eauipage of the great American financiers.
But as in all other particularly good things
Of this world an end came. Through the
mistake of an employee one of the bonds that
they made a speciality passed into the hands
of the Bank of England prematurely. That
was followed by the instant disappearance
of the fnanciers. An examination of the
affairs of the Bank of England demonstrated
that it held just So, 900, 900 of securities worth
nothing at all. The hue and cry was raised
and after a hunt of three months the BID
wells were captured in New York, taken
back to England, tried, convicted and SEN
fenced to life Imprisonment. After serving
more than fifteen years they were recently
liberated through the efforts of influential
friends in this country. They are now in
the west to begin fife over and the world
may hear from them again, but let us hope
in a different way.
The last issue of the Blair Republican
takes Congressman Dave Mercer to task for
inattention to the matter of securing an
appropriation for a public building at that
place and rather reflects upon the sincerity
of the efforts that he is making in that be-
half. This is hardly fair. Very few con-
gressmen who have held the craftsmanship
that Mr.. Mercer now holds have ever ac-
complished as much in general and none
in particular so much for Nebraska. His
loyalty in working for an appropriation for
Blair should hardly be questioned, mas
much as he has done all that he or any other
man could do to secure it. The very day
that the Republican appeared with this crit
icism the bill was reported favorably and in
the interest OF fairness that paper WIFI no
, doubt reverse its former unfavorable opin-
ion of our hustling congressman.
A West Virginia man says that he saw a
snake with two heads, but the most sur
prising part about it is that he-the man
not the snake-is a prohibitionist.
The Cunning County Democrat has been
purchased by John F. Sherman and j. W.
] Ball from Miller and MCLEAN, who have
bought the West Point Progress. In their
initial bow to the people of Cunning county
the new proprietors reaffirm their allegiance
to the sacred fallacy of 16 to l, and what is
1 better promise their patrons a paper worthy
of their support. If they perform the lat
ter promise, which there is every reason to
believe they will, they can thereby perform
q service that will cover a multitude OF po-
litical faults.
A brief telegram from Boston says that
i'm the fire that occurred in the Old Colonial
church the vinegar bible came near being
destroyed. Doubtless a great many persons
who read that wondered what the vinegar
biblo'' is and why it is designated by any
such queer name. The bible is the Oldest in
the United States. 1t was printed in 1717
at Oxford, England, by John Barrett, and in
1888 was presented to the Colonial church
by George II, who was then king. In the
twentieth chapter OF st. Luke, which con-
tains the parable of the vineyard, at the
top Of the page is the title, "The Parable OF
Vinegar" and from that misprint 1t derived