Bisbee daily review., 1903-02-13
A TOUCH - OF RUSSIA
ICopyright. 1902. by c. B. Lewis.l

 on my globe circling trip I found an American who had just arrived that !! morning. a man from Stamford, Conn. | named Joshua II. Bidwell He was the Inventor of the wire clothesline and, 1 having patented it in England, France, ! Germany and other foreign countries, had arrived in Russia with the same object in view. He was a thorough Yankee from top to bottom. had scarcely shaken hands with him when he informed me that the po- lice already had spy on his track and added: I'm here on straight business, am. I'm here to patent and sell the right to manufacture the only galvan- ized wire clothesline ever invented. If the police let me alone. I shan't hurt anybody. but if they tackle me they'll wake up a barnful of bumblebees."
 It was Mir Bidwelrs intentions, aft CT knocking about for two or three days. 10 visit the American legation
 
 get his patent. We set out to St. Pc tersburg in company. It was the cause of our coming to grief. The spy who had been following him appeared 10 be more alert than before; but. fearing that Bidwell would do something rash. l did not mention the fact of our being dogged. He did not catch on until the afternoon of the second day. We then were knocking about on foot and were in the national aquarium when he walked straight up to the spy, tapped him on the shoulder and said:
 Look here Mister Man. have you any business to transact with uSE'
 He spoke in English. and the Rus sian could not understand a word of it. He evidently got the drift of things. however. and seemed greatly surprised and annoyed at being addressed in that Ofhand fashion.
 We went out, turned into Warsaw place and entered a wineshOp. Bidwell presently went to the door to see if the spy was around and almost bumped into him.
 Now. then, you mean looking son of a gun, but this is a little too steep" ex- claimed the Yankee. Il gave you fair warning, and now
 He seized the fellow by the shoulders and slammed him about in a terrific manner, but it wasn't more than a minute before five or six policemen were at hand and both of us were un- der arrest and being hurried away.
 XTa 4nE- -+o ton about four blocks distant There we were searched, stripped of every article that our clothing might be over hauled and held for about an hour. We were not questioned at all. and if the official in charge understood anything we said he did not betray the fact. Bid well was so provoked by the situation that he fired whole broadside of Con- necticut oratory into the official, ending ap by threatening a suit for S100,OO0 damages, but be might as well have saved his breath. By and by we were taken to headquarters under a strong escort and there usheTed into the pres ence of the chief of police. We were taken in singly. My turn cane first. The chief consulted q memorandum and began:
 You arrived in St. Petersburg on the 9th. You claimed to be an American tourist. You received letter from Par is on the 10th and one from Hamburg on the 11th. You have spoken disre- spectfully of the police to the proprie- tor of the Park hotel. You were very disrespectful toward the officer who was ordered to follow you about. Do you wish to leave St. Petersburg by the evening train?'
 l replied that had come to visit the city as a tourist and had planned to re- main for nt least a month.
 The chief touched bell, and two police officers appeared. Out of my own money they bought me a ticket for the German frontier. and both rode with me for the first 900 miles.
 What happened to BidweIl I learned long afterward from his own mouth and through the American press. He thought it beneath the dignity of free born American citizen to bend the knee to the autOcrat of St. Petersburg. The charge against him was more serious. His baggage at the hotel had been overhauled, and his samples of wire clotheslines were at once spotted as menace against the peace of the cZar He also had laid violent hands on the sacred body of a police spy, and that proved him a desperate man if not a conspiratOr. He was defiant when put on examination, and the up- shof Nas that he was taken to the