Wheeling Register

Bidwell, the Forger,
Will Follow the
Straight and Narrow Path Hereafter.

Hartford, Ct., February 22.—Austin
Bidwell, the Bank of England forger,
who arrived from England on the
Etruria, reached his old home in East
Hartford yesterday.

"I was released," said Mr. Bidwell,
"at 5 o'clock on Friday evening, February 12, and in charge of the chief
warder of the prison I was hurried
aboard the train and through to Liverpool, where I was placed on board the
Etruria. I was not permitted to stop
anywhere or speak to anybody until I
reached the steamer. Then the officer
handed my ticket-of-leave to me and I
was for the first time in nineteen years
at liberty.

"The official document accompanying my ticket-of-leave informed me
that I must never again set foot in
Great Britain or any of her colonies.
The government gave me no clothing
on my release. My friends furnished
the suit I am wearing. The only thing
I received was six pounds in cash and
my friends paid my passage to America. This was my compensation for
nineteen years of hard labor!"

"What are your future intentions?"
he was asked.

"I shall live quietly for a while until
I can arrange to make an honest living.
I was in the lumber supply business in
Chicago before the great fire, and it is
possible that I may locate there again
and start in business. My friends are
anxious to assist me. Hereafter I shall
keep to the straight path. I have had
my lesson, although it was more severe
than was warranted by the facts."

"How do you account for your release?"
James G. Blaine, Grover Cleveland,
James Russell Lowell and other eminent
Americans and John Bright, the Marquis of Hartington and other prominent
English gentlemen advocated my release. But despite their great influence the English government hesitated and
I am satisfied the final acquiescence of
the home secretary was due as much as
anything to the persistent work of my
brother George and my sister Mrs.
Mott.