Born in Brooklyn, Austin Bidwell starts work young in a Wall Street office, where he acquires a taste for gambling and easy money. In 1873, with his brother George and two accomplices, he pulls off a coup of incredible daring: getting the Bank of England to accept forged bills of exchange. Then come the escape, through Ireland, Spain and Cuba, the trial and prison.
These are the memoirs of a real swindler, who gives an insider's view of the finance, police and prisons of the nineteenth century.
Told in the first person, like an adventure story, it is easy to read in the language you are learning.
