Excerpt
"If an American dramatist or novelist had taken for the ground work of a play or work of fiction the story of the Bidwell family to-day related on another page of the Herald, all European critics would have told him that the story was too 'American,' too vast in its outlines, too high in its colors, too merely 'big' in fact.
"The story has its lesson. The play is not a mere spectacle. The lesson is that in the doing and undoing of wrong the Bidwell family expended enough ability and energy to stock a good many reigning European families for generations.
"Let the Comedie Humaine write itself and it will outwrite Balzac."
Hon. Lyman J. Gage.
Having read the Bidwell book I believe it will benefit every one to read this marvellous history of human experience.
Aside from its dramatic interest there are great moral lessons involved of especial value to young men and employees in positions of trust.
Therefore, I recommend this book as unique and a valuable acquisition for home and office.
From Chas. M. Stead, Union League Club, New York.
"Dear Sir—I read your book with a good deal of interest, and would like to change it for a higher-priced binding if you have one."
The Worcester Spy.
"Mr. Bidwell's book has been compared with Dumas' famous 'Monte Christo.' The extraordinary character of its adventures, indeed, would render it dramatic and powerful as fiction; as human truth, it is simply overwhelming. No one can read this book unmoved. From every conceivable standpoint, physiological, sociological, and literary, it is a marvel."
Philip W. Moen.
Mr. Moen, of Washburn & Moen, Worcester, Mass., writes: "I have read Mr. George Bidwell's book with the deepest interest. It is a book that deserves to be widely read, and I am very glad to recommend it."
A Niece of Oliver Wendell Holmes
writes: "Few books have so stirred my mind for years as the book by George Bidwell. Hearing of the book, prejudice immediately seized me against it. The history given by himself, to be interesting at all must be sensational, therefore disastrous to morals. So avowed prejudiced thought; and, determined to find fault, I began this remarkable history. It is impossible to find fault with the book, which is valuable and wonderfully absorbing."
From Ira D. Sankey, Esq.
"Mr. George Bidwell, Dear Sir—I have read with great interest your book, and believe it will do much good among young men wherever read. Your life is a proof and your book a burning record of the truth that 'Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.' I believe in throwing light into all the dark places of this life, that men, seeing the dangers, they may avoid them. I wish you success."
From Hon. Robert G. Ingersoll.
"George Bidwell, Esq.:
My Dear Sir—Knowing as I do that you will tell a candid story of your career, I believe you will do good. Crime springs mostly from a lack of intelligence and imagination. Only the foolish can think that the practice of vice is the road to joy. As a matter of fact, the wrong does not pay. You have, in your remarkable book, made this fact perfectly clear, and you will enforce this great truth on the platform. In the world of crime success is failure. Good luck to you."
Rev. Dr. Edward Beecher
writes; "I recommend this book to the friends of morality."
Office of Street's Insurance Agency, Hartford, Conn....