The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1858-09-01

scription. Ill success overlook him here
again; but it did not conquer its victim.
Nerved to new labor, he continued the
same business, commanded fortune, paid
off all his old debts, and became rich
man. Liberal in dispensing the blessings
of his wealth, he was the patton of art,
and surrounded bis father at Stockbridge,
with all the comforts and luxuries that
old age covets. Some five or six years
ago, he seems to have conceived the pur-
pose of constructing the ocean telegraph,
and at once threw into its contamination
all his native enthusiasm, all his acquired
knowledge of men and things, all his en-
ergy and perseverance, and all his pecu
mary means. He interested others-he
negotiated with goyernments-he aroused
the press to discussions-he crossed and
re-crossed the Atlantic, and fired the intel
ligence of both continents with hope and
zeal in behalf of the great scheme. First,
he obtained grants from the provincial
governments of eastern British America,
and secured the construction of the tele-
graph to Halifax, across the sea to New
foundland, and through that dreary island
to is eastern shore. Then, the chief link
ireland to New Foundland,- was to
be forged; but we need not repeat the
story. The English and American gov
ernments heard his earnest appeals, and
granted money and ships; and British
private capital was freely yielded to his
enthusiasm and confidence. The long
history of experiments on land and ocean;
of last years trial, and the great revulsion
in popular faith after its failure, are fresh
in every mind. But the master spirit was
not discouraged nor dismayed-his New
York house went down under "the crash
of worlds" last fall, and ruin stared him
in the face. People began to talk of him
as they would Of a friend losing his mind
-sympathizingly, sorrowfully, sadly
But, undaunted, he kept on-the expert
ments were renewed this year once, twice,
thrice, the cable partcd-the public utter
ed its last sigh and forgot the whole en-
terprise; yet again, the vessels sailed,
marshaled by this Yankee leader of I'M
dying pluck, to midocean, and connecting
once more the ends of their respective
wires, they parted on their paths to glory.
The world was startled, as by clap of
thunder in clear sky, by the plain, bust
ness dispatch that announced the success
full completion of the great enterprise, and
the name that closed that dispatch was
imprinted by lightning stroke upon the
face of the earth forever. The cable was
laid, and CYRUS w. FIELD was hero.
There seems to be no divided honor in
this enterprise-no possibility of question
as to the author of the great achievement
/ of modern civilization. Hundreds may
have dreamed and sue gosted the idea;
but Mr.. Field was the first to set seriously
at work for its realization, and the first to
accomplish it. Fortunate is he in having
completed his own work. No Fulton can
come in to rob him of the honor.
Mr.. Field is about 43 years old, and
looks younger if possible. He has
light 1.-the body, all muscle and nerves,
and no flesh, five feet eight inches high,
and weighs perhaps 40 pounds. His
features are sharp and prominent, nose
that almost exhausts his face; eyes, small,
sunken, gray or blue, and apparently half
closed; a large forehead, and a full head
of auburn hair. There is youthful, al
most boyish appearance about him, that
makes him seem younger than he really
is. There is little of the impressiveness
of figure and manner about him, that dis
tinguish his brother Dudley of the New
York bar.
We do not know that these facts in the
history of this new Mount Hero Of the
Christian Civilization are exact to date
and letter; but they trace the outline of
his life and character with correctness.
Our Stockbridge correspondent, who
ought to know, claims that he was bora
there; but the record of the fathers min
istry would indicate otherwise. He is the
marked man of a marked family. The
annals of father and sons would make an
interesting volume, full of incident, anec-
dote, and positive characteristics. Mat
thew Field, the older brother, has been
associated with Mr.. Cyrus Field in the
details of his great work from the start,
and others OF the family have contributed
by pen and speech and other labor to the
success that has filled their hearts with
| peculiar JOY. Of the self-sacrifcing de-
yotion to duty and business, that have