The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-12-12

1ue pTOC6SSAOu III
drst Atlantic cable has long since been
eclipsed by grander pageants, and Az
lantic cabIos have become as much mat
ter of course as ordinary telegraph lines
but at that time New York had never be-
lore seen so splendid a show IN the
streets. The city was so crowded with
sight seers that the people slept In arm
chairs at the hotels, or camped out in the
parks, The military parade, the civil
societies, swelled the large line; the
trades union sent tableaux on
wheels representing various artisans at
work. Then, standing In an open
barouche and bowling to the right and
left in response. to cheers of the crowd
came the hero Of the occasion, Cyrus
w. Field, a tall, nervouslooking gentle
man, with light brown hair and beard.
. Roman nose, bluish-grey eyes, and
the sanguine face of a born Yankee.
As he was then, so Mr. Field is now
a trihe stouter, perhaps, and with a
tinge of silveramong his auburn halr.
The years since this great triumph have
touched him lightly.
A born Yankee Mr.. Field certainly IS.
He first saw the light at Stockbridge,
Mass, on October 30, 1910. He was
the Youngest son of a New England
clergyman, who subsequently removed
TO Haddam, Conn. His brother, David
Dudley, was given a collegiate education;
instead of a classical education Cyrus
received $50 in cash and his fathers
blessing. With these treasures and a fair
knowledge of reading, writing and
arithmetic, he was sent to New York
and obtained o situation as a cash boy
in A. r. Stewards store, at the liberal
salary of So q week. For three years
young Cyrus worked and starved IN
the employ of the dry goods mil
~Iionaire, and then a better and bright
er life was opened to him as travelling
salesman for a paper maker at Lee,
Conn. Even in Stewards establishment
Cyrus made his mark by his energy and
ability, and when he went away the
clerks clu6ed together and present
ed him with a diamond pin and q fare
well supper. A. L. Stewart gave him
nothing. Strangely enough Mr.. Field
has lived to see the name of A. L.
Stewart as thoroughly painted out as if
that millionaire had never lived.
Comforted by one good supper and
adorned with his presentation pin, Cy-
rus threw himself into the work of sell
ing paper with such zeal that in two
wears he had mastered the business.
He then formed a c~opartnershlp IN tins
city. His venture was unsuccessful,
and in q few months he was bankrupt.
The blow was a heavy one; he had been
recently married, and had lest every
dcllar, but Mr.. Field bore his misfor-
tune with his accustomed courage. He
started In again, and on the first day
that he took possession of his new Of
Zee he made the sanguine remark: Il
shall make a fortune here In twenty
years" Better than his word, he made
his fortune in twelve years and retired,
still In the prime of life, to enjoy that
rest which he had before known
since his boyhood.
In a leisure moment he formed an
acquaintance with one Gisborne, who
had conceived the project of al Allan
tic cable, and had procured q charter
for the LAYING of the cable from the leg
~islaaare of Newfoundland. The CHS
borne's work had ended; but he talked
It over with Nh. Field, whose leisure
hung heavily upon him, although he
had travelled through Bogota, Guaya-
qui and Ecuador with Church who paint
cd the Heart of the Andes to try and
while away tbs time. Mr.. Field be-
became interested in Gisborne's scheme
and night, while studying the geo.
graphical globe, which still stands in
his library, his interest famed into en-
thnsiasm, and he shouted 1T can be
done, and it shall be done" The next
night he called together his friends
Peter Cooper. Noses Taylor, Marshall
%. Roberts, Chandler White and Wilson
81. HuDt-and preached Atlantic ca
BILE TO them until they were converted
10 his plans. A stock company was
formed, the necessary capital for pre-
liminary expenses subscribed; his
brother Dudley acted as lawyer of the
enterprise, and Cyrus sailed for Eng
land to wrest the money for the cable
from British investors. No monk of
did ever preached the crusade with
better yehemence, and in a wonderfully
sort time, AID In defiance of innumer-
EFsasii5 difficulties, tine cable was COM
menced and the ships chartered to lay
il.
Before the atlantic cable was an ac-
accomplished fact Mr.. Field had labor
ed upon it for twelve years and crossed
The ocean f~fty-one times. The first
cable would not operate, but lay
dead IN it's ocean grave. The second
cable spoke for three weeks. then part
ed and was dead as the first. In 1866
The Great Eastern succeeded in per-
m~anently uniting two worlds. Then