The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-06-11
FIELDS LgrrERt FROM THE QUEEN.
A Document In ivfessria's Own Hand.
Mr. Fields Advice TO Letter Writers.


A Document In fviessria's Own Hand.
MIR. Fields Advice TO Letter Writers.
Especial o+srrspsndenca.l
NEW YORK, MAY a6-It Is not every man
OF woman who can shew an autograph let
ter from Queen Victoria. only know OF
one such person. It Is Cyrus W. Field, the
man who laid the Atlantic cable, and who
Is famous rs great fnaneier.
'Of all the msmcntoes that have OF
busy life" said MIR. Field to me, ''one OF
the most preeiotis is this letter written by
the queen Of Enslxnd. It came TO me at
time when many hoaors were being show
cred upon me. had finished laying the
Atlantic cable and was the recipient OF tes-
3monials, banqlets, speeches and letters
from all over the world, but ne letter that
/ ever received was SO highly pleasing as
this one. It il small letter, as you Will
see, written in Queen Victorias own hand
writing, and she thanks me for my services
in laying the cable. 1t was very thought
ful on her part to send such letter, and L
prize it highly. There is little story con-
nected with it that may prove of interest TO
young men and women
During the esfly part of the period
when was busy 8t work on the cable ii
became necessary for me to communicate
direct with the queens ofhctAls. L had
many warm friends in her ministry and
had written long and urgent letters asking
for such assistance IS England could give
me. Afterwards it occurred to me that it
would be good plan to address letter
directly to the queen. wanted to tell her
all that had done and was trying to do.
So l sat down and wrefe ten or twelve
page letter outih,ing the work and the fu
ture of e project copied and re-copied
this letter until Thought it was eminently
satisfactory, but before I mailed it q sud-
den thought struck me that the queen
would perhaps be too busy to read it. What
was to do9 There was only one thing-to
reduce the letter IN size, and yet keep all
the ideas intact. So I went at il again and
spent many weary hours in reducing the
letter to one page of writing 1put every
idea that was necessary and important on
one sheet of'Paper and mailed it.
And do you know, l believe until this
day that il had sent the first letter the
queen would never have read it or replied
to me. / made that belief a point all
through life Whenever l wrote a letter /
tried to express myself in the briefest pos
sible terms. Men and women, I found,
were too busy to read long letters. do
exactly what the editors of today do. l
boil it down. IL have any woed of advice
to give to beginners in life, l would say,
write short letters, cut out all the adjec-
tives you can. Never make aletter so long
that it will tire the person You send it to.
Get everything you have to say on one page
of letter head Short letters are always
read. No matter how busy a man is, he
has time to read few lines. Thousands
Of splendid projects have been ruthlessly
slaughtered because the man who wrote to
investors OF projectors did not know
enough to write short letters"
1t may be interesting to add that Mr..
Field has another memento in his cabinet
of curiosities that he prizes very highly.
1t is silver boz containing the freedom Of
the city of New York. He was the last
man to receive that honor.
FOSTER COATES,