The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1905-05-04
incidents Of History.
The Man Who Refused to Fail.

was born at Stockbridge, Mass, Nov
3O.h 1919. (By the way this tamil,
OF seven is one Of the most remarkable
in American history, David Dudley ,Jr.
the eminent and famous lawyer, Sterh
en- j., U. S., Supreme Court Justice
| Henry Martin, the renowned editor
and Doctor Of Divinity, Matthew w.
expert engineer OF national tame and s
successful politician, Timothy whose
early and untlmely death cut short s
service brilliantly begun in the U. S
Navy, and Cyrus w, the subject o
this sketch, whose name seems secure
| to fame for all time to come) He
abandoned the idea of college educa.
ton at the early age of fifteen and
went te New York to work. There he
| served an apprenticeship as clerk in
the mercantile establishment of A. T
Stewart. Later he returned to Stock.
bridge. and began, with poor success
a paper mill. He returned to New
York and opened paper ware house
This signally failed. But failure fired
the man. He effected a temporary
settlement with creditors and began
again. Experience, even purchased
with failure, was rich legacy, and In
1858 Field at the age OF 33 decided to
retire. having settled with all his old
creditors and having accumulated a
fortune of $25O,OOO That WAS his
reward of having refused to tail, even
when he had failed.
Spending months in travel, be
Glanced to meat and form friendly
acquaintance with F. w. Osborne, a
Canadian electrical engineer who at
that time was trying to influence capi-
talists to construct telegraphic COM
municatlon between New York and
St Johns, involving the scheme of
submarine cable under the Gulf of St.
Lawrence. Field took the plans of
Osborne under advisement, finally
concluding in burst OF enthusiasm,
':WhY not run a wire through the
ocean itself, instead OF ending it at ST.
Johns" To the accomplishment
ct this purpose, then and forever FORM
ed, Field turned his tireless energy and
indomitable will. We doubt if many
men have encountered go many and
such signal failures and finally come
out successful just trace this won
derful career a momeut.
By May 1854 Field had his company
of capitalists organized for 3Running
a wire through the ocean ITSELF" The
United States, New Foundland and
England all had to be interested and
give consent to the enterprise. (By
much labor and hard work our nation
al Congress gave consent by majority
OF one vote.)
With capital paid in to the amount OF
81, l,68O.OOO, cable was ordered made
and the future seems bright. Only
seems, for the real trouble had hardly
begun. IN August, 1857, the first at
tempt at laying the cable was under
taken, but not far out at sea the cable
parted and disappeared from view.
Many gaye up, but Field never. The
com pany was reorganized and the work
begun over again, when, this time,
some 200 miles out to sea, the cable
again parted, and months of labor and
millions of capital were swallowed IN
the deep. Ali seemed ready to give
up, except Field whose energy bad
never before shown itself so powerfully
and at this time, "his activity seemed
to exceed the bounds of human endur-
ance, passing many successive "a hours
without rest or Sleep" The work was
begun again the sam, year and on
August Is, 1858, the message was flash
ed under the ocean from England to
America Europe ard America are
united by telegraph. Glory to God In
the hi CHEST on earth peace, and good
Will towards men," But
The cable worked we'll about one
month. then of sudden 1t stopped
short. Fields company had exhausted
their resources and gone into bank
ruptcv. Soon the civil war broke out.
Not till 1868 was the s,upendous un-
dertaklng again entered into, this time
by So ,OOJ 600 capital, all raised by this
man who did not know how to give up.
Il was IN July, 1865, Field started with
his cable. on board the Great Eastern
the largest steamship aaoat, this time
from the coast of Ireland. When With
In 6,OOO niles OF land on 'nis
s;da the cable broke-and all tne
work had to be done over, 1or wnen
the cable breaks, you know, all Is iost.
Bv July, 1866, Field had all IN reaoi-
,ees and ON the 18th of that mon'n
R.ckache is never kn''"n ~ 'uos1
.ho take An occasional dose II