The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-04-28
FIELDS SON
DESTITUTE

SONS QOuDLIeSS were surprised Wncn
they read the statement of a census
enumerator a week or so ago that
he had found among the outcasts of
the Bowery a man who had once
been prominent in the diplomatic
service of the United States, also two
former members of Congress and a
number of men who in their day,
before drink and adversely had
overtaken them, had occupied high
and honorable positions in the pull
pit, at the bar, and in the medical
and other professions. Surprising
the statement may be, but not at all
improbable, as is evidenced by the
case of Edward M. Field, the story
of whose life has again been brought
into print this week.
After living for years the life of
a common vagabond and tramp,
subsisting for time on the bounty
of those he knew in prosperity, and
later cared for by the Salvation Ar
my, Edward Morse Field, the favor
lite son of Cyrus w. Field, the ga
Their of the Atlantic Cable" is in
Bellevue hospital destitute and suf-
fering with nephritis. If he lives to
leave the hospital he will probably
return to the Bowery to resume the
life he has led for the past fifteen
years. He has no visible means of
support, and his friends long ago
abandoned his case as hopeless.
Less than twenty years ago Field
was one of the princes, if not one
of the kings, of Wall street. He was
rich, honored, beloved-beloved
most of all by his beautiful wife, the
sister of his partner, Daniel Lindley,
and by his father, who, John Bright
said, was "the Columbus who moored
the Old World beside the New" with
his Atlantic cable. When disgrace
came to Edward M. Field it broke
his wife's heart and it killed his
father.
Field has not only the distinction
of being the son of Cyrus w. Field.
He is the nephew of the three ia
NOUS Fields-Stephen j., justice
of the supreme court of the United
States; David Dudley, authority on
international law, leading abolition
list. and member of Congress, and
Henry Martyr, the noted author and
divine.
In 1891 Edward M. Field was
charged with wrecking the broker
age firm of Field, Lindley, Wiechers
and Co., when he failed for $4,000
900. He disappeared, was found and
was committed as insane to an asy-
lum in Buffalo in 1892. 1t was al
ways disputed that he was insane,
and it is certain that he enjoyed full
liberty within the institution. He
was released as sane in 1894 and
was then liable to trial on several
indictments for forgery and grand
larceny, but he was not tried and in
1898 the indictments were dismissed
on the ground that there was no pos
sibility then of convicting him.
He continued to go down hill, was
arrested at varioAs times for drunk
enness, and once for stealing a coat
in a Broadway office building. He
was picked up on the Bowery in 1904
and sent to the psychopathic ward of
Bellevue. At that time he was liv-
ing in a lodging house in the neigh
borhood of Hell's Kitchen.
About two years ago Field drift
ed one night into the Hadley Rescue
Mission in the Bowery. In the mis-
sion that evening was Bradley Lee
/ Gilbert, a we'll known architect, who
now occupies as offices the suite of
Cyrus w. Field in the building at
the foot of Broadway, from whose
windows Edward M. Field used to
signal his yacht off the Battery when
! he was ready to have it carry him
up the Hudson to his home. Gilbert
was an early friend of Field in col
| lege days. When he found Field in
the mission he persuaded him to go
to the "mourners' bench" The mis-
sion people took an interest in him
and found him Enjoyment in the SAL
Walton Army lodging house in Chat
ham Square. There he continued to
make his headquarters until over
taken by the illness which again ne