Evening journal., 1910-03-10
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Cyrus W. Fields Prophecy
Of the Wireless
BY "Holland."

QuGnllY Qldlldllt llblA bll AdliVuo ENtlAA1
and personalities Of the past have been
collected by Mr. Edwards during near
forty years of more or less intimate ac-
leaders since the Civil War Each an
ecdote or incident is fresh from Mr.. Ed
ward notebook, and, either IN whole or
IN part il constitutes NEW NEWS OF |
YESTERDAY, garnered from the men |
who made the ueWs-the htstorY-Or from |
equally authoritative sources. As inn |
portant contributions Of the Human IN
terest" sort TO American history, these |
artcles have a distinctive value all their
own.
In the summer of 1878 Cyrus w. Field, !
who gained lasting fame when finally he
had laid working submarine telegraph
cable between America and Europe, re-
turned from one of his frequent trips
abroad. He arrived home in the early
afternoon. and at five o'clock I called
upon him at his home in Gramercy
Square which was then almost directly
opposite that of Governor Tilden, the very
house in which Tilden received the news,
first, of his election as President, and
then Of the doubt as to whether he or
Hayes was elected.
From the top OF the stairs Mr.. Field
called out bidding me TO come up. he
received me at the door Of his dressing
room. His face was well lathered upon
one side. in his hands he held razor,
and from his soap whitened lips came an
apology: you'll excuse me for asking
you to come up while I am dressing for
dinner But ] am going out to dinner, and
! I must hurry. I have some important
news 10 tell certain men"
SO. while Mr.. Field shaved and other
wise prepared himself for his appoint
ment, we talked. OF course there was
much conversation about translantic ca
BILE communication. and Mr.. Field re-
hearsed for me many OF the now we'll
known difficulties that he met with and
surmounted in his efforts to lay a perma-
nent cable between he two worlds. Then
irather suddenly-and in the midst of a
reminiscent sentence, If I remember this
little detail correctly at this late date
he broke off abruptly and sSood gazing
out of a nearby open window His atti-
tude was that Of one in deep thought.
At last he faced me again.
do YOU know" he said in his charac.
teristic quick. stacatto utterance, "on the
last two or three trips that I have made
to Europe, have been doing a good dea
of thinking. Electricity is everywhere. Al
you have got to do is TO capture it and
control It. Now, II an electric current
can be carried by wire under the sea
why can't il be carried by natures wire
over the sea? I don't know how IL car
be done The inventors will have 10 SHOW
that But I don't for the life of me SCI
any reason why we can't have some in
strument on this side Of the Atlantic, an'
some instrument on the other side tina
viii capture the electricity i'm the air ant
make IL send message. don't know
whether AZ will be in my day or not
inventions come thick and fast nova
days.-but am pretty sure that some da!
somebody will show how messages cal
be sent across the Atlantic, through tn
air. without the aid Of any wires what
ever"
A wonderful prophecy, you say, in view
OF the world famous triumph Of Mar
conf which came years after MI Field
death? And yet at the time that tn
father Of the transatlantic cables mad