CHAPTER XV

THE PACIFIC CABLE--THE GOLDEN WEDDING

(1880-1891)

The winter and early spring of 1880 were passed in the South of France and in Algiers.

Mr. Field was back in New York in April; and on the 8th in a letter says:

"I have already written to London in regard to the estimated cost of manufacturing and laying a telegraphic cable across the Pacific. The route I have suggested is as follows: One cable from San Francisco to the Hawaiian Islands; one cable from the Hawaiian Islands to Japan; one cable from the Hawaiian Islands to Australia, touching at the Fiji Islands and New Caledonia."

In a letter to England on the 9th, he writes that he had received a letter from Washington in which the hope was expressed that he would give some attention to the transpacific cable before he left America. He answered the question as to the expense of manufacturing a cable briefly: "A submarine cable, like a watch, can be manufactured at a great variation in price."

The two letters that follow were sent to Washington, the first on August 19, 1880:

"Referring to my letters to you dated May 26th and June 10th, in relation to a telegraphic cable across the Pacific Ocean, I would suggest:

"1. That the United States government obtain from some eminent electrician specifications for the best description of cable suitable for the great depths and the great lengths required to connect the western with the eastern coasts of the Pacific.

"2. That the government advertise for tenders to manufacture and lay such description of cable, one-fourth the amount to be paid when the cables are all manufactured, one-fourth when they are on board the steamers and the steamers ready to sail, one-fourth when the cables have been successfully laid, and the remaining fourth when they have been worked successfully and without interruption for thirty days.

"By adopting this course I think you would obtain a good cable at the lowest price.

"The government could pay for such a cable by selling its four per cent, bonds, having a long time to run, at a considerable premium; and the revenue from such a cable would, in my opinion, steadily increase from year to year, and at no distant day be a source of revenue to the country."

* * * * *

"I thank you for your letter of yesterday, and for the interest you are taking in the matter of the proposed Pacific cable.

"Have you ever written to the American ministers in Japan and China on the subject? If the United States government desired it, and took the proper steps, I think that England, Russia, France, Japan, and China would each do something towards encouraging the enterprise."

The latest mention I find of this project is on the 30th of April, 1884, and then it is suggested as only possible as far as the Sandwich Islands, and that it would cost £650,000. There had been no enthusiasm shown, and as no company had been formed the grant given on March 10, 1879, had become valueless; but as long as his brothers dined with him the thought of a Pacific cable was recalled by the favorite toast of Mr. David Dudley Field, who would say, before the family left the table, "And now, Cyrus, we must not forget to drink to the world encircling." The recent revival of the subject has evidently been rather political than commercial. It was during the summer of 1880 that this was written:

"I decided some weeks ago upon leaving New York, on my trip around the world, on October 13th, provided I could find some Democratic friend who would pair off with me; and if I cannot accomplish this I shall wait and vote on November 2d, and leave on the 3d."

And on September 13th:

"It appears to me to be all-important that the Republican party should carry the election in Indiana in October.... I have now decided not to leave for San Francisco until after the Presidential election."

And two days later, September 15th:

"After mature reflection, I have determined to remain until after the election and do all I possibly can to secure the success of the Republican ticket by working until the polls close on the evening of November the 2d, and then leave on the morning of the 3d for San Francisco, and sail from thence in the _Oceanic_ on the 18th.... By remaining and working I hope to induce others to vote for our mutual friend, James A. Garfield."

These letters were sent to the New York Historical Society on September 17th and 20th:

"I am glad to hear that it is proposed to erect a monument to Nathan Hale. Many years ago I joined with others in such a memorial at Coventry, Conn., where he was born. But one ought to be erected in this city, and, if possible, on the very spot where he died. That spot you have, I understand, ascertained to be at or very near the armory of the Seventh Regiment. What an inspiration would a monument there be to our young soldiers! There ought to be inscribed on it his own immortal words: 'I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.'

"If the New York Historical Society will obtain permission to have a monument erected there, I will, with pleasure, bear the whole expense."

* * * * *

"I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter 18th instant.

"Enclosed I send you a printed slip of an inscription which I propose to put upon the stone which marks the spot where Major André was executed, should the New York Historical Society decide to accept the same, as suggested by me in a verbal conversation with Mr. George H. Moore."

This letter was received on September 30th:

"CYRUS W. FIELD, Esq, New York:

"_Dear Sir_,--A few of your neighbors and personal friends are desirous of meeting you in a social and informal way before you start upon your tour round the world. They will be glad if you will give them the pleasure of your company at dinner on some evening in the latter part of October. Tuesday, the 26th, is suggested as a suitable time; but if any other day will better comport with your convenience, you have only to name it. They are not willing you should go away without their greeting and God-speed."

In his reply to the toast to his health he said:

"Some of you began your business and professional life with me, and it will be pleasant to take so many of my old friends by the hand and to receive their kind wishes for a prosperous journey and safe return."

Mr. Field thoroughly enjoyed the evening. General Horace Porter closed his speech with these words:

"Now let me simply say that beyond the sentiment of friendship we all have a profound admiration for one who, at a period of life when most men, having surrounded themselves with the rich things of earth, in personal comfort, art, and literature, would be content to retire to some shady Arcadia and enjoy the rest to which they were so fully entitled, is bristling with all the activity of youth, seeking new worlds to conquer and projecting new enterprises.

"I know I speak the sentiment of all in saying that the hearty leave-taking and hand-shaking will be surpassed by the cordial welcome extended to him when, after passing over many lands and many seas, he will gladden the hearts of his fellow-countrymen by once more setting foot upon his native shore."

He left New York, as he proposed, at four o'clock on the morning of the 3d of November, and it will surprise no one who knew him to hear that he was in the South of France early in March and arrived in New York on May the 15th.

"DEPARTMENT OF STATE, "WASHINGTON, D. C., _23d May, 1881_.

"_My dear Mr. Field_,--Welcome, thou wanderer! We intend now to anchor you for some time in your native waters.

"Your arrival is timely. You can be of great service to the country and to the administration, which counts you among its chief friends....

"Hastily and truly, "JAMES G. BLAINE."

And on June 3d:

"With reference to your kind invitation to visit you at Irvington on the Hudson about the 29th of June, I beg to say for myself that it is doubtful as to whether I shall be able to accompany the President upon his proposed visit to Williams College. Should I do so, however, it would give me the very greatest pleasure to accept of your hospitality. I have taken the liberty to transmit your letter to the President, and presume that he will write you directly with reference to his ability to become your guest."

This entry was made in his diary on June 6th:

"I have invited President Garfield to come to Irvington for a visit and then go to Williamstown for Commencement on July 6th."

To quote again from his private papers:

"Mr. and Mrs. Garfield, with several members of the Cabinet and their wives, were to come to us at Irvington, pass Sunday with us, and on Monday leave for Williamstown. It was as Mr. Garfield was leaving Washington, that he was shot in the Pennsylvania depot."

In a letter he writes:

"When the first excitement had in a measure subsided, I wrote to a friend in Washington and asked if in case of Mr. Garfield's death his family would be left in comfortable circumstances."

It was on July 6th that he sent this message by cable and telegraph to friends in Europe and America:

"If President Garfield should die from the wounds received on 2d instant he would leave for his wife and five children about $20,000. I shall to-morrow, Thursday, morning exert myself to the utmost to raise a sum of money to be presented to him at once, as I feel confident it would help his recovery if he knew that in the event of his death his family would be provided for. I shall cheerfully subscribe $5000 towards the sum to be raised. If you or any of your friends would like to join, please telegraph to me early to-morrow, Thursday, for what amount I may put your name, and oblige."

The subscriptions were from $5000 to a ten-cent piece (given by an office-boy), and there was deposited in the United States Trust Company $362,238 52.

A silver coin of the value of ten cents was sold, and he sent this note to the child who made the donation:

"145 BROADWAY, "NEW YORK, _15th July, 1881_.

"_My dear young Friend._--I was very much pleased to read your nice letter enclosing the silver coin you had kept so long. I showed your letter to a gentleman who came to see me at my office, and he kindly said he would give one hundred times the value of the coin, and handed me twenty dollars in exchange for it and your letter, so that you see your little offering to Mollie Garfield's mamma has realized quite a large sum.

"I thank you very much for your contribution, and am

"Very truly your friend, "CYRUS W. FIELD."

"MR. FIELD:

"_Dear Sir,_--I thought it was very funny to see my little letter printed in the newspaper, and I think it was so kind of that gentleman to give twenty dollars in my name. I wish I knew who it was, so I could thank him for it. Will you please thank him for me? I am seven years old.

"BERDIE HAZELTON.

"I don't know Mollie Garfield very well, for I never saw her, but I am so sorry for her, 'cause her poor papa got shot."

With the invitation to attend the Garfield memorial service came this note:

"WASHINGTON, _February 18, 1882_.

"_My dear Mr. Field,_--You must come to the address on the 27th, Monday. You will go on the floor with me. I should feel that my audience was incomplete if you were not present.

Sincerely, "JAMES G. BLAINE."

As he had received the thanks of Congress, he was entitled for life to the privilege of going upon the floor.

A message sent from the Yorktown celebration, in October, 1881, to Mr. Gladstone, called forth this answer:

"HAWARDEN CASTLE, CHESTER, "_October 21, 1881_.

"_Dear Mr. Cyrus Field,_--I thank you for your telegram. The gratifying intelligence which it contains may probably come through another channel. In the meantime, unofficially, I express the hope that we may one and all consider it a personal duty to cherish and foster the feelings so admirably expressed in the President's order, and prevailing, happily, alike on both sides of the Atlantic.

"I remain, very faithfully yours, "WM. E. GLADSTONE."

In April, 1882, he suffered quite a disagreeable experience. One evening a police officer and two or three gentlemen came to the house, bringing the torn and burned remains of a package addressed to him. It had been in the mail-bag which a postman threw on the platform of the Third Avenue elevated road as he stepped off the train. As the bag fell there was an immediate explosion, and, upon examination, the box and wrapper of the package were found. The wrapper was an old German newspaper with Mr. Field's name on it, and another like package in the bag bore the name of Mr. Wm. H. Vanderbilt.

He took the matter very calmly, only afterwards telling the butler that no package brought to the house must be delivered until it had first been plunged in a bucket of water. This order spread consternation among some members of the family, who trembled for their new spring clothes.

On August 25, 1884, he left Tarrytown in the car "Railway Age," with several members of his family, for a journey that lasted six weeks, and during that time he travelled 11,000 miles by rail and 300 by boat. On September 12th he left Portland, Oregon, for Tacoma, and early on the morning of the 13th, as he was waiting at Utsaladdy for the tide to carry the _North Pacific,_ the boat he was on, through Deception Pass, went on shore, and found that it was from this place that the wooden mast for the _Great Eastern_ had been cut. It was sent to England by the way of Cape Horn.

September 22d he joined Sir Donald Smith and his party at Silver Heights, and his car was attached to their special train. Four days were given to crossing the Rockies and returning to Winnipeg, to the then western terminus of the Canadian Pacific. On the afternoon of September 24th the cars stopped in front of a large tent; it was the station, and has since been known as Field.

A few hours earlier, as we all stood looking up at Mount Stephen, and then off at the mountains, Sir Donald Smith turned to Mr. Field and said, "That is Mount Field." One of the employés of the road suggested that it had been already named, but that was of no account; Sir Donald's word was law, and Mount Field it became.

It was upon one of his Western journeys that he stopped at a telegraph office, wrote a message, and handed it to the clerk to send. Instead of turning at once to his instrument, the man studied Mr. Field intently, and then said, "Are you the original Cyrus?"

On his return home he was much interested in the Presidential election; but he accepted the result quietly, and wrote to a friend:

"I thank you for what you say in regard to the election. Whoever has received a majority of the votes will be declared elected. I do not know of any human being who wishes to defeat the popular will when known. In my own opinion, no one can tell who is elected until after the official count."

This year was that of the long and painful illness and affecting death of General Grant. Mr. Field's sympathy with the sufferer was intense, and it was with regret that he received this letter, and also one from one of General Grant's sons, to which he refers in his answer:

"NEW YORK CITY, _January 6, 1885_.

"_My dear Sir_,--Through the press and otherwise I learn that you, with a few other friends of mine, are engaged in raising a subscription for my benefit. I appreciate both the motive and the friendship which have dictated this course on your part, but, on mature reflection, I regard it as due to myself and family to decline this proffered generosity.

"I regret that I did not make this known earlier.

"Very truly yours, "U. S. GRANT.

"CYRUS W. FIELD, Esq."

"_6th January, 1885_.

"_My dear General Grant_,--I have this moment received your letter of this date, and I shall, as requested in the letter from your son, send a copy immediately to Messrs. A. J. Drexel and George W. Childs, of Philadelphia; to General W. T. Sherman, St. Louis, and Mr. E. F. Beale, of Washington.

"I have for several days been very anxious to call and see you, but have been prevented by press of business and a severe cold.

"With great respect, I remain, "Dear General Grant, "Very truly your friend, "CYRUS W. FIELD."

He was in London part of the summer of 1885, and the extracts that follow are made from a letter written to the New York _Tribune_ by Mr. Smalley on July 5th, in which he gives an account of the Fourth in London, and of a dinner given on the evening of that day. There were but thirty present, and only eight Americans.

"The toast of the evening was proposed by Mr. Field, and responded to first by the American minister and then by the Duke of Argyll. Mr. Phelps's speech had the one fault of being too brief. All he said was to the point, and was said with genuine feeling and in good taste. The duke has grown to be a venerable figure.... He speaks to-night with a depth of regard for America and Americans which goes straight to every American heart. The best friends of his life, he tells us, have been Americans--Prescott, Charles Sumner, Motley, Longfellow, and his host, Mr. Cyrus Field. He has brought back vivid memories of his brief visit to America, and paints for us one or two vivid pictures of American scenery and American life. He rejoices in our joy; in our independence; in the triumph of the Union over the rebellion; in the triumph we have since won here in England over English unfriendliness. And he says, truly, that it is difficult now to find an Englishman who is not convinced he was on our side all the time.

"Mr. Bright followed. He is seldom heard in these days.... He gave us of his best. He went back to the days of the civil war, when, as he told us, and as I have heard him say often, he used to spend the week in anxious expectation of the news which the Saturday steamer was to bring of events in America, I forget whether it was in this speech or later in the evening that Mr. Bright described the emotion with which he received the tidings of the defeat of Bull Run. At the first moment he thought, as so many of us in America thought at the first moment, that all was over. 'No calamity ever seemed to me greater,' said this English friend of America. The ultimate victory of freedom over slavery filled his life with happiness.... If anything could make us free-traders it might well be Mr. Bright's eloquence, and his unequalled power of seeing the one side of the question in which his faith is so fervent. As long as I hear his voice I suspend my convictions....

"This dinner of Mr. Cyrus Field's, though private in one sense, was pretty fully reported in the London papers.... Mr. Field's health was proposed by the Duke of Argyll, and drunk with all the honors. Telegrams were read to and from General Grant and the President of the United States."

Just a month later Mr. Phelps, then American minister in London, wrote to Mr. Field:

"You will be glad to know that I have a message from the Queen, who desires to send a representation to our service. I have also a telegram that Mr. Gladstone will attend, and Lord Harrowby, Lord Privy Seal, for the government."

The service referred to was the eulogy on General Grant, delivered at Westminster Abbey, on August 4th, by Archbishop Farrar.

To this service these two letters also refer:

"_August 6, 1885_.

"_My dear Mr. Field,_--I had a long search for you among the crowds at Westminster, after the service, when I found that you were not among those bound to the dean's lodging, but failed to find you, and I therefore write a line to thank you for having asked me to attend the service in memory of our great friend, as I was grateful for the opportunity to be again among so many of your countrymen, and to do honor to the memory of a most remarkable citizen.

"I think Farrar's oration was excellent, and the place--the common shrine of so much of our past glories, to which both nations can equally look with pride--a very fitting one for the expression of our common mourning.

"Believe me, dear Mr. Field, "Yours very truly, "LORNE."

This is from Professor Roswell D. Hitchcock, of the Union Theological Seminary in New York:

"I hardly need say how glad I am that such a service has been provided for. Your countrymen owe you much gratitude for the lead you have taken in the matter."

It was after his return home this year that this telegraphic correspondence occurred between him and his brothers and Mr. George Bancroft, then at Newport:

"Most hearty congratulations on your eighty-fifth birthday--congratulations which we hope to renew for many years to come.

"DAVID, STEPHEN, CYRUS, and HENRY FIELD."

"_Dear David, Stephen, Cyrus, and Henry Field_,--Thanks for your good-will, and when I am gone keep the departed traveller kindly in memory.

"Ever yours, "GEORGE BANCROFT.

"_6th October_."

Mr. Field was again in London in 1886, and was at a dinner given on July 16th by the Liberal Club to Mr. Chesson, who, in his speech, said:

"My personal acquaintance with Mr. Field dates back for more than twenty years--from the period when the first Atlantic cable was laid; and I had reason then, as I have had greater reason since, to admire his indomitable perseverance, his unwearied patience, and his great ability. I was for a time on board the _Great Eastern_ with him in 1866, when the Atlantic cable was successfully laid and permanent telegraphic communication established between the two continents. I saw him daily, and held constant social intercourse with him until the splicing of the shore end of the cable with the huge coil which filled the vast tank of the _Great Eastern_ took place; and I noticed that there was nothing in his demeanor to distinguish him from other persons on board, although when some of us cast wistful looks at the big tank we knew that it contained all his worldly goods, and, for aught he knew to the contrary, his fortune was destined to be buried, with the cable, at the bottom of the Atlantic."

The last of August and part of September this year were spent in another journey to the Pacific coast, in which he was much impressed with the marvellous beauty of the Canadian road.

From a New York paper of November, 1886, this is taken:

"Mr. Field has fought almost since the very beginning of the system as a public conveyance for a uniform charge of five cents at all hours for passengers on all the New York elevated lines, and the morning of the 1st of October, 1886, first saw the complete victory which attended his effort in this direction."

When, in 1882, he bought a large tract of land in the valley of the Saw Mill River, adjoining on the east his home at Irvington, he intended building there a number of small but comfortable houses for working-men. Around each house he proposed that there should be a plot of ground, and the rent was to be from ten to twenty dollars a month for house and land. The building of the new aqueduct made it impossible for him to carry out at once this project, and before the aqueduct was completed he suffered, in 1887, heavy financial losses from the sudden decline of the stock of the New York elevated roads, in which he was so largely interested.

The last message that passed between Mr. Field and Mr. Bright was on the 11th of December, 1888, when he cabled:

"_The Right Hon. John Bright,_--Your friends in America read with interest the news that comes daily from your sick-room. Accept the affectionate remembrance of one who has known and loved you for more than a quarter of a century.

"It may comfort you in your long illness to know that your name is on the lips and in the hearts of millions on this side of the Atlantic, who can never forget how you stood by the cause of their country.

"CYRUS W. FIELD."

December 2, 1890, was a day that his family had long looked forward to. It was on this day that these messages and telegrams were received, and that many friends came to offer their congratulations. Among the messages of good-will was this poem from President Henry Morton, of the Stevens Institute:

"MR. AND MRS. CYRUS W. FIELD

"ON THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THEIR MARRIAGE

"Golden light the sun is shedding, Ushering in this golden wedding, As he did on that bright day Fifty golden years away. Then as now the 'golden flowers,' Lingering after summer's hours, The chrysanthemums, foretold Anniversary of gold. Golden love and golden truth To gold age from golden youth, In the fire of life, thrice tried, Pure themselves, yet purified By the sorrows borne together, By the stress of stormy weather; This pure gold, outlasting earth, Proves its own celestial birth, And shall shine with golden light, Star-like, from heaven's dome of night."

"CYRUS W. FIELD, Esq., Gramercy Park, New York:

"_Dear Sir,_--We, the undersigned, who have known you for many years, and some of whom have been long and intimately associated with you, desire to express to you and to your amiable and devoted wife our earnest and heartfelt congratulations on your golden-wedding day, the 2d of December, 1890.

"We earnestly wish you both many years of health and happiness, enjoying the fruits of your useful and well-spent lives, and seeing on every side the wide-spreading development of the submarine telegraph enterprise in which you, Mr. Field, have labored so long, so zealously, and so successfully. This great work, pursued by you with unflagging energy and perseverance for many years, through the greatest difficulties and hinderances, has now become a first necessity of national and commercial life, and you have the profound satisfaction of knowing that its object and its results are, and ever have been, peaceable and beneficent in their character.

"We ask you to accept this message of our good-will and good wishes, which will be sent to you both over and under the sea.

Very faithfully yours, "Argyll, Frederic W. Farrar, Mouck, W. E. Gladstone, W. H. Russell, Douglas Galton, Tweeddale, Henry C. Forde, W. Andrews, H. Weaver, G. von Chauvin, J. H. Carson, Samuel Canning, Richard C. Mayne, C. W. Earle, Catherine Gladstone, J. S. Forbes, Caroline Roberts Van Wart, G. W. Smalley, Gerald Harper, William Barber, L. M. Rate, John Muirhead, George Draper, Richard Collett, W. Leatham Bright, Latimer Clark, R. T. Brown, F. A. Bevan, H. D. Gooch, W. Thomson, G. Shaw Lefevre, J. Russell Reynolds, John Pender, James Anderson, W. Cunard, William Ford, George Elliot, George Henry Richards, W. Shuter, Henry Clifford, Willoughby Smith, W. S. Cunard, Julius Reuter, H. A. C. Saunders, G. W. Campbell, H. M. Stanley, of Alderley, John H. Puleston, George Cox Bompas, James Stern, H. L. Bischoffsheim, Louis Floersheim, T. H. Wells, J. H. Tritton, W. H. Preece, C. V. DeSauty, George Grove, Jane Cobden, Thomas B. Potter, Charles Burt, Margaret Anderson, Robert C. Halpin, Edward Satterthwaite, Frank H. Hill, J. C. Parkinson, William Payton, Henry Dever, Kenneth L. M. Anderson, Charles W. Stronge, Oscar Wilde, Lewis Wells, John G. Griffiths, Robert Dudley, Emily F. Lloyd, Ch. Gerhardi, W. T. Ansell, Julian Goldsmid, John Chatterton, Frances Baillie, Constance Wilde, B. Smith, John Temple, Montague McMurdo, Philip Rawson."

"WINCHESTER HOUSE, "50 OLD BROAD STREET, "LONDON, _December_ 3, 1890.

"_My dear Mr. Field_,--It came to my knowledge last month that the 2d of December was the golden-wedding day of Mrs. Field and yourself. It happened when we were in Paris at the telegraph conference in the month of June that my birthday occurred, aged sixty-six. (Is it not terrible that one should be so old?) But it was also fifty years since I went to sea as a sailor boy, and it was just twenty-five years since we made our first voyage in the _Great Eastern_.

"Mr. Charles Burt, who was in Paris representing the Anglo-American Company, was kind enough to get up a dinner in my honor, and I was presented with an illuminated memorial or address. It occurred to me that it would be a pleasing act on our part to get up a similar address upon the occasion of your golden wedding, and no doubt you would have the result yesterday.

"Mr. Charles Burt and the staff of the Anglo have cordially done all they could to get as many names as we could recall, but as they are a good deal scattered it has taken more time than we anticipated. Then, oh, how many have passed away! It is like calling the roll after a battle--so few could be found. We are to-day trying to get at a few more, who we feel sure would like to add their names. I was looking up Sir William Drake, but he was too ill, and died this morning....

"Now, my dear Mr. Field, let me once more wish Mrs. Field and yourself every sort of kind good wish. The days and years are rolling away, and we may well cling to the memory of exciting and active days when we were twenty-five to thirty years younger and the future filled with nervous uncertainties.

"Always yours sincerely, "JAMES ANDERSON."

"In the glow of the morning was the song of rejoicing, Ye twain are now one till death shall you part; In the calm of the evening is the song of thanksgiving, Ye twain are still one in life and in heart.

"It was faith in the morning, it is knowledge this evening, We sang of the future, we sing of the past; But this jubilee hour finds the refrain unchanging, We twain are still one, only one at the last.

"We wait in the evening for the dawn of the morrow, But the song of our lives will not end with the day; 'Midst the music celestial hear the anthem of glory-- We twain are still one, for ever and aye."

D. J. B.