CHAPTER II

EARLY LIFE IN NEW YORK

(1835-1840)

It was on Wednesday, April 29, 1835, and only a few weeks after "She Stoops to Conquer" had been performed in the village academy at Stockbridge, that Cyrus Field, having persuaded his parents that he was old enough to go out into the world and seek his fortune, left his home. For three years before he had kept the family accounts, and had most carefully entered every item of expense in a small paper book, and he was well aware that it was only with strict economy that the eight dollars given to him by his father at parting could be spared from the family purse. Stockbridge in April lies bare and brown in the valley of the Housatonic, and the tops of the mountains that are near are at that season often still white with snow, and his heart was in harmony with the scene as he looked back for the last sight of his beloved mother's face. His first letter is dated

"NEW YORK, _May 12, 1835_.

"_Dear Father_,--I received yours, Henry's, and Mary's kind letters of the 7th on the 9th by Jonathan, and I assure you that it did me good to hear from sweet home.

"I stopped at Mr. Moore's, in Hudson, and they had not seen mother's handkerchief.

"Your account of the Field family I was glad to receive, but I wish to know also from whom we are descended on my mother's side.

"Tell Stephen, Henry, and Mary that I intended to write them all a long letter, but as I have not been very well for the last two days, and have a good deal to do to-day, it is impossible.

"The purse which Mary mentioned in her letter Jonathan says that he did not bring.

"I have seen R. Maclaughlin, and he sends his love to Henry. Tell George Whitney that the store boy sends his love to him. I do the same, and also to Edwin Williams, Mr. Fay, S. and A. Hawkings, and all the good people of old Stockbridge.

"Uncle Beales and his daughter arrived here last night.

"Mr. Mark Hopkins came from Stockbridge this morning. No letters.

"Take good care of mother, and tell her she must not get overdone.

"All send their love. Love to all.

"From your affectionate son, "CYRUS."

He does not speak of his loneliness, although we know that it was great, for his mother's last words to another son, who was going to New York a few weeks later, were, "Bring Cyrus home if he is still so homesick."

It was on one of his first Sundays in New York that, after he had been to church, and gone to his brother David's for dinner, his unhappiness was apparent to the family and also to Dr. Mark Hopkins, their guest, whose sympathy was never forgotten, nor his words, "I would not give much for a boy if he were not homesick on leaving home." He has said that many of the evenings during the long summer that followed his coming to New York were passed on the banks of the Hudson watching the boats as they sailed northward, and as he lay by the riverside he pictured himself as on board of one of the vessels, and the welcome that he would receive on reaching Stockbridge.

Towards the end of his life Mr. Field began the preparation of his autobiography. From so much of this as serves the purpose of this narrative, extracts will be made from time to time without express credit.

In 1835 it took twenty-four hours to go from Stockbridge to New York, and first there was a drive of fifty miles to Hudson on the river, and then a long sail by boat.

Almost immediately on reaching the city he entered as an errand-boy the store of A. T. Stewart, which had already a more commanding reputation than any mercantile establishment possesses or perhaps can attain at present.

His home was in a boarding-house in Murray Street near Greenwich, where he had board and lodging for two dollars a week, a fact which is in itself eloquent of the difference between life now in New York and life sixty years ago. Stewart's was then at 257 Broadway, between Murray and Warren streets. There the young clerk received for his services the first year $50, and the second the sum was doubled. Even so, and with what would now be the incredible frugality of his living, it is plain that he could not have supported himself by his earnings. Of his life at that time he said in after-years, "My oldest brother lent me money, which, just as soon as I was able, and before I was twenty-one, I returned to him with interest." The letter that follows tells how his first money was spent:

"NEW YORK, _June 12, 1835_.

"_Dear Father_,--I received by Mr. Baldwin five nightcaps, a pin-cushion, and some wedding-cake, for which I am very much obliged to mother and Mary.

"Mary wrote to me to know of what color I would have my frock-coat; tell mother instead of having a linen frock-coat that I would prefer another linen roundabout, as they are much better in a store; I am not particular about the color.

"When you write to me, direct your letters to Cyrus W. Field, at A. T. Stewart & Co., No. 257 Broadway, New York; if you do so, they will come to me quicker than in any other way. There is in the store besides the firm twenty-four clerks, including two book-keepers, one of whom is Mr. Smith, of Haddam; he says that he remembers you, mother, David, Timothy, and Matthew very well. Give my love to mother, brothers, sister, Mr. Fay, George Whitney, and other friends.

"From your affectionate son, "CYRUS.

"P.S.--On the other side you will find a list of my expenses.

From the 29th of April to the 12th of June.--Cyrus W. Field, expenses.

From Stockbridge to New York $2 00

Paid to David for Penny Magazines 2 00 (I am not agoing to take them any longer.)

To hair cutting 12½

To one vial of spirits of turpentine (used to get some spots out of coat) 6¼

To get shoes mended 18¾

To one pair of shoe-brushes 25

To one box of blacking 12½

To get trunks carried from David's to my boarding-house 25

To two papers of tobacco to put in trunks to prevent moths getting in 12½

To one straw hat (the one that I brought from home got burned and was so dirty that David thought I had better get me a new one.) 1 00

To one steel pen 12½

To small expenses, from time to time, such as riding in an omnibus, going to Brooklyn, etc., etc., etc. 1 25 ------ Total, $7 50

"When I left home I had $8, $7 50 of which is expended, leaving in my hands 50 cents. I do not know of anything that I want, but I think you had better send to me $4 more."

In all his letters of this period he calls his eldest brother by his first name, David, and it was not until many years later that his second name, Dudley, is added.

At first Mr. Field was obliged to be at his work between six and seven in the morning, and after he was promoted from errand-boy to clerk the hours for attendance at the store were from a quarter-past eight in the morning until into the evening. "I always made it a point to be there before the partners came and never to leave before the partners left. Mr. Stewart was the leading dry-goods merchant at that time. My ambition was to make myself a thoroughly good merchant. I tried to learn in every department all I possibly could, knowing I had to depend entirely on myself."

In his simple country home a theatre had always been thought of and spoken of as an entrance to hell, but being of an inquiring mind he determined, as so many country lads have done before and since, upon giving one of his first evenings in the city to finding out for himself what hell was like. The kindred desire to see a large fire was also soon gratified, and the ardor of his curiosity on this subject was at once cooled, for, as he stood watching the blaze, the hose was turned for a moment in the wrong direction, and he was drenched.

The subject of the next letter is the "great fire of 1835," which took place on December 16th, and destroyed 600 warehouses and $20,000,000 of property.

"NEW YORK, _December 25, 1835_.

"_Dear Father_,--Last week, on Wednesday night, a fire broke out in a store in Merchant Street which proved to be the largest that was ever known in this country. It burned about 674 buildings, most of which were wholesale stores, and laid waste all of thirty acres of the richest part of this city.

"I was up all night to the fire, and last Sunday was on duty with David as a guard to prevent people from going to the ruins to steal property that was saved from the fire and laying in heaps in the streets.

"The awful state that the city was in can be better imagined than described.

"Mr. Brewer has arrived, and will take to Stockbridge some parcels, one of which is for Mrs. Ashburner.

"In haste, from your affectionate son, "CYRUS.

"P.S.--I wish mother would make for me a black frock-coat (she knows the kind that I want) and a plain black stock.

"Perhaps you had better send me the $6 that you were to let me have.

"C. W. FIELD."

On July 25, 1836, he writes to his father:

"I shall leave New York on Thursday evening the 11th of August, in the steamboat _Westchester_, which goes no further up the river than Hudson, and be at that place on Friday morning, the 12th, where I shall want to have some one to meet me and Mr. Goodrich with a good horse and wagon to take us immediately to Stockbridge.... I want to have some one be at Hudson rain or shine, and I would like to have you write to me and let me know who is coming, and where I shall find him if he is not at the wharf.... Mr. G. and myself will pay the expense of coming to Hudson."

And in another letter:

"The fare in the steamboat to Hudson is only 50 cents."

A month later, in a letter to his mother, dated New York, August 29th, he says:

"I arrived here on Thursday morning with Goodrich, in good health and fine spirits. I have sent to you by Mr. Platner, of Lee,

10 yds. of fine long cloth, at 25 cents per yd. $2 50 15 yds. not fine long cloth, at 12½ cents per yd. 1 87½ 1 muslin collar ----- 1 remnant of merino, 4½ yds., for 4 00 ------ Total, $8 37½

"If Mary should like the merino for a cloak I will obtain another remnant for a dress.

"Father has let me have $25 00 since I have been in New York, and if he wishes me I will pay the above amount, and then I shall be indebted to him $16 62½. I will send the balance in money or obtain that amount worth of goods for him here at any time....

"I wish you would all write to me by every opportunity, and tell me of anything and all things that happen at home and in good old Stockbridge.

"Give my love to all friends. In haste.

"From your affectionate son, "CYRUS.

"_To my dear mother._"

He wrote to his mother again on October 31, 1836, and in the postscript says:

"Tell father that I have read through the _Pilgrim's Progress_ which he gave me when at home, and that I like it very much; and also that Goodrich and myself take turns in reading a chapter in the Bible every night before we go to bed, and that we have got as far as the 25th chapter of Genesis."

His indebtedness to his father seems to have weighed heavily upon him, for on November 25th he again alludes to it:

"I am now in debt to you $4 75, which I will pay to you at any time you wish, or will obtain things for you here."

The thought that his home in Stockbridge is to be given up causes him pain. On January 24, 1837, in a letter to his mother, he says:

"I am sorry that father is going to leave that beautiful place Stockbridge, but when you do move to Haddam I hope that you will take everything, even the old and good dog Rover."

In a letter written to his father on April 15, 1837, he mentions various articles he has sent to him, and then adds:

"And also a silk handkerchief, which I wish you to accept for the interest on the $25 you lent me."

Towards the end of the letter is this sentence:

"The election has closed and the Whigs have elected Aaron Clark their candidate for Mayor by a majority of nearly 5000 votes. Good."

His clothes were all of home manufacture. On May 1, 1837, in a letter to his mother, he writes:

"I wish you would make for me, as soon as convenient, a black broadcloth _coat with skirts_, and covered buttons, and as I wish it for a dress-coat the cloth must be _very fine and made extremely nice_. You cannot be too particular about it."

In his letter written from New York on July 15, 1837, he says:

"David arrived on Monday, July 10th, in the packet ship _Oxford_, from Liverpool. He had a passage of thirty-seven days. He is in very good health. The Ladies' Greek Association of Stockbridge held their fair the 4th of July on Little Hill, and raised one hundred and twenty-seven dollars ($127). Well done for old Stockbridge."

The Mercantile Library in Clinton Hall, at the southwest corner of Nassau and Beekman streets, proved an attractive place to him, and whenever it was possible he went there in the evening to read; and he also joined an "Eclectic Fraternity," to which Mr. Jackson S. Schultz belonged. The Fraternity met for debate every Saturday evening in a fourth-story room over a leather store in the Swamp.

Mr. Stewart's rules were strict. One of them was that every clerk must enter in a book the minute that he came in the morning, left for dinner, returned from dinner, went to supper and came back; and if he was late in the morning, at dinner over an hour, or required more than three-quarters of an hour for supper, he must pay twenty-five cents for each offence. The fines thus collected, Mr. Stewart told his clerks, would be kept and given to any charity that they should select. This went on until September 30, 1837, and then this paper was drawn up:

"NEW YORK, _September 30, 1837_.

"We, the undersigned, hereby nominate and appoint Cyrus W. Field treasurer to receive the fines of the young men _paid_ during the month of September to Messrs. A. T. Stewart & Co.:

EDWARD K. SHED, J. R. MCELROY, JAMES SHOND, H. T. SELDEN, CHARLES ST. JOHN, WEBSTER THOMPSON, C. ZABRISKIE, JR., JNO. K. WALKER, E. B. WILLIAMS, HENRY RUTGERS PRALL, THOMAS H. SELBY, JAMES BECK, J. B. SMITH, GEO. HAYWOOD, D. R. PARK, M. GOODRICH, JOHN WM. BYRON, A. MATTHEW, T. JONES, S. H. MAYNARD, C. AUSTIN, PAUL BURDOCK, P. FELLOWS, EDMUND S. MILLS, JAMES MACFARLAN, A. SAHTLER, R. WHYTE."

The clerks were paid at the beginning of each month, and on the 1st of October the paper was presented, and the cashier was asked for the money, which he declined to give. An appeal was taken to Mr. Stewart, who ordered it to be given to the young men.

"I took the funds, and all of the clerks left the store that night in a body and proceeded up Broadway to the corner of Chambers Street. We then agreed to go into a large, well-known oyster-saloon in the basement. The clerks at once voted unanimously that we should have an oyster supper, and that the treasurer should pay from this fund the expense of the supper, which was done. Then there was a long debate as to what charity the balance should be given to. At last it was unanimously resolved that there was no such charity in the city or State of New York as the clerks of A. T. Stewart & Co., and that Mr. Field, the treasurer, should return to each clerk the exact amount of his fines, less his proportion of the supper. This occupied until nearly or quite daylight.

"Some one of the clerks or waiters told Mr. Stewart of what had occurred, and we were all requested to remain at the store the next evening after business hours, when Mr. Stewart called me up and asked me to give him an account of what had been done with the funds paid to me the previous evening. I told him the exact truth in regard to the matter, when he dismissed us, saying that in the future he should be very careful that the firm selected the object of charity that this fund was given to."

At a dinner at the Union League Club on October 26, 1881, Jackson S. Schultz, the beginning of whose acquaintance with Mr. Field has just been referred to, related this incident: "Perhaps I cannot do better than tell you an anecdote that was told me by Mr. Stewart at the great celebration which we had at the Metropolitan Hotel after the laying of the Atlantic cable. He said to me, 'Perhaps you don't know that I have taught Mr. Field all the art of telegraphing he knows.' 'No, I am not aware of that, Mr. Stewart.' He said, 'It is quite notorious in our house.' Mr. Field was for a long time a clerk in that establishment, and Mr. Stewart said Mr. Field was in the habit of watching the old gentleman, and by a sort of tick, tick, giving notice to his fellow-clerks of the fact that he was coming, so that every man was in his place, and from that simple idea Mr. Field got the idea of telegraphing, which had made his fortune."

The first intimation we find of his having decided to leave Mr. Stewart is in a letter to his father, written on January 8, 1838:

"I expect to go to Lee to live with Matthew on the 1st of March. He will give me two hundred and fifty dollars ($250) the first year, and my board and washing."

And again, on February 25th, he refers to the proposed change that he intends making:

"I have been very busy for the last five or six weeks in the evening attending Mr. Wheeler's school to obtain a thorough knowledge of book-keeping by double entry, so as to be able to keep Matthew's books when I go to Lee.... I have made arrangements with Matthew so that I shall not commence my year with him until the 1st of April."

He arrived in Lee, Mass., on Friday evening, March 30th.

It was early in this year that Mr. Stewart, having heard that Mr. Field intended giving up his place as clerk after his three years' apprenticeship to business, sent for him and urged him to agree to remain with him for several years, and made him a very liberal offer if he would do so. On the 2d of March Mr. Bunours, one of Mr. Stewart's partners, sent him this note:

"_Dear Field_,--You will accept the accompanying trifle as a token of esteem and sincere friendship, and whatever be your future pursuits, to know that they are successful will be a source of much gratification to

WILLIAM H. BUNOURS.

_March 2, '38._"

"The trifle" was a small diamond pin that the recipient of it wore for over twenty-five years. Upon the same occasion this invitation was received:

"The undersigned, anxious to show their respect and esteem for their fellow-clerk, Cyrus W. Field, do hereby agree to give him a complimentary supper on Friday evening, March 2, 1838.

HENRY RUTGERS PRALL, JAMES MACFARLAN, RICHARD MCELROY, JOHN WM. BYRON, PAUL BURDOCK, R. WHYTE, P. V. MONDON, JNO. K. WALKER, CHARLES B. ST. JOHN, JAMES BECK, W. THOMPSON, M. GOODRICH."

A letter written on March 6, 1838, by his brother David to his parents ends with these words:

"Cyrus has, as you will see from his letters, etc., left Stewart's, with the best testimonials of esteem from all his employers and associates. He is a noble young man--and I am proud of him."

His father had said on parting from him in 1835: "Cyrus, I feel sure you will succeed, for your playmates could never get you off to play until all the work for which you were responsible was done."

These few words tell us briefly how the following eighteen months were passed:

"On leaving New York I went as far west as Michigan on business for my brother Dudley. I went up the Hudson in a boat to Albany, from thence to, I think, Syracuse in the cars, thence by stage to Buffalo, from Buffalo by steamer to Detroit, and from there to Ann Arbor. On my return East I went to Lee, Mass., as an assistant to my brother, Matthew D. Field. He was a large paper manufacturer; he often sent me on business to Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, and New York."

From this account of Mr. Field's beginnings in New York it is evident that his subsequent success was not a matter of chance; the foundations of it were laid in the character which commanded the confidence of his employer and of his associates. This will be shown even more strikingly in the pages that are to follow. His own narration of his early experiences has an additional interest in the incidental and almost unconscious disclosure of the vast difference between the conditions of beginning a business career in New York now and sixty years ago. It seems worth while to secure an authentic memorial of a life that already seems so remote and is wellnigh forgotten.