THE AFTERGLOW.
It is the clear shining after rain. The storms that swept the sea, have
blown themselves out, and all is tranquil on the face of the deep. The
cable is lying in its ocean bed uniting the two hemispheres, nevermore
to be separated. And now comes the public recognition on both sides the
Atlantic, though in different form. The event had produced a profound
impression throughout the civilized world. Yet it was a singular
illustration of the changes in public interest, that, whereas in 1858 a
temporary success had kindled the wildest enthusiasm in the United
States, while in England it was regarded almost with indifference, now
the state of feeling in the two countries was completely reversed. In
Great Britain it was the theme of boundless congratulation, while in
America the public mind--dulled perhaps by the excitements of four years
of war--received the news with composure. The reason was, in part, that
England had had a larger share in the later than in the earlier
expeditions. Certainly none could deny the inestimable services rendered
by her men of science, her seamen, her engineers, and her great
capitalists; and it was most fit that the country which they had honored
should do them honor in its turn. Scarcely had the Great Eastern
recrossed the sea before those to whom the empire owed so much, were
duly recognized in the following letter from the Earl of Derby, then
Prime Minister, addressed to Sir Stafford Northcote, who was to preside
at a dinner given in Liverpool, to celebrate the great achievement:
"Balmoral,
Saturday, Sept. 29, 1866.
"Dear Sir Stafford: As I understand you are to have the honor
of taking the chair at the entertainment which is to be given
on Monday next, in Liverpool, to celebrate the double success
which has attended the great undertaking of laying the cable of
1866, and recovering that of 1865, by which the two continents
of Europe and America are happily connected, I am commanded by
the Queen to make known to you, and through you to those over
whom you are to preside, the deep interest with which Her
Majesty has regarded the progress of this noble work; and to
tender Her Majesty's cordial congratulations to all of those
whose energy and perseverance, whose skill and science have
triumphed over all difficulties, and accomplished a success
alike honorable to themselves and to their country, and
beneficial to the world at large. Her Majesty, desirous of
testifying her sense of the various merits which have been
displayed in this great enterprise, has commanded me to submit
to her, for special marks of her royal favor, the names of
those who, having had assigned to them prominent positions, may
be considered as representing the different departments, whose
united labors have contributed to the final result; and Her
Majesty has accordingly been pleased to direct that the honor
of knighthood should be conferred upon Captain Anderson, the
able and zealous commander of the Great Eastern; Professor
Thomson, whose distinguished science has been brought to bear
with eminent success upon the improvement of submarine
telegraphy; and on Messrs. Glass and Canning, the manager and
engineer respectively of the Telegraph Maintenance Company,
whose skill and experience have mainly contributed to the
admirable construction and successful laying of the cable. Her
Majesty is further pleased to mark her approval of the public
spirit and energy of the two companies who have had
successively the conduct of the undertaking, by offering the
dignity of a baronetcy of the United Kingdom to Mr. Lampson,
the Deputy Chairman of the original company, to whose resolute
support of the project in spite of all discouragements it was
in a great measure owing that it was not at one time abandoned
in despair; and to Mr. Gooch, M.P., the Chairman of the company
which has finally completed the design. If among the names thus
submitted to and approved by Her Majesty, that of Mr. Cyrus
Field does not appear, the omission must not be attributed to
any disregard of the eminent services which, from the first, he
has rendered to the cause of transatlantic telegraphy, and the
zeal and resolution with which he has adhered to the
prosecution of his object, but to an apprehension lest it might
appear to encroach on the province of his own Government, if
Her Majesty were advised to offer a citizen of the United
States, for a service rendered alike to both countries, British
marks of honor, which, following the example of another highly
distinguished citizen, he might feel himself unable to accept."
The reason assigned by Lord Derby for the omission of Mr. Field's name
in the distribution of honors, was perfectly understood and entirely
satisfactory. The British Government had once before offered a baronetcy
to Mr. George Peabody in recognition of his princely benefactions to the
poor of London, but while he appreciated the honor, he felt that as a
citizen of the United States, he could not accept it, and the same
reason would apply in the present case. But while this alone prevented
official recognition, it could not prevent the hearty expression of
Englishmen who knew the history of the great enterprise from the
beginning. At this very dinner, the Chairman gave, as the first toast,
"The Original Projectors of the Atlantic Cable," which he proposed early
in order to give Mr. Cyrus Field (who was very near to them, although he
happened to be in America!) a chance of responding! The allusion is
explained by the remark of one present who had said:--
"You will be pleased to hear that Mr. Bright has kindly brought
the telegraph wire into the room in which we are sitting, and
no sooner will the toast involving the mention of Mr. Field's
name be given from the chair, than it will be flashed with
lightning speed to Valentia, thence to Newfoundland, and if Mr.
Field is at home, it is quite possible that he himself will
receive it, ere the echo of your ringing cheers has died away
in Liverpool."
A message was at once sent from the room to Newfoundland, and a reply
received back that Mr. Field had left for New York. In continuing his
speech, Sir Stafford Northcote said: "I think there can be no doubt in
the minds of those who have carefully examined the history of these
transactions, that it is to Mr. Cyrus Field that we owe the practical
carrying out of the idea which has borne such glorious fruit. I am sure
there is none to whom we owe more, or whose name stands in prouder
connection with this great undertaking, than the name of Mr. Cyrus
Field."
He called upon Sir Charles Bright to reply, who detailed somewhat the
history of the enterprise from the very beginning in 1856, when "Mr.
Cyrus Field, to whom the world was more indebted than to any other
person for the establishment of the line, came to England upon the
completion of the telegraph between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland."
To the same effect is the testimony of a distinguished writer, W. H.
Russell, LL.D., who was on board of the Great Eastern in 1865, as the
correspondent of The Times, and wrote a very graphic History of the
Expedition (p. 10):
"It has been said that the greatest boons conferred on mankind,
have been due to men of one idea. If the laying of the Atlantic
cable be among those benefits, its consummation may certainly
be attributed to the man who, having many ideas, devoted
himself to work out one idea, with a gentle force and patient
vigor which converted opposition and overcame indifference.
Mr. Field may be likened either to the core, or the external
protection, of the cable itself. At times he has been its
active life; again he has been its iron-bound guardian. Let who
will claim the merit of having first said the Atlantic cable
was possible; to Mr. Field is due the inalienable merit of
having made it possible, and of giving to an abortive
conception all the attributes of healthy existence."
Sir William Thomson, on the final triumph, wrote:
"My dear Field, I cannot refrain from putting down in black and
white my hearty congratulations on your great success. Few know
better than I do how well you deserve it."
Eight months after he wrote from Scotland:
"I am sorry I had not an opportunity of saying in public how
much I value your energy and perseverance in carrying through
the great enterprise, and how clearly you stand out in its
history as its originator and its mainspring from beginning to
end."
Next to Sir William Thomson was Mr. C. F. Varley, who was associated in
the work from an early day, and did much to solve the difficult problems
of ocean telegraphy, and who wrote to Mr. Field, speaking from his
personal knowledge: "You did more than any other to float the concern,
and single-handed saved the whole scheme from collapse more than once."
Captain Sir James Anderson repeated the same conviction in numberless
forms. He had seen how the presence of Mr. Field in London instantly
revived the languid enthusiasm of others, and infused his own energy
into the enterprise, and declared again and again that but for these
heroic and incessant efforts the whole scheme would have broken down,
and been delayed for many years.
Such expressions from English associates in the great work might be
multiplied to any extent. They are much stronger than any language used
by the author of this volume, who has purposely kept back such
testimonies, lest it should seem that he wished to exalt an individual,
when he sought to do justice to all, on both sides of the Atlantic.
Nor was such recognition confined to England. The King of Italy
conferred on Mr. Field the cross of the order of St. Mauritius, as an
acknowledgment from the country of Columbus to one who had done so much
to unite to the Old World that New World which Columbus discovered.
A still higher honor was paid by the Great Exposition in Paris, in 1867,
which, gathering the products of the genius and skill and industry of
all nations, recognized the labors of men of all countries, who, by
their discoveries or great enterprises, had rendered eminent services to
the cause of civilization. It awarded the GRAND PRIZE, the highest
distinction it had to bestow, to Mr. Field by name, jointly with the
Anglo-American and Atlantic Telegraph Companies, thus recognizing, as
was most due, the splendid exhibition of the science and the capital of
England, which were never more directly employed for the benefit of the
human race, than in the uniting of the two Hemispheres, while it gave
the first place in the grand design to its American leader.
But to an American no praise is so dear as that which comes from his own
countrymen. First of all to Mr. Field, was that which came from the
faithful few who had stood by him and witnessed his exertions for twelve
long years. At the first annual meeting of the stockholders of the New
York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, the following
resolution was, on motion of Mr. Moses Taylor, seconded by Mr. Wilson G.
Hunt, unanimously adopted:
Whereas, This Company was the first ever formed for the
establishment of an Atlantic Telegraph; an enterprise upon
which it started in the beginning of 1854, at the instance of
Mr. Cyrus W. Field, and which, through his wise and unwearied
energy, acting upon this Company, and others afterwards formed
in connection with it, has been successfully accomplished:
Therefore the stockholders of this Company, at this their first
meeting since the completion of the enterprise, desiring to
testify their sense of Mr. Field's services:
Resolve: First--That to him more than any other man, the world
is indebted for this magnificent instrument of good; and but
for him it would not, in all probability, be now in existence;
Second--That the thanks of the stockholders of this Company are
hereby given to Mr. Field for these services, which, though so
great in themselves, and so valuable to this Company, were
rendered without any remuneration; and
Third--That a copy of this resolution, certified by the
Chairman and Secretary of this meeting, be delivered to Mr.
Field as a recognition, by those who best know, of his just
right to be always regarded as the first projector, and most
persistent and efficient promoter, of the Atlantic Telegraph.
Peter Cooper, _Chairman_.
Wilson G. Hunt, _Secretary_.
To testify the public appreciation of this great achievement, and of his
part in it, the Chamber of Commerce of New York invited Mr. Field to a
public banquet, which was given on the fifteenth of November. It was
attended by about three hundred gentlemen--not only merchants and
bankers, but men of all professions--lawyers and judges, clergymen and
presidents of colleges, members of the Government and foreign ministers,
and officers of the army and navy. The President of the Chamber of
Commerce, Mr. A. A. Low, presided, and, at the close of his opening
speech, said:
"We may fairly claim that, from first to last, Cyrus W. Field
has been more closely identified with the Atlantic Telegraph
than any other living man; and his name and his fame, which the
Queen of Great Britain has justly left to the care of the
American government and people, will be proudly cherished and
gratefully honored. We are in daily use of the fruits of his
labors; and it is meet that the men of commerce, of literature
and of law, of science and art--of all the professions that
impart dignity and worth to our nature--should come together
and give a hearty, joyous, and generous welcome to this truly
chivalrous son of America."
He proposed the health of their guest:
"Cyrus W. Field, the projector and mainspring of the Atlantic
Telegraph: while the British government justly honors those who
have taken part with him in this great work of the age, _his_
fame belongs to us, and will be cherished and guarded by his
countrymen."
In his reply, Mr. Field told the story with the utmost simplicity,
passing rapidly over the nearly thirteen years, through which the
enterprise had struggled with such doubtful fortunes, and taking pains
to do full justice to all who shared in its labors, its disappointments
and its triumphs. Especially did he award the highest praise to the
government of England for its liberal and constant support; to her men
of science and her great capitalists, and to the officers of ships,
electricians and engineers, who had taken part in this undertaking. In
closing, he said:
"Of the results of this enterprise--commercially and
politically--it is for others to speak. To one effect only do I
refer as the wish of my heart--that, as it brings us into
closer relations with England, it may produce a better
understanding between the two countries. Let who will speak
against England--words of censure must come from other lips
than mine. I have received too much kindness from Englishmen to
join in this language. I have eaten of their bread and drunk
of their cup, and I have received from them, in the darkest
hours of this enterprise, words of cheer which I shall never
forget; and if any words of mine can tend to peace and good
will, they shall not be wanting. I beg my countrymen to
remember the ties of kindred. Blood is thicker than water.
America with all her greatness has come out of the loins of
England; and though there have been sometimes family
quarrels--bitter as family quarrels are apt to be--still in our
hearts there is a yearning for the old home, the land of our
fathers; and he is an enemy of his country and of the human
race, who would stir up strife between two nations that are one
in race, in language and in religion. I close with this
sentiment: ENGLAND AND AMERICA--CLASPING HANDS ACROSS THE SEA,
MAY THIS FIRM GRASP BE A PLEDGE OF FRIENDSHIP TO ALL
GENERATIONS!" (To which the whole assembly responded by rising,
and by prolonged and tumultuous cheers.)
In the brilliant array of guests was recognized the tall form of General
Meade, who was loudly called for as "the hero of Gettysburg," to which
he replied that there was but one hero on this occasion, and he had
travelled a hundred miles to be there that night to do him honor. He
said: "I have watched with eagerness the struggle through which he has
passed and the disasters which attended his early efforts; and I have
admired and applauded, from the bottom of my heart, the tenacity of
purpose with which that man has continued to hold on to his original
idea, with a firm faith to carry to completion one of the greatest works
the world has ever seen."
The heartiness of this soldierly reply was echoed by the bluff old
warrior, Admiral Farragut, who had been so often through the smoke and
flame of battle, that he knew how to appreciate not only common courage,
but the desperate tenacity which holds on in spite of disaster, that has
gained many a victory.
Letters were read from the President of the United States, from Chief
Justice Chase, from General Grant, from Sir Frederick Bruce, the British
Minister, from Senators Morgan and Sumner, from General Dix, Minister to
France, and others. The Chief Justice of the United States wrote:
"I am very sorry that I cannot leave Washington this week, and
so cannot avail myself of your kind invitation to join you in
congratulations to Mr. Field upon the success of his grand
undertaking. It is the most wonderful achievement of
civilization; and to his sagacity, patience, perseverance,
courage, and faith, is civilization indebted for it.
"Such works entitle their authors to distinguished rank among
public benefactors. You will write the name of your honored
guest high upon that illustrious roll, and there it will remain
in honor, while oceans divide and telegraphs unite mankind."
There was a telegraph instrument in the room, and despatches were
received during the evening from Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, and
other members of the Cabinet at Washington, from Lord Monck,
Governor-General of Canada, from the Governor of Newfoundland, and
others. One, from Captain Sir James Anderson, was dated at London the
same day. John Bright also wrote a despatch and sent it to London, but
by an oversight it was not forwarded. He afterward wrote a letter,
giving the message. It was as follows:
"It is fitting you should honor the man to whom the whole world
is debtor. He brought capital and science together to do his
bidding, and Europe and America are forever united. I cannot
sit at your table, but I can join in doing honor to Cyrus W.
Field. My hearty thanks to him may mingle with yours."
He adds that he regarded what had been done as the most marvellous thing
in human history; as more marvellous than the invention of the art of
printing, or, he was almost ready to say, than the voyages of the
Genoese; and of Mr. Field, he says, "The world does not yet know what it
owes to him, and this generation will never know it."
About the same time, in a speech at a great Reform Meeting in Leeds, he
bore this proud testimony:
"A friend of mine, Cyrus Field, of New York, is the Columbus of
our time, for after no less than forty voyages across the
Atlantic, in pursuit of the great aim of his life, he has at
length, by his cable, moored the New World close alongside the
Old."
Nor was this mere rhetoric, a burst of extravagance, to which an orator
might give way in the excitement of a public occasion; it was a
comparison which he repeated on many occasions, though slightly varied
in expression. Mr. G. W. Smalley, the well-known correspondent of the
New York Tribune, in writing from London, on the very day that Mr. Field
was carried to his grave, recalls how he heard it from Mr. Bright's own
lips. He says:
"The great orator spoke of the great American in terms which he
did not bestow lavishly, and never bestowed carelessly. His
respect for Mr. Field's public work was sufficiently shown in
the splendid eulogy which he passed upon him. To be called by
such a man as Mr. Bright the Columbus of the Nineteenth Century
is renown enough for any man. The epithet is imperishable. It
is, as Thackeray said of a similar tribute to Fielding in
Gibbon, like having your name written on the dome of St.
Peter's. The world knows it and the world remembers. I heard
Mr. Bright use the phrase, and he adorned and emphasized it in
his noblest tones."
America has no official honors to bestow, no knighthoods or baronetcies
to confer. But one honor it has, the thanks of Congress, which, like the
thanks of Parliament, is the more highly prized in that it is so rarely
bestowed, being reserved generally for distinguished officers in the
army or navy, like Generals Grant, Sherman or Sheridan, or Admiral
Farragut, who have won great victories. Yet such was the feeling on this
occasion, that when Senator Morgan, of New York, moved a vote of thanks
in the name of the country, it met with an immediate response. It was at
once referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, which reported
unanimously in its favor; and when, some weeks after, giving time for
due deliberation, it was brought up for action, it passed with entire
unanimity. In the House of Representatives it was preceded by many
bills, so that there was danger that it might not be reached before the
end of the session, yet on the very last day Speaker Colfax requested
unanimous consent of the House to take it up out of its order, which was
granted, and the resolution was then read three times, and passed
unanimously. It is as follows:
"_Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America, in Congress assembled_, That the
thanks of Congress be, and they hereby are, presented to Cyrus
W. Field of New York, for his foresight, courage, and
determination in establishing telegraphic communication by
means of the Atlantic cable, traversing mid-ocean and
connecting the Old World with the New; and that the President
of the United States be requested to cause a gold medal to be
struck, with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be
presented to Mr. Field.
"_And be it further resolved_, That when the medal shall have
been struck, the President shall cause a copy of this joint
resolution to be engrossed on parchment, and shall transmit the
same, together with the medal, to Mr. Field, to be presented to
him in the name of the people of the United States of America.
"Approved March 2, 1867.
"Andrew Johnson."
This action of Congress reached Mr. Field in England. As he was about
returning to America, Lord Derby, still at the head of the government,
addressed to him a letter in which he repeated what he had said before
"in the Queen's name," "how much of the success of the great undertaking
of laying the Atlantic Cable was due to the energy and perseverance with
which, from the very first, in spite of all discouragements, you adhered
to and supported the project;" and adding, "Your signal services in
carrying out this great undertaking have been already fully recognized
by Congress; and it would have been very satisfactory to the Queen to
have included your name among those on whom, in commemoration of this
great event, her Majesty was pleased to bestow British honors, if it had
not been felt that, as a citizen of the United States, it would hardly
have been competent to you to accept them. As long, however, as the
telegraphic communication between the two Continents lasts, your name
cannot fail to be honorably associated with it."
This surely was all that could be expected from the government, but some
there were in England who felt that there was still a debt of honor to
be paid, which required some public testimonial. Accordingly, on Mr.
Field's return to London, in 1868, they prepared for him an imposing
demonstration in the form of a banquet, given at Willis's Rooms, on the
first of July, at which was assembled one of the most distinguished
companies that ever met to do honor to a private citizen of any country.
It embraced over four hundred gentlemen of all ranks: ministers of
state, members of parliament, both Lords and Commons; officers of the
army and navy; great capitalists--merchants and bankers; men of science
and of letters; inventors, electricians, and engineers--men eminent in
every walk of life. The Duke of Argyll presided, and speeches were made
by three members of the government--Sir John Pakington, Secretary of
State for War; Sir Stafford Northcote, Secretary of State for India; and
Sir Alexander Milne, First Sea Lord of the Admiralty; by John Bright; by
the venerable Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, so long the British Minister
at Constantinople; and by M. de Lesseps, the projector of the Suez
Canal, who had come from Egypt expressly to be present. It was a tribute
such as is rarely paid to any man while living--such tributes being
reserved for the dead--and is still more honorable in this case, alike
to the givers and the receiver, in that it was paid by the people of one
country to a citizen of another, who was regarded in both as their
common benefactor.
But enough of praise that can fall only on the dull, cold ear of death.
A few words on the after years of this busy life, and I have done. These
years brought a rich reward for all the sacrifices of the past. The
first feeling was one of infinite relief that at last the victory was
won. The terrible strain was taken off, and to him who had borne it so
long, the change to the quiet of his own happy home was inexpressibly
grateful after his many and long separations. He was now in his own
country and under his own roof, but with a name that was known on both
sides of the sea. The complete success of the Atlantic Telegraph had
given him an immense reputation at home and abroad. It seemed as if the
struggles of life were all over, leaving only its honors to be enjoyed.
What more could he ask to make life worth living than the respect of his
countrymen for his courage, energy and perseverance, and a name honored
all over the civilized world as one of the world's benefactors?
The practical results of the cable were even greater than he had dared
to anticipate. In the space of a few months it wrought a commercial
revolution in America. It was a new sensation to have the Old World
brought so near, that it entered into one's daily life. Every morning,
as Mr. Field went to his office, he found laid on his desk at nine
o'clock the quotations on the Royal Exchange at twelve! Lombard Street
and Wall Street talked with each other as two neighbors across the way.
This soon made an end of the tribe of speculators who calculated on the
fact that nobody knew at a particular moment the state of the market on
the other side of the sea, an universal ignorance by which they
profited by getting the earliest advices. But now everybody got them as
soon as they, for the news came with the rising of each day's sun, and
the occupation of a class that did much to demoralize trade on both
sides of the ocean was gone.
The same restoration of order was seen in the business of importations,
which had been hitherto almost a matter of guess-work. A merchant who
wished to buy silks in Lyons, sent out his orders months in advance, and
of course somewhat at random, not knowing how the market might turn, so
that when the costly fabrics arrived, he might find that he had ordered
too many or too few. A China merchant sent his ship round the world for
a cargo of tea, which returned after a year's absence, bringing not
enough to supply the public demand, leaving him in vexation at the
thought of what he might have made, "if he had known," or, what was
still worse, bringing twice too much, in which case the unsold half
remained on his hands. This was a risk against which he had to be
insured, as much as against fire or shipwreck. And the only insurance he
could have was to take reprisals by an increased charge on his
unfortunate customers.
This double risk was now greatly reduced, if not entirely removed. The
merchant need no longer send out orders a year beforehand, nor order a
whole ship-load of tea when he needed only a hundred chests, since he
could telegraph to his agent for what he wanted and no more. With this
opportunity for getting the latest intelligence, the element of
uncertainty was eliminated, and the importer no longer did business at a
venture. Buying from time to time, so as to take advantage of low
markets, he was able to buy cheaper, and of course to sell cheaper. It
would be a curious study to trace the effect of the cable upon the
prices of all foreign goods. A New York merchant, who has been himself
an importer for forty years, tells me that the saving to the American
people cannot be less than many millions every year.
But the slender cord beneath the sea had finer uses than to be a
reporter of markets, giving quotations of prices to counting rooms and
banking houses; it was a link between hearts and homes on opposite sides
of the ocean, bearing messages of life and death, of joy and sorrow, of
hopes and fears. One of its happiest uses was the relief of anxiety. A
ship sailed for England with hundreds of passengers, but did not arrive
at her destination on the appointed day. Instantly a thousand hearts
were tortured with fear, lest their loved ones had gone to the bottom of
the sea, when the cable reported that the delay was due simply to an
accident to her machinery, that would keep her back for a day or two,
but that the good ship was safe with all on board. What arithmetic can
compute the value of a single message that relieves so much anguish?
Thus the submarine telegraph stretched out its long arms under the sea,
to lay a friendly hand on two peoples, and give assurance to both.
Such a triumph of commercial enterprise was enough to satisfy the pride
and ambition of any man; but it was not in Mr. Field's nature to rest
content with any success, however great, and he was always reaching out
for some new undertaking to give scope to his restless activity. Such an
opportunity he found in giving rapid transit to New York, a city which,
though it has one of the finest harbors in the world, with approaches
from the sea that afford every possible advantage for commerce, is not
so favorably situated landward, as it is built on a long and narrow
island, between two broad rivers, which confine it on either side, so
that it is stretched out to such distances that it is no easy matter to
pass from one end to the other. From the Battery to the Harlem river is
ten miles, so that working men, who lived so far away, were an hour or
more in getting from their homes to their place of work, and as long in
getting back again, a large inroad upon their hours of rest or domestic
comfort. The only means of transportation was by street cars, which
moved slowly, and in winter, whenever the streets were blocked with
snow, were crowded to suffocation, and dragged at a snail's pace to the
upper end of the island.
This was the great barrier to the city's growth, and must be removed if
it was not to be stunted and dwarfed by these limitations. To furnish
some relief, an elevated railroad, built on stilts, had been attempted
on a small scale, but soon broke down, when Mr. Field bought the control
of the whole concern, and took it in his own strong arms. It was no easy
matter to galvanize it into life, for though it had a charter, it was
still obstructed in the legislature, and in the courts, so that it was a
long time before he could get full possession. But once master of the
situation, he undertook the work on a grand scale, and pushed it with
such vigor that in less than two years the road was in operation. It has
since been extended with the public demand, until now (in 1892) there
are thirty-six miles of road, over which the trains sweep incessantly
from the bay to the river, and from the river to the bay.
The structures are not indeed the most graceful in the world, as they
bestride the long avenues of the city. But these tall iron pillars, that
line our streets for miles, are the long legs of civilization, and have
a somewhat imposing effect as they stretch away into the distance, with
the fire-drawn cars flying swiftly over them. Dean Stanley glorified
them by a historical parallel which could occur only to one full of the
wonders of ancient times, that started into life under the touch of his
imagination. Going with him one day on an excursion, he stepped briskly
(for his frame was so light as to offer little impediment to motion),
and as he mounted the long stairway, and stood on the platform above the
crowded street below, he exclaimed, "This is Babylonian! Four chariots
driving abreast on the walls of the city!"
But Babylonian or American, the success was enormous. As soon as the
public became familiar with these elevated roads, and felt that they
were safe as well as swift, the people swarmed upon them, in numbers
constantly increasing, till now they carry over seven hundred thousand
passengers a day! On the day of the Columbus celebration (October 12th)
it was a million and seventy-five thousand! Indeed, if we are not
staggered by numbers, we may sum up the whole in the amazing statement
demonstrated by figures, that since these roads were opened, they have
carried over eighteen hundred millions of passengers, more than the
whole population of the globe!
Nor should it be forgotten that, not only is the facility they afford
the greatest, but the fares the lowest, for, thanks to Mr. Field, they
were reduced years ago to five cents at all hours and for the longest
distance, the ten miles from the Battery to the Harlem river.
The effect was immediate in the appreciation of real estate in the city,
the assessed value of which has already advanced by the sum of five
hundred millions of dollars! The increased taxation is enough to pay for
all the cost, while as a relief to the congested parts of the city, and
as furnishing a means for that easy circulation, which is as necessary
to a great city as a free circulation of the blood is to the human body,
it is not too much to say that the construction of the elevated
railroads is the greatest material benefit that has ever been conferred
on the city of New York.
But busy as Mr. Field was through all these years, much of his life was
spent abroad. He had interests on both sides of the Atlantic, but
stronger than his interests were his friendships to attract him across
the sea. He had come to feel as much at home in England as in his own
country: and his visits were so frequent that his sudden appearances and
disappearances were a subject of amused comment to his English friends.
When Dean Stanley was in America, a reception was given to him at the
Century Club, where in a very happy address, he referred to the ties
between the two countries, among which was "the wonderful cable, on
which it is popularly believed in England, that my friend and host, Mr.
Cyrus Field, passes his mysterious existence, appearing and reappearing
at one and the same moment in London and in New York!"
As Mr. Field was thus brought near to his English friends, they in turn
were brought near to him, for as no man in America was better known
abroad, no house received more foreign guests, many of whom he had not
met before, but who brought letters to him, and there was no end to his
hospitality. John Bright he could not persuade to cross the sea; but he
had the pleasure to welcome his co-laborer in the repeal of the
Corn-laws, Richard Cobden. The house in Gramercy Park became famous for
its receptions. Many will recall that given to the Marquis of Ripon and
the other High Commissioners, who came a year or two after the war, as
representatives of the British government, and negotiated at Washington
the treaty which settled the Alabama claims; and those to Dean Stanley
and Archdeacon Farrar; and to many others. If the strangers happened to
arrive in the summer time, they were entertained at his beautiful
country seat on the Hudson, to which he had given the name of "Ardsley,"
from the seat of John Field the astronomer, who lived in the West Riding
of Yorkshire more than three centuries ago, and introduced the
Copernican astronomy into England, and from whom the family are
descended.
In some cases when he went abroad, England was but the starting point
for excursions on the Continent, in which he visited almost every
European country. In 1874, in company with two well-known Americans,
Bayard Taylor and Murat Halstead, he made a voyage to Iceland, as ten
years before he had been to Egypt, as a delegate from the New York
Chamber of Commerce, to witness the opening of the Suez Canal.
In 1880-81 he took a still longer flight around the world. Waiting till
after the Presidential election, that he might cast his vote for his
friend General Garfield, the very next day he left with his wife in a
special car for San Francisco, where after a few days, they took ship
for Japan, from which they passed through the Inland Sea to Shanghai,
and from China to Singapore, and up the Bay of Bengal to Calcutta, where
he found the same English nobleman whom he had entertained in New York,
the Marquis of Ripon, Governor-General of India. Going up the country,
the travellers visited Agra and Delhi, where the wonders of architecture
showed the magnificence of the old Mogul Empire. The whole journey was
one of infinite pleasure and instruction, and they were never weary of
talking of the strange manners and customs of the people of Asia.
When they returned to America, General Garfield was President of the
United States, who, though a Western man by birth, had been educated in
New England, at Williams College in Massachusetts, where he had been
graduated twenty-five years before, and which he had a desire to
revisit; and it was arranged that he should leave Washington in the
morning of July 2d, with as many of his cabinet as could be spared from
the seat of government, and come on to New York and all be entertained
at "Ardsley," and the next day proceed up the Hudson and across the
country to Williamstown; a programme which was interrupted by the
terrible news that on arriving at the station in Washington he had been
shot, an event that instantly recalled the assassination of Lincoln. At
once there rose a cry of horror from one end of the land to the other,
and for weeks the whole country was watching by the bedside of the
illustrious sufferer.
Of course, the sympathy for the wife and children was universal, but Mr.
Field was the first to give this sympathy a practical direction. With
his quick eye he saw the condition in which they would be left by the
death of the President, as for them the law makes no provision. His
salary stops at the very day and hour that he ceases to live, nor is
there a pension settled upon his family, nor can anything be paid from
the national treasury except by special act of Congress. In this
extremity it occurred to Mr. Field that what the Government failed to do
should be made up by private generosity; and even before General
Garfield's death he started a subscription, heading it with five
thousand dollars, and taking it in person to his rich friends. The self
imposed task occupied him several months, in which he raised a fund of
over three hundred and sixty thousand dollars, which was put into United
States four per cent. bonds, yielding an interest of over twelve
thousand dollars a year, to be paid quarterly during the life of Mrs.
Garfield, and then to go to her children. It was a great satisfaction to
have thus provided for those who bore the name of a President of the
United States, so that they should be able to live in the comfort and
dignity that befitted the family of one who had occupied the most
exalted station in the government.
Not content with this, Mr. Field went to Washington, and urged upon his
friends in Congress, and finally succeeded in getting passed, a bill
giving to the widows of all Presidents a pension of $5,000, which, it
added to his gratification to know, would apply to the venerable Mrs.
Polk: and that still goes, and will go during her lifetime, to the wife
of General Grant, as the slight expression of a nation's gratitude.
Next to the interest he felt in his own country, his heart was in
England. While he was an intense American, and perhaps, for that very
reason, because he was an American, he claimed kindred with the people
from whom we are not only descended, but have received such an
inheritance of glory. In his own words: "America, with all her
greatness, has come out of the loins of England." When he was in India
he was proud of the mighty English race that from its little island
governed an empire of two hundred and fifty millions on the other side
of the globe. Some might have said that he inherited no small portion of
its unconquerable spirit.
And not only did he admire Old England, but he loved Englishmen. He knew
all that was said of English reserve and English pride, but long
familiarity had taught him that underneath this cold exterior were many
of the noblest qualities--courage, heroism and fidelity--so that it had
become a part of his creed that an Englishman, when once you have won
his confidence, will go farther and fight harder for a friend or for a
cause than any other man on the face of the earth. Among such a people
Mr. Field was proud to number many of his dearest friends.
A touching proof of their regard for him was given but a few months
before his death. On the 2d of December, 1890, he and his wife
celebrated their golden wedding. For fifty years they had travelled on
the course of life together. Children and grandchildren had been born to
them, so that at the close of half a century a large and happy family
was gathered round those to whom they looked up with the tenderest
affection.
Among the congratulations of that day was a large scroll, signed by Mr.
Gladstone, the Duke of Argyll, Lord Monck, and some eighty others whose
names are widely known. It was a graceful tribute from England to a son
of America, who had done perhaps more than any other living man to bring
the two countries and the two peoples together.
That golden wedding was the fit coronation of a life of wonderful
activity, and all the kindred who met under that roof were grateful for
the past, and full of hopes for the future.
But God's ways are not as our ways. Before many months the clouds began
to gather. The next summer, when the family were all at their country
home, sickness cast its shadow over their dwelling, which grew more
grave till November 23d, when the leaves were falling from the trees
before their door, the mother of this large household breathed her last.
Two months later the eldest daughter, who was also the eldest child of
the family, followed. These repeated blows fell heavy on the
affectionate heart of the bereaved husband and father, and when to these
were added other sorrows still, it seemed as if the clouds were piled
one upon another till they darkened all the horizon. The winter was a
gloomy one, from its loneliness and its many causes of sadness. But with
the returning spring the grass grew green again, and the trees put forth
their leaves, and it seemed as if the new life of nature must put life
into the heart of man: and when he removed to the country, and began to
drive about as of old among the familiar haunts, the beautiful scenery
for a time delighted his eye, and the change of air brought a touch of
the old spirit, as if perchance his strength were about to return. But
it was only a momentary flush, and he soon took to his room, where, as
he looked from his windows, and saw the sun going down over the hills
beyond the Hudson, it could only remind him that for him the sun of life
was about to set forever. Fair was the world without but desolate was
the home within, since she who had made its brightness was gone; and
here on the 12th of July 1892, the end came.
It was a beautiful morning, and the windows were open, through which
the soft summer air floated into the chamber of death, where his three
brothers, all that were left of his father's family, with those of his
own household, were round his bed, watching the dear pale face. Thus
surrounded and beloved to the last, he ceased to breathe.
Two days later a large company from the country round and from the city
gathered at Ardsley, and stood on the lawn and the slopes that lead up
to the noble trees that shade the dwelling, as Bishop Potter read the
blessed words, "I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith the Lord: he
that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live."
The next day we bore him away from his home, and from the great city
where he had passed his busy life, back to the quiet valley where he was
born, and laid him down in the shadow of the encircling hills.[A] "Bury
me there," he had said, "by the side of my beloved wife and by my father
and mother." The earth closed over him, and all his struggles and his
sorrows were buried in the grave.
The man is gone, but the work remains, a work that multiplies itself,
for when once a leader and explorer had opened the way, others were
swift to follow, so that now there are no less than ten cables stretched
across the Atlantic, and every hour of day or night, "when men wake and
when they sleep" (for even in the hours of silence the heart is still
beating, only a little more slowly), the pulse of life is kept moving to
and fro. The morning news comes after a night's repose, and we are
wakened gently to the new day that has dawned upon the world. That which
serves to such an end; which is a connecting link between countries and
races of men; is not a mere material thing, an iron chain, lying cold
and dead in the icy depths of the Atlantic. It is a living, fleshly bond
between severed portions of the human family, thrilling with life, along
which every human impulse runs swift as the current in human veins, and
will run for ever. Free intercourse between nations, as between
individuals, leads to mutual kindly offices, that make those who at once
give and receive, feel that they are not only neighbors but friends.
Hence the "mission" of submarine telegraphy is to be the minister of
peace. The first message across the deep was "Glory to God in the
highest; peace on earth, good will to men," and the first news it
brought was that of peace in China. And when again the sea had found a
tongue, its first glad intelligence was that the great war between
Austria and Prussia was ended. Thus at its very birth was this new
messenger baptized in the name of Peace, and consecrated to a service
worthy of its name.
"Man marks the earth with ruin: his control
Stops with the shore: upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed."
Not all! The wrath of man adds to the fury of the elements. To strew
the sea with wrecks is the work of lightning and tempest: man's nobler
office is to restore what nature may destroy.
It was the chief desire of him who has gone to the grave, that the link
which unites England and America might bind the countries that he loved
the most in indissoluble union. Though the two nations dwell apart, on
opposite shores of the same great and wide sea, they are now brought
almost within the sound of each other's voice and the touch of each
other's hand: they can look into each other's eyes, and exchange their
morning and evening congratulations with the rising and setting of each
day's sun. May the instrument through which they look and speak never
startle them with rude alarms, but continue to whisper peace in tones as
gentle as the murmur of the sea, as long as the winds blow and the
waters roll.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] The Berkshire Hills, Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
APPENDIX.
INSTRUMENTS FOR SIGNALLING ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN.
If the project of an Atlantic Telegraph be justly ascribed to the daring
of an American, and its success to his courage and perseverance through
years of struggle and disappointment; the solution of the scientific
problem involved in it, is due to the genius of a Scotchman, whom the
writer of this volume first knew (and it is a pleasant memory to have
known such a man in the beginning of his splendid career) as Professor
Thomson of the University of Glasgow, where his father had been
professor before him, whom the son succeeded in the Department of
Physics, which included the then little known science of Electricity, to
which the young professor devoted himself with all the eagerness of
scientific genius. The project of a telegraph across the ocean suggested
new problems and new difficulties, to which he applied himself with
characteristic ardor, the result of which is here given. When the second
expedition of the Great Eastern (in 1866) was successful, the British
Government at once recognized his eminent services; and the name of Sir
William Thomson has since been recognized, among the leaders in
scientific discovery, not only in England but all over the scientific
world. The government has recently added a further dignity in making him
a peer of the realm, an honor hitherto reserved generally for the
leaders of armies, like Wellington. To confer it on a simple professor
shows an advance of civilization in the respect paid to intellectual
greatness. In conferring such a title, the government does not honor the
man more than it honors itself. It is to the glory of England that such
an honor should be paid to science in the person of Lord Kelvin, as was
paid to literature in the person of Lord Tennyson.
The following, taken in substance from an English scientific review,
will indicate briefly, but with sufficient clearness, the problem to be
solved in signalling to great distances under the sea, and the
instruments by which this is accomplished:--
The speed of signalling through a submarine cable depends upon its
electrostatic capacity, which, unless it be very small, gives rise to
"retardation."
In the Proceedings of the Royal Society for 1855, Sir William Thomson
showed how the effect at the distant end of a cable, caused by the
application of a battery at one end, could be calculated and represented
graphically in what is called the "curve of arrival." After contact is
first made at the sending end between the cable and one pole of the
battery (the other pole being to earth), a certain interval of time
elapses before any effect is felt at the distant end. This interval of
time is denoted by the letter _a_. After the interval of time _a_ has
passed, a current begins to issue from the cable at the receiving end,
and increases in strength very rapidly. After a further interval of 4_a_
or after a period of 5_a_ from the first application of the battery, it
attains about half its maximum strength, and there is very little
sensible increase in strength after a time equal to 10_a_ has elapsed.
The curve of arrival is drawn by taking distances along O X to represent
intervals of time, and distances along O Y to represent strengths of
current. Curve No. I. shows the gradual increase in strength of the
received current at one end of a cable when the battery is applied to
and kept in contact with the other end. For a distance corresponding to
the interval of time _a_, the curve does not sensibly deviate from the
straight line O X; in other words, no effect is observable at the
receiving end during this time.
[Illustration]
If now, instead of being continuously applied to the battery at the
sending end, the cable had been applied to it during a short interval of
time, and then disconnected from the battery and connected to earth, the
curve of arrival would be of the form shown by curve No. II. Curve No.
II. shows the effect of applying the battery during a length of time
equal to 4_a_, and then putting the cable to earth. It will be seen that
a current gradually diminishing in strength continues to flow out of the
cable at the distant end for a considerable time after the battery has
been disconnected. This continued discharge is what gives rise to the
difficulty experienced in reading the signals sent through long cables.
The instrument first used for receiving signals through a long submarine
cable (the short-lived 1858 Atlantic cable) was the Mirror Galvanometer,
which consisted of a small mirror with four light magnets attached to
its back (weighing, in all, less than half-a-grain), suspended by means
of a single silk fibre, in a proper position within the hollow of a
bobbin of fine wire: a suitable controlling magnet being placed adjacent
to the apparatus. The action of this instrument is as follows. On the
passage of a current of electricity through the fine wire coil, the
suspended magnets with the mirror attached, tend to take up a position
at right angles to the plane of the coil, and are deflected to one side
or the other according as the current is in one direction or the other.
Of various other forms of _receiving_ instruments devised by Sir William
Thomson, the next to be noticed is the Spark Recorder, both on account
of the principles involved in its construction, and because it in some
respects foreshadowed the more perfect instrument, the Siphon Recorder,
which he introduced some years later. The action of the Spark Recorder
was as follows. An indicator, suitably supported, was caused to take a
to-and-fro motion, by means of the electro-magnetic action due to the
electric currents constituting the signals. This indicator was connected
to a Ruhmkorff coil or other equivalent apparatus, designed to cause a
continual succession of sparks to pass between the indicator, and a
metal plate situated beneath it and having a plane surface parallel to
its line of motion. Over the surface of this plate and between it and
the indicator, there was passed, at a regularly uniform speed in a
direction perpendicular to the line of motion of the indicator, a
material capable of being acted on physically by the sparks, either
through their chemical action, their heat, or their perforating force.
The record of the signals given by this instrument was an undulating
line of fine perforations or spots, and the character and succession of
the undulations were used to interpret the signals desired to be sent.
The latest form of _receiving_ instrument for long submarine cables, is
that of the Siphon Recorder, for which Sir William Thomson obtained his
first patent in 1867. Within the three succeeding years he effected
great improvements on it, and the instrument has, since that date, been
exclusively employed in working most of the more important submarine
cables of the world--indeed all except those on which the
Mirror-Galvanometer method is still in use.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
In the Siphon Recorder (a view of which is shown in Fig. 1), the
indicator consists of a light rectangular signal-coil of fine wire,
suspended between the poles of a powerful electro-magnet, so as to be
free to move about its longer axis which is vertical, and so joined up
that the electric currents constituting the signals through the cable,
pass through it. A fine glass siphon-tube is suitably suspended, so as
to have only one degree of freedom to move, and is connected to the
signal-coil so as to move with it. The short leg of the siphon-tube dips
into an insulated ink-bottle, which permits of the ink contained by it
being electrified, while the long leg is situated so that its open end
is at a very small distance from a brass table, placed with its surface
parallel to the plane in which the mouth of this leg moves, and over
which a slip of paper may be passed at a uniform rate as in the Spark
Recorder. The effect of electrifying the ink is to cause it to be
projected in very minute drops from the open end of the siphon-tube,
towards the brass table or on the paper-slip passing over it. Thus when
the signal-coil moves in obedience to the electric signal currents
passed through it, the motion then communicated to the siphon, is
recorded on the moving slip of paper by a wavy line of ink marks very
close together. The interpretation of the signals is according to the
Morse code; the dot and dash being represented by deflections of the
line to one side or the other of the centre line of the paper.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
Perfect as this instrument seemed, yet after further years of study and
experiment, Sir William Thomson was able, at the close of 1883, to
present to the world the Siphon Recorder, greatly improved, because in a
very much simpler form. In this form of the instrument, instead of the
electro-magnets, he used two bundles of long bar-magnets of square
section and made up of square bars of glass-hard steel. The two bundles
are supported vertically on a cast-iron socket, and on the upper end of
each is fitted a soft iron shoe, so shaped as to concentrate the lines
of force and thus produce a strong magnetic field in the space within
which the signal-coil is suspended. He made instruments of this kind to
work both with and without electrification of the ink. Without
electrification the instrument, as shown in Fig. 2, is exceedingly
simple and compact, and in this form is capable of doing good work on
cables of lengths up to 500 or 600 miles. When constructed for
electrification of the ink, as shown in Fig. 3, it is of course
available for much longer lengths of cable, but for cables such as the
Atlantic cables, the original form of the Siphon Recorder is that still
chiefly used. The strongest magnetic field hitherto obtained by
permanent magnets (of glass-hard steel) is about 3000 C. G. S. With the
electro-magnets of the original form of Siphon Recorder as in ordinary
use a magnetic field of about or over 5000 C. G. S. is easily attained.
In Fig. 4 is shown a _fac simile_ of part of a message received and
recorded by a Siphon Recorder, such as is shown in Fig. 1, from one of
the Eastern Telegraph Co.'s Cables of about 830 miles length.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.]
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Spelling variants where there was no obviously preferred choice were
left as is. Since there are numerous quotations in this work, this is
partly due to spelling choices of different authors. Variants include:
"dispatched" and "despatched;" "embedded" and "imbedded;" "encrusted"
and "incrusted;" "hurras" and "hurrahs;" "northeast" and "north-east,"
and similar hyphenation in directions; "per cent." and "per cent"
(inconsistent use of period); "recrossing" and "re-crossing;"
"rockbound" and "rock-bound;" "signaled" and "signalled;" "stateroom"
and "state-room;" "undercurrent" and "under-current."
Removed extra comma after "heart" on page 26: "the heart of a prince."
Changed "abunance" to "abundance" on page 167: "too great abundance."
Changed "Knigthstown" to "Knightstown" on page 187: "at Knightstown,
Valentia."
Changed "announcment" to "announcement" on page 189: "this simple
announcement."
Changed "develope" to "develop" on page 299: "develop the resources."
Changed "grip" to "gripe" on page 363, for consistency with spelling
throughout: "a fresh gripe."
Changed "Hemipheres" to "Hemispheres" on page 381: "the two
Hemispheres."
Changed "mitror" to "mirror" on page 410: "with the mirror attached."