Show I CABLE OF FIFTY YEARS AGO Recollections of an Epoch in the Worlds Progress New ew York Tork Evening Post Po t Fifty years year ago Aug 5 1838 1858 the New NewYork Xe NewYork York Evening Post went to press pr ss with the following headlines truly lurid for those staid days da s SUCCESS OF THE ATLANTIC TEL TELEGRAPH TELEGRAPH CABLE ARRIVAL OF THE T HE NIAGARA AND GORGON AT TRINITY BAY 1950 1930 STATUTE MILES LONG NOT A SINGLE BREAK THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH CABLE CA CABLE CABLE BLE IS LANDING J i JAnd And in its leading editorial of the same day It said Such the landing of the cable is the startling intelligence which reaches us just as we are going to press We find it difficult to believe the report for recent events cents have prepared us for a avery avery very different result and yet et the dis dispatch dispatch dispatch patch comes to us through our regular agent a ent who would not deceive us He may ma have been imposed upon but that thatIs Is quite unlikely If Ume the few coming hours shall shan confirm the inspiring tid tidings tidIngs tidings ings and the cable is landed and in working condition all aU other events that may ma happen through the world on this day will wili he be e trifles Tomorrow the hearts of the civilized world will beat to a single pulse and from that time forth forevermore the continental divisions of the earth will willIn willIn willin In a measure lose Jose those conditions of time and distance which now mark their relation one to the other But such an event like a dispensation of o Providence should be first contemplated ed In silence 1 ce Tumult of o Joy The news the Importance of which William Cullen Bryant thus described was promptly confirmed by Cyrus W Field himself He had hail landed from the American frigate Niagara at Trinity bay ba Newfoundland on the day before and the end of the first Atlantic cable was ashore before the Evening Post was Issued the next day da The public did not restrain Its joy or obey obe Mr Bryants mandate to greet reet the fabulous news In silence In Stockbridge where Mr lr Fields family was on the receipt of o the news n ws bells were rung guns fired children let Jet out of school shouted The cable Is laid ald The cable Is laid ald The village was In a tumult of joy jO But not until the of August did the thc thereal thereal real rea celebration begin for tor the first mes message message sage from Queen Victoria to President Buchanan did not arrive arrhe until then This was a signal l for New Ke York to outdo out outdo o t do the joy jO of the Stockbridge school schoolchildren schoolchildren children The church bells beUs rang facto factories factories factories ries blew bIen their whistles the river front was Illuminated by fireworks and bon bonfires bonfires bonfires fires the Everett House displaying no noless noless less Jess than 1000 lights there were trans transparencies transparencies transparencies everywhere and finally the th city hall capped the climax by b catching fire There was a great procession too headed by the Central Park police and Including 1100 laborers and carts from the Park and Croton reservoir t then in process of construction all aU led I by b Olmstead Waring Miller I and Grant Altogether the processIon I was three miles In length and was 1 properly reviewed at the city cit hall han by b Mayor As It passed the i Manhattan hotel a of ot I the day da Its members read this sign MARRIED AUGUST 1858 u I BY CYRUS W FIELD OLD IRELAND AND YOUNG AMERICA A May Ia their honeymoon last forever Mr Ir Field was well entitled to all an the praise showered upon him He had been scoffed at ridiculed dubbed a crazy craz man had sacrificed his business and his own means and had previously made two attempts to lay Jay the cable only to be thwarted But as John G Saxe put it in the Jingle which ap appeared appeared on Sept S pt 11 1858 in Harpers Weekly Twice did his bravest efforts fall fail fallAnd fallAnd failAnd And yet et his mind was stable He Ho want the man to break his heart Because he broke his cable Once more my gallant boys bogs he cried Three Thre times sou know the th l fa fable a able ble bleIll Ill rn make It thirty muttered he hei i But I will lay the th cable abt i Unfortunately for all the rejoicings for some unknown reason the cable stopped working just jut at the time of of r the great official celebration in Trinity i church and of the dinner of o the com common common mon Council to Mr Ir Field FleW at which there were sewed served no less Jess than eighteen I entrees In addition to five i roasts boiled turkey and mutton and full fun I desserts New Yorks city elt fathers were I generous in those days das Not until aft after after er this gorgeous and barbaric function I did the sad news come that this was wasI but a fleeting triumph I I Doing the Work Over Again I For Mr Ir Field this meant doing the I work over again The old company had exhausted Its means which were gone for all an time a new one had to be bermed formed Corned and fresh fl sh capital capita raised There were endless trips to be made to the theother theother theother other side his hia business again had to tobe tobe tobe be neglected and finally abandoned The civil war came next but this proved a help rather than a hindrance and Mr Ir Fields alert grain made the most of it He suggested cables between the Union posts in Charlestown harbor he pointed out how the existence of a cable would have robbed the Mason Iason crises with England of ot much of ot Its Itc danger and made of it an incident of days instead of months without the consequent and heavy ex expenditure expenditure expenditure on the British side for war preparations Mr Field Fied did yeomans work too in upholding the cause of ot the north In England when it was highly unpopular and began a friendship with Gladstone to put the case of the north before him as strongly as possible But his main efforts were devoted to the laying of ot a cable that would work and this he finally finan accomplished by the aid of or the Great Eastern on Sept 8 S 1866 s I after another failure in 1865 I 9 Ii Wonders Follow Foll Fast FastI It IE I is hard for the newspaper n S reader of today toda or the merchant to realize what he oyes owes es to the cable or to gauge the th thrill that went through the whole world just fifty The Atlan Atlantic Atlantic tic crossing of the first ocean steam steamship steamship steamship ship was the only event to which the press of 1858 could liken the opening of ot the cable But In our time great inventions inventions have followed so closely closey on one heels that the discovery of wireless telegraphy is but b t a n weeks wonderland wonder and evokes no municipal din dinner dinner dinner ner or civic parade Even Een the news of or I Ithe the record breaking flight of the Zeppelin Zep Zeppelin ZeppelIn airship which despite its tragic ending may figure in history as the thereal therea thereal real rea beginning of ot mans mans conquest of ot the theair theair theair air is accepted with the telephone and anda a hundred other conveniences as mere merely merely ly another and triumph of o science Time will wUI show soon whether er the cables and wires are to be dis discarded discarded discarded carded hereafter in telephoning and tel telegraphing telegraphing telegraphing But whether they are still to linger or not the world should never neer forget its debt to the pioneers like Cy Cyrus C Crus Cyrus rus W Field the young oung man who saw sawa a vision and made it come true to the lasting benefit of all mankind |