16 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
is no cheaper than a century ago. As he sailed down the beau- 
tiful Hudson past Irvington and Dobb’s Ferry, he little 
imagined that he would one day live in a palatial mansion 
on a hill between those towns and that there he would enter- 
tain distinguished American and European visitors. 
Arrived in New York, Cyrus went to the leading dry-goods 
store of A. T. Stewart & Company on Broadway, where David 
had secured him a job as errand-boy. The store was between 
Murray and Warren streets, and he obtained board and lodg- 
ing on Murray street for two dollars a week. His first year’s 
salary was only fifty dollars, so that he had to borrow from 
his father and David. For the second year he received a salary 
of a hundred dollars and was almost able to pay his board. 
During the third year he was affluent on two hundred dollars. 
The contract was for three years—a sort of apprenticeship 
to give him business training. 
The homesick boy wrote to his father about two weeks 
after leaving Stockbridge. Among several references to the 
family was the admonition: “Take good care of mother, and 
tell her she must not get overdone.” He did not mention that 
during many of the spring evenings he used to wander along 
the Hudson, wishing that he was in one of the north-bound 
steamers headed home. Professor Mark Hopkins, when in 
New York, cheered up the unhappy boy at a Sunday dinner 
at David’s. However, Cyrus was soon to get over his loneliness 
in the excitement of new developments and friends. David 
had married a cousin of Mark Hopkins and had made many 
influential acquaintances in New York including William 
Cullen Bryant, the talented poet and renowned editor of the 
New York Evening Post. David later contributed a series of 
notable articles on American legal practice to this newspaper. 
At first Cyrus’ work required that he be at the store before 
seven o'clock, but when he was promoted from errand-boy to 
clerk, the hours were from quarter past eight until the man- 
agers had left in the evening. Despite the late hours, he re- 
