20 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
clerks gave him a complimentary dinner, and one of Stewart’s 
partners presented him with “the accompanying trifle as a 
token of esteem and sincere friendship.” The trifle was a 
diamond pin that Cyrus wore for over twenty-five years. 
When the financial depression of 1837 began, Cyrus was 
still working for A. T. Stewart & Company. Confused times 
came upon the country. Instead of sitting tight at his job, 
Cyrus, who was eighteen years old, attended evening school 
to learn bookkeeping by double entry. He then resigned at 
the store, despite Stewart's offer of a rise in salary, in order to 
accept a position as assistant to his brother, Matthew, who 
was then engaged in manufacturing paper in a small mill a 
few miles from Stockbridge. Matthew had offered him $250 
a year, with board and washing. Cyrus’ new duties included 
sales trips to Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, and New 
York. In the interval between leaving Stewart’s and begin- 
ning work at Lee, he made a business trip for his brother Dud- 
ley as far west as Detroit and Ann Arbor, so that he saw some- 
thing of the vast territory that the canals and railroads were 
opening up. He was now a man of affairs though scarcely out 
of his teens. ‘The homesick country boy, awed by the big 
city, Was acquiring experience and assurance. As a salesman, 
he was successful by reason of his likable nature and opti- 
mism; but the nation’s business was under a cloud, and condi- 
tions grew worse instead of better. 
The depression proved to be a protracted one, and small 
companies, inadequately financed, failed by the hundreds. It 
was a period when quick shifts had to be made; no one knew 
what to expect amid the uncertainties and fears on all sides. 
By the spring of 1840, as a new presidential election ap- 
proached, a little improvement seemed possible for hard- 
pressed American industry. 
Cyrus, who was past twenty years old, optimistically re- 
solved to go into business for himself as a manufacturer of 
paper. He bought an interest in a small paper-mill at West- 
