80 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
the stoppage, with a view to remedying the existing difficulty. 
Under these circumstances no time can be named at present 
for opening the wire to the public.” 
The Company’s directors had gone hopefully to Valentia 
with the idea of opening the line to the public. They found 
a sad disappointment. From the apex of success, their spirits 
dropped to the depths. 
Said Henry Field: “Many explanations were offered of this 
sudden suspension of life. One writer argued that the Tele- 
graphic Plateau was only a myth; that the bottom of the ocean 
was jagged and precipitous; that the cable passed over lofty 
mountain chains, and hung suspended from the peaks of sub- 
marine Alps, till it broke and fell into the tremendous depths 
below. But others found a readier explanation. With the 
natural tendency of a popular excitement to rush from one 
extreme to the other, many now believed that the whole thing 
was an imposition on public credulity, a sort of ‘moon hoax.’ 
An elaborate article appeared in a Boston paper, headed with 
the alarming question, “Was the Atlantic cable a humbug?’ 
wherein the writer argued through several columns that it 
was a huge deception. A writer in an English paper also made 
merry of the celebration in Dublin, where a banquet was 
given to Sir Charles Bright, in an article bearing the ominous 
title: ‘Very like a whale.’ This writer proved not only that 
the Atlantic cable was never laid, but that such a thing was 
mathematically impossible.” 
But there were uglier rumors than these, so far as Cyrus 
Field was concerned, for he bore the brunt of the execration. 
As his brother wrote: ‘But others there were—sharp, shrewd 
men—who thought they could see through a mill-stone 
farther than their neighbors, who shook their heads with a 
knowing air, and said, ‘It was all a stock speculation.’ One 
writer stepped before the public with this solemn inquiry, 
‘Now that the great cable glorification is over, we should like 
to ask one question, How many shares of his stock did Mr. 
