HARD LUCK AND HUMAN NATURE 81 
Field sell during the month of August?’ ” ‘The answer to 
this insinuating question was that Cyrus Field had sold only 
one share since the cable was laid. The sale brought nine 
hundred pounds; it had originally cost him more than that. 
He had not found the project a money-making scheme. 
Of course, it would have been possible for a group of clever 
manipulators to forge the messages exchanged between Queen 
Victoria and President Buchanan. But those who believed 
such a story overlooked the news of unexpected events that 
the cable had transmitted. These included the report of the 
collision of two steamships off Newfoundland. This news 
was sent promptly to the Cunard company in London. Again, 
the news of the end of warlike troubles in China was sent 
from London to America and took the public by surprise. 
Most convincing of all, messages were sent by British military 
authorities, after the quelling of the Indian mutiny, to stop 
two regiments that were to sail from Canada to England. 
This news saved a substantial sum of money for the British 
Government by halting the unnecessary transportation of 
troops. 
There were other instances of this kind to prove that the 
cable had actually functioned for about three weeks, during 
which the testing and tuning-up were in progress. But the 
public was not disposed to be judicial in its comments. It had 
praised extravagantly; the cable was dead; there must have 
been fraud or deception. 
It was true that the cable had never worked with entire 
satisfaction; it had been slow and erratic, as different methods 
of operating were tried. One curious reaction from the epi- 
sode of this failure was that a prominent New York lawyer of 
the time, Charles O’Conor, continued for years to instance the 
belief that messages had been flashed across the Atlantic as an 
extreme example of human credulity. This O’Conor later 
encouraged Field to reorganize New York’s elevated railways 
—a change of heart. 
