HONORS AND REWARDS 175 
Throb on, strong pulse of thunder! beat 
From answering beach to beach; 
Fuse nations in thy kindly heat, 
And melt the chains of each! 
Wild terror of the sky above, 
Glide tamed and dumb below; 
Bear gently, ocean’s carrier-dove, 
Thy errands to and fro. 
Weave on, swift shuttle of the Lord, 
Beneath the deep so far, 
The bridal-robe of earth’s accord, 
The funeral shroud of war. 
For lo! the fall of ocean’s wall, 
Space mocked and time outrun; 
And round the world the thought of all 
Is as the thought of one! 
The poles unite, the zones agree, 
The tongues of striving cease; 
As on the Sea of Galilee 
The Christ is whispering Peace! 
One of the matters to which Field had attended while in 
England was an adjustment of friction between the New 
York, Newfoundland & London Telegraph Company and the 
Anglo-American Telegraph Company. The former Com- 
pany’s four-hundred-mile line across Newfoundland was often 
out of order, and similar annoyances and interruptions had 
occurred in the connecting lines of northern Nova Scotia, 
where snowfall was heavy. What was needed, it was obvious, 
was a better link between eastern Newfoundland, where the 
cable terminus was situated, and the main lines of Nova Sco- 
tia. Acting for the New York, Newfoundland & London Com- 
pany—the original corporation sponsored by Field and his 
neighbors—he signed a contract with the Telegraph Construc- 
tion & Maintenance Company for a submarine cable to be laid 
