Chapter Thirteen 
OLD-TIME ORATORY 
‘THE FORTUNES OF the Fields were enormously improved by 
the success of these pioneer cables. Almost all of Cyrus Field’s 
funds had gone into telegraph stock. As Isabella Field Jud- 
son, his daughter, states in her book, there had been painful 
economizing for twelve impressionable years while a large 
family was growing up. The uncertainties and hardships of 
the Civil War added to the domestic privations. The children 
had come thoroughly to hate the cable and its exactions; it 
had deprived them of many comforts dear to young hearts, and 
of their father’s company and peace of mind. After 1866, 
however, the family was able to afford all the luxuries that 
an affectionate and wealthy father could make possible. ‘The 
old bogey became then a source of pride and a public distinc- 
tion to attractive children. 
Upon Cyrus Field’s triumphant return to New York in the 
fall of 1866, he sold a substantial block of his telegraph shares 
to rehabilitate his lagging accounts. Being, as always, con- 
scientious about debts of honor, he wished to make restitu- 
tion to those creditors who, six years before, had accepted 
- twenty-five cents on the dollar when his firm was swamped 
in the financial difficulty of 1860. He sent to each creditor 
the full amount outstanding, with interest at seven percent. 
The total amount paid was more than a hundred seventy 
thousand dollars. 
‘These were not legal debts—merely applications of a New 
England conscience. The New York Evening Post printed a 
friendly testimonial about this act of honesty; and George 
Peabody—always thoughtfully considerate—presented Field 
with a splendid silver service engraved to commemorate “an 
180 
