OLD-TIME ORATORY 181 
9? 
act of very high commercial integrity and honor.” Later in 
life Field was to discover that all American financiers were 
not so honest as himself, and that it was extremely costly to 
trust his business associates as his creditors had trusted him. 
In other words, Field was too frank and naive to survive the 
increasing pressure of American finance. Others did not al- 
ways treat him in the generous way in which he treated others, 
even though he was acknowledged to be a public benefactor. 
To understand fully the striking change that the Atlantic 
cable, connecting Europe and America, brought to the daily 
life of the people of the two continents, it is necessary to quote 
from the actual observation of someone who witnessed the 
transition. Henry Field, although a clergyman, was familiar 
with the commercial goings-on of his day. As an editor, an 
author, and a traveler, he was equipped to record his im- 
pressions. 
In his Story of the Atlantic Telegraph, he wrote: “The 
practical results of the cable were even greater than he had 
dared to anticipate. In the space of a few months it wrought 
a commercial revolution in America. It was a new sensation 
to have the Old World brought so near that it entered into 
one’s daily life. Every morning, as Mr. Field went to his 
office, he found laid on his desk at nine o’clock the quotations 
on the Royal Exchange at twelve! ‘This soon made an end 
of the tribe of speculators who calculated on the fact that no- 
body knew at a particular moment the state of the market on 
the other side of the sea, an universal ignorance by which they 
profited by getting the earliest advices. But now everybody 
got them as soon as they, for the news came with the rising 
of each day’s sun, and the occupation of a class that did much 
to demoralize trade on both sides of the ocean was gone. 
“The same restoration of order was seen in the business of 
importations, which had been hitherto a matter of guess- 
work. A merchant who wished to buy silks in Lyons, sent out 
his orders months in advance, and of course somewhat at ran- 
