PUBLIC-SPIRITED CITIZEN 239 
to be forced upon the humbler classes or nurtured in them 
by the present concomitants of their city life.” The word 
“concomitants” symbolizes the contemporary fondness for 
big words. 
In the spring of 1877, Field took up the matter in his usual 
energetic and persuasive manner. Early in June he organized 
a meeting of all persons interested in the city’s need for rapid 
transit and invited typical leaders in public affairs to be pres- 
ent. The poet and editor, William Cullen Bryant, now well 
past eighty years old, replied as follows: 
The Evening Post, 
New York, June 4, 1877. 
To Cyrus W. Field, Esq.: 
I cannot be present at the meeting to be held this evening at 
Chickering Hall, but I am heartily with you and your friends in 
the object of the meeting. I hope that a decided expression will 
be given to the conviction that an absolute necessity has arisen of 
instituting some method of conveying passengers between the 
upper and lower parts of the city which shall unite the greatest 
convenience with the utmost possible speed. 
Yours faithfully, 
Wm. C. Bryant. 
There was opposition to Field’s plans from capitalists as- 
sociated with the railroads already operating from the Grand 
Central station and supplying service to Harlem. In reply, he 
pointed out that the elevated railway, starting from South 
Ferry on the tip of Manhattan, would pass the East River 
ferries on the way northward to the Bowery and Third Ave- 
nue, and would pick up and bring many passengers from 
downtown and Brooklyn to the Grand Central station. This 
would be a benefit to the three railroads using that station. 
In fact one reason for building the Third Avenue line was to 
connect the Ninth Avenue line with the East River ferries 
and the Grand Central. 
Field’s attitude in this project, as in the cable work, was 
simple and direct. He felt that he was doing the public a 
