A NATIONAL BENEFACTOR 254 
Madison Square flourished luxurious hotels, sedate clubs, and 
fine residences—centers of social and political life. 
Observers of New York at that period, the early eighties, 
have described the city as noisier than today. Horse-cars 
clanged up and down the streets warning clumsy trucks off 
the rails. ‘The paving was the noisiest possible, cobbles and 
blocks of stone; a smooth asphalt surface had been tried and 
judged too slippery for horses. Steel-shod hoofs on the un- 
even paving-blocks added to the rumble of the heavy vehicles 
and the roar of the steam-driven elevated trains. 
The district had changed greatly from the time when the 
Fields led their cow to pasture in Madison Square. Electric 
lights were coming in; Edison’s first generating plant was 
opened in September of 1882 with fifty-nine customers. This 
first electric-lighting system was downtown in the business 
district near Field’s office. Homes were still lighted by oil 
lamps and gas, but gradually they too were wired for the 
miraculous incandescent bulbs. ‘Telephones were coming into 
use—‘‘talking telegraphs” as they were first called in derision. 
Field supported these innovations when they were introduced 
and sometimes aroused jealousy among conservative neigh- 
bors, especially at Ardsley where his telephone was the pi- 
oneer. 
A new metropolis was rising as New York expanded up- 
town. The Brooklyn bridge was completed, and the down- 
town sections of the city were rebuilt. The lean years of the 
seventies were forgotten as America forged ahead into pros- 
perity and progress. Inspired by the constructive spirit now 
under way, Field acquired a desirable plot of land at the foot 
of Broadway—the historic site of Washington’s headquarters 
—and arranged for the erection of the well-known Washing- 
ton Building for the use of business offices. This tall structure 
was long a landmark to vessels coming up the bay. The at- 
tractive view from the Battery, with ships and sea air to re- 
