262 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
met Donald Smith and his party, to whose special train the 
Fields’ car was attached. Smith (later Sir Donald, then Lord 
Strathcona) was a director of the Canadian Pacific railway, 
then building; in 1885 he drove the last spike at the comple- 
tion ceremony. He now showed his authority by naming a 
peak in the Rockies “Mount Field,” as a compliment to his 
guest. A little station where the train happened to stop was 
also called ‘Field’; this settlement, which is not far from 
Banff, still exists. ‘The party crossed the mountains and 
stopped at Winnipeg, which was becoming important in the 
opening of the Canadian West. 
Field was usually a cynosure of interest when he traveled 
thus among Americans or British who knew the story of the 
Atlantic cable. Especially when he used the telegraph—as he 
did frequently—he was served with alacrity by the operators, 
who respected two names in particular, Morse and Field. His 
daughter, Isabella, reported that telegraphers used to ask, 
“Are you the original Cyrus?”’ 
Before the presidential election, he was back home to vote. 
The Republican candidate was the vaunted James G. Blaine, 
who as Secretary of State had welcomed Field from his trip 
around the world. ‘The Democratic candidate was the Gover- 
nor of New York who had opposed Field’s five-cent fare on the 
elevated railways. After a campaign of high-power oratory 
and much mud-slinging, the “plumed knight’ was defeated 
by the stern-faced Cleveland. For the first time since the 
Civil War, the Democrats had elected a president. Among the 
disappointed candidates was Stephen Field of the United 
States Supreme Court, who had also been a candidate in 1880. 
The sad condition of a former president of the United 
States now engaged Field’s ready sympathy. His old friend, 
Ulysses S. Grant, was in trouble. After eight years in the 
White House and a trip around the world, this former worker 
in the leather trade had re-entered business, this time asa New 
York broker. Unfortunately a great soldier is not generally 
