house at early candle-light," or stood by the bedstead of the sick, or accompanied the funeral procession while "the tolling bell struck mournfully on the air," he was ever the same faithful, earnest, watchful shepherd. In passing, his "History of the County of Berkshire" may be mentioned, which was published in 1829. His wife "Submit" is reputed to have been of great personal beauty and of rather remarkable spirit and fire and perseverance, considering her meek title. Of such parentage were David Dudley, Stephen J., Cyrus W., and Henry M. Field. If their achievements in part are not strictly literary, they are so interwoven with the intellectual activities of Berkshire as to demand our attention here. David Dudley was not born in Stockbridge, but fitted for college there in company with Dr. Hopkins. At first he was a lawyer in New York, with his townsmen, Henry and Robert Sedgwick. In 1836 he went abroad. "Sketches over the Sea" appeared shortly after. His life work, the reformation of the law, began a little later. Through his "Codes" he "made laws for millions." It was his crowning glory when, having reformed the Codes of New York, —a precedent which other States soon followed,— he was summoned across the water as a leader in developing a new code of international law. "Mr. Field had solved the problem which they in England were timidly debating." He made Stockbridge the home of his leisure during the intervals of this long labor. The beautiful Mission Tower and chime of bells, on the spot where good John Sargeant used to preach to a dusky congregation, was his gift to the village in 1878.
While David was at college, Cyrus and Henry were playmates together in the Stockbridge fields. This story is told of them. Both were sent to get in wood for Sunday. Cyrus, nervous and active, set to work briskly, while his younger brother sat on the fence "meditating." Thus in each was "the child the father of the man." Cyrus left home for New York when fifteen. He thought the city "very grand," but it "did not take the place of his native hills." He stole away to the river often to watch the boats sail up the Hudson, because they reminded him of home. An elder brother was charged "the next time he went to New York, if his little brother felt so still, to bring him home." But he had a natural aptitude for business. Success was not long in coming, and at thirty-three he withdrew from business, independent. Uneasy as a retired merchant, in Gramercy Park, the idea came to him, partially suggested by an electrical engineer who wanted to lay a cable to eastern Newfoundland, and then connect with a five days' steamer to the Old World, "Why not carry a telegraph line across the ocean?" The conception was quick; the execution, slow. "A great man does not wake up on some fine morning and say, 'I am full of life, I will go to sea and find an Antarctic continent' neither did Cyrus Field do such a thing. For thirteen long years —years of hardship, of anxiety, of derision— he struggled to raise money, travelling knee deep through the wilds of Newfoundland finding his own fortune and the welfare of his family involved beyond all expectation; fighting universal incredulity; fearing, so great was the strain, that life might not be spared him to accomplish his mission; even half wondering if he had not gone mad over a delusion, as many said, until —the first, the second attempt a failure— upon the third the cable was laid for a brief space, and
amid unbounded enthusiasm the first message came up out of the depths of the ocean, saying, "England and America are united by telegraph. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men." Then followed congratulations, such as fall to the lot of few great men: the thanks of Congress; honors from abroad, from England, from France, —all showered upon the head of this Berkshire lad "who moored the New World alongside the Old."
Probably no marks of esteem pleased him more than those bestowed upon him by his fellow-townsmen. That must have been a famous meeting on Laurel Hill when, under the auspices of the Laurel Hill Association (the parent village improvement society of the nation), Cyrus Field was welcomed home.
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