f execution. If Field could have foreseen
the thirteen years of constant anxiety which awaited him, he would no
doubt have hesitated to undertake it. It looked, at first, as though
success would crown his efforts almost at the outset, for in 1858, the
laying of a cable was completed, and for some days, messages were sent
from one continent to the other. Then the signals began to grow fainter
and fainter, until they became imperceptible, supposedly from the water
of the ocean penetrating the cable covering.

At any rate, the work had to be done all over again, with little money
on hand, and the coming of the Civil War helped to make further progress
impossible. Field visited Europe more than twenty times in the effort to
raise money for the enterprise and to keep it before the public, but it
was not until 1865 that another effort to lay the cable could be made.
The "Great Eastern," the largest ship in the world, was secured, and
began paying out the cable; but twelve hundred miles from shore the
cable parted and could not be regained, although every effort was made
to grapple it. So the vessel had to put back to England, and Field was
confronted with the heart-breaking task of raising even more money. He
succeeded in doing so, and in 1866, another expedition started out with
a new cable. This time, it met with no serious misadventure, and on July
27, telegraphic communication was re-established between England and
America, and has never since been interrupted.

That cable was the first of the hundreds which now encircle the globe.
Congress presented the bold adventurer with a gold medal and the thanks
of the nation; John Bright pronounced him "the Columbus of modern times,
who, by his cable, has moored the New World alongside of the Old"; the
Paris exposition of 1867 gave him the grand medal, the highest prize it
had to bestow; and he received votes of thanks and medals and presents
from all parts of the world.

In 1884, two other cables were laid across the Atlantic by John W.
Mackay and James Gordon Bennett, whose private property they remained.
Mackay had had an adventurous career, and was destined to be the founder
of another of those great American fortunes which are the wonder and
admiration of Europe. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1831, his
father being another of those sturdy Scotch-Irish of whom we have
already had occasion to speak. He was brought to New York at the age of
nine; but his father died a sho