———
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster.
The twenty-fifth anniversary of the signing of the first cable contract was remembered on the evening of March 10, 1879. To use the words of the New York Evening Post:
“It was a notable anniversary which Mr. Cyrus W. Field celebrated last night, with the assistance of a multitude of his fellow-citizens, many of them eminent in various departments of public life. The obvious sentiment of the occasion, and the words with which everybody would describe it, are contained in the telegraphic message sent from Westminster Abbey by Dean Stanley, who calls it the ‘silver wedding of England and America,’ and says: ‘What God hath joined together let no man put asunder.’ The event which was commemorated is scarcely more remarkable than the rapid advance of all nineteenth century events which the recollection of this one suggests. It is only twenty-five years since a determined effort was made to realize what had been wildly dreamed of; it is considerably less than twenty-five years since the dream became a reality; yet already instantaneous communication between the Old World and the New has been consigned to the commonplace book of history. It has become one of those familiar things which we forget all about because they are familiar, but which are also indispensable, as we would be sharply reminded if we should lose them for a day, or an hour—things which are of the highest value, but of which it is hard to speak without talking platitudes. With this great event the names of Mr. Field and other men of business whose intelligence, liberality, and energy make the work of Morse and other men of science a practical triumph will be always and honorably associated.”
A short extract is given from the speech of Rev. Dr. William Adams:
“I have no intention of saying a word in laudation of the Atlantic cable. The time for that has passed. ‘He is of age: ask him: he shall speak for himself.’ Though the ear catches no articulate words passing along its quivering strands, yet this polyglot interpreter is speaking now, with tongue of fire, beneath the astonished sea, in all the languages of the civilized world.”
