December 2, 1890, was a day that his family had long looked forward to. It was on this day that these messages and telegrams were received, and that many friends came to offer their congratulations. Among the messages of good-will was this poem from President Henry Morton, of the Stevens Institute:
“MR. AND MRS. CYRUS W. FIELD
“ON THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THEIR MARRIAGE
“Golden light the sun is shedding,
Ushering in this golden wedding,
As he did on that bright day
Fifty golden years away.
Then as now the ‘golden flowers,’
Lingering after summer’s hours,
The chrysanthemums, foretold
Anniversary of gold.
Golden love and golden truth
To gold age from golden youth,
In the fire of life, thrice tried,
Pure themselves, yet purified
By the sorrows borne together,
By the stress of stormy weather;
This pure gold, outlasting earth,
Proves its own celestial birth,
And shall shine with golden light,
Star-like, from heaven’s dome of night.”
“Cyrus W. Field, Esq., Gramercy Park, New York:
“Dear Sir,—We, the undersigned, who have known you for many years, and some of whom have been long and intimately associated with you, desire to express to you and to your amiable and devoted wife our earnest and heartfelt congratulations on your golden-wedding day, the 2d of December, 1890.
“We earnestly wish you both many years of health and happiness, enjoying the fruits of your useful and well-spent lives, and seeing on every side the wide-spreading development of the submarine telegraph enterprise in which you, Mr. Field, have labored so long, so zealously, and so successfully. This great work, pursued by you with unflagging energy and perseverance for many years, through the greatest difficulties and hinderances, has now become a first necessity of national and commercial life, and you have the profound satisfaction of knowing that its object and its results are, and ever have been, peaceable and beneficent in their character.
“We ask you to accept this message of our good-will and good wishes, which will be sent to you both over and under the sea.
Very faithfully yours,
| Frederic W. Farrar, | Julius Reuter, |
| Mouck, | H. A. C. Saunders, |
| W. E. Gladstone, | G. W. Campbell, |
| W. H. Russell, | H. M. Stanley, of Alderley, |
| Douglas Galton, | John H. Puleston, |
| Tweeddale, | George Cox Bompas, |
| Henry C. Forde, | James Stern, |
| W. Andrews, | H. L. Bischoffsheim, |
| H. Weaver, | Louis Floersheim, |
| G. von Chauvin, | T. H. Wells, |
| J. H. Carson, | J. H. Tritton, |
| Samuel Canning, | W. H. Preece, |
| Richard C. Mayne, | C. V. DeSauty, |
| C. W. Earle, | George Grove, |
| Catherine Gladstone, | Jane Cobden, |
| J. S. Forbes, | Thomas B. Potter, |
| Caroline Roberts Van Wart, | Charles Burt, |
| G. W. Smalley, | Margaret Anderson, |
| Gerald Harper, | Robert C. Halpin, |
| William Barber, | Edward Satterthwaite, |
| L. M. Rate, | Frank H. Hill, |
| John Muirhead, | J. C. Parkinson, |
| George Draper, | William Payton, |
| Richard Collett, | Henry Dever, |
| W. Leatham Bright, | Kenneth L. M. Anderson, |
| Latimer Clark, | Charles W. Stronge, |
| R. T. Brown, | Oscar Wilde, |
| F. A. Bevan, | Lewis Wells, |
| H. D. Gooch, | John G. Griffiths, |
| W. Thomson, | Robert Dudley, |
| G. Shaw Lefevre, | Emily F. Lloyd, |
| J. Russell Reynolds, | Ch. Gerhardi, |
| John Pender, | W. T. Ansell, |
| James Anderson, | Julian Goldsmid, |
| W. Cunard, | John Chatterton, |
| William Ford, | Frances Baillie, |
| George Elliot, | Constance Wilde, |
| George Henry Richards, | B. Smith, |
| W. Shuter, | John Temple, |
| Henry Clifford, | Montague McMurdo, |
| Willoughby Smith, | Philip Rawson.” |