When he sought relaxation from exhausting business cares he found it in fatiguing journeys, and he preferred that these should be as difficult and adventurous as possible. This was the case in his journey to the Andes with Mr. Church in his earlier manhood. It was the case with the excursion in ripe middle age beyond the "furthest Thule" of the ancients. He was now again, thanks to his own exertions, and after years of struggle and of doubt that to others meant despair, independent in circumstances, and, as it seemed, beyond the power of fortune, and he was nearing his sixtieth birthday. Most men would have regarded this condition as an occasion to "rest and be thankful." But it was in this condition that Mr. Field undertook a new and arduous enterprise, for which he had had little specific training. It is evident that its very difficulty, as in the case of the Atlantic cable, was to him an element of attractiveness. But there was this difference between the Atlantic cable and the elevated railway system of New York. He was the pioneer, the projector, of the former. The latter had already been undertaken, and practically, it may be said, to have failed. Indeed, there was no "system" of elevated railways. The fragmentary roads that were in operation or projected were unrelated to each other in ownership, management, and traffic. Financially and practically they were languishing. It will be seen from the letter which will presently be given that the company with which he proposed to ally himself, the New York, which possessed the franchise for Third Avenue, had been so far from successful that sixty cents on the dollar was held to be a fair price for its securities. It may fairly be said that the elevated "system" is due to Mr. Field. Whoever remembers the conditions of transit in New York before 1877, and indeed for some years after, must own that the creation of this system has constituted a public benefaction. Many millions have been transported, with a loss of life that has been infinitesimal in comparison with the volume of the traffic, at a cost no greater than that of the conveyances which the system has superseded, and at a rate of speed that has built up the new and large cities, one on the east and one on the west side of Manhattan Island, which before it went into operation were outlying districts, practically inaccessible to busy men for purposes of residence. It was on May 16, 1877, that Mr. Field made this entry in his diary: "Bought this day a controlling interest in the New York Elevated Railroad Company and was elected president of the company." [Illustration: CERTIFICATE OF DISCHARGE] Some of the conditions on which he had made this investment and venture are set forth in the following letter to his friend, Mr. John H. Hall: "NEW YORK, _14th May, 1877_.