“It might have been, in the long centuries agone, when his ship floated

lazily and his barges glided noiselessly over the waters to the

fern-fringed banks of Tampa’s river, that that ancient and original

tourist, on the same mission bent as those of to-day, in search of the

fount of perpetual youth, might have looked, disheartened, on the

tangled forest and heard the moaning of the winds through the pines that

brought no tidings of a land of life.

“I wonder if in his dreams that night, when his ship came in to Tampa

Bay, this grand old Grandee was back in his castles in Spain, and

sported in fantastic fandango with the dark-browed Señorita of fair

Castile. Was his dream a prophetic vision that it seemed to be an

Alhambra just there under the lee of his ship, or did some grander

palace with Moorish minarets and silvered domes, glistening with more

silvery brightness under the rays of a tropic moon, topped with golden

crescents that could only come from the Orient to ornament its towers

high above the pines, seem to be here in this far-off land--a dream

passing all realization. And what a disappointing awakening awaited this

ancient cavalier who sought the waters that would make him young again,

for when the morning came, and the sun shone brightly, the knight must

have trod the deck with restless impatience; the vision of last night

carried him back to lordly Spain, the awakening brought him here again,

and only a lofty pine stood in the place of the tallest tower, the

swaying top was not a silver dome, and the mournful moaning in its

boughs fell not as sweetly on his ear as the tinkling tingle of guitars

and his dream-made mandolins. And I am sure, in haste he left a spot so

disappointing, and perhaps to the tune of ‘Over the Hills and Far Away,’

marched to find the great Mississippi.

“I say, perhaps old De Soto dreamed all this when he landed here at

Tampa, and if he did, behold ’t was prophecy--for the swaying pines have

toppled and in their places have risen higher the golden crescents of

the Orient, and the silvered domes and Moorish minarets that ornament a

palace, and here at Tampa Bay the Spaniard’s dream has been realized two

hundred years after.

“The tourist of to-day does not approach from the direction of his

illustrious predecessor, but has the decided advantage, whether the

coming be by night or day. If by day, the grandly magnificent picture

comes suddenly upon the view as the train makes a turn and stops

between the little town and the river. The foreground is the river, the

middle distance, green sloping lawns dotted with flowers, around whose

beds are winding walks that circle fountains and lead through groves of

palms and oranges to the pines beyond, the same great pines that De Soto

walked under in the struggle to get off his ‘sea legs.’ In the

brightness of a semi-tropic sun the domes and crescents glisten

intensely, and the massive pile grows to immensity. The broad galleries

extend all along the front, the roof commencing above the third-story

windows, slopes gently, so as not to obstruct the view, and at its outer

edge drops in huge ornaments, in arched and hanging pendants ending in

brackets at every column, and at the walls; the grateful shade inviting

as on a summer’s day.

“The lawn, carefully kept and green as one of Kentucky’s own, has a

miniature fort with mounted cannon and a flagstaff that floats the

country’s colors by day, and sports a crescent of electric fire at

night. The fountains, the flowers, and tropic fruits growing here as if

’twas their natural home, serve as ornaments. A dainty little boat-house

at the bottom of the lawn is headquarters for all sorts of boats for

rowing or sailing, as well as for naphtha and steam launches. The view

from the cars comprises all this, as also from the bridge that spans the

river from the hotel to the town. The intending guest need not leave

the train here; after a short stop it will cross the river and come

right to the galleries of the west entrance and stop under the shadow of

the great hotel at Tampa Bay.

“If in the ecstacy of a first impression I likened this to a palace of

Spain that Ponce de Leon might have dreamed of, I had no retraction to

make when the second day of my visit came and I saw it with modern

surroundings of railway and steamer--it is a palace still, and more of

that than the hotel, and in its appointments more like a gentleman’s

residence on a scale exaggerated to positive magnificence--totally

unlike any other, and it is no disparagement to any to say it is the

most unique in the world--I was about to say of its kind--it has no

kind; there is none other in similarity with it, and taken all in all is

the finest in the world.

“I say this not without thought of what it means--the Ponce de Leon at

St. Augustine may have cost more dollars to build, decorate, and

furnish, and the name and fame of the Ponce de Leon has gone to the four

quarters, and ’tis not intended to compare invidiously. Here at Tampa

Bay, the surroundings take one back through the centuries even before De

Soto came, and this may have been the very spot where he landed.

“The horseshoe arches of the Moorish curve are everywhere, from the

grand galleries to the rotunda doors, in the salon entrances and to the

grand banquet hall, for it is nothing less, and every minaret is

crescent crested, and passing under them leads to some old picture,

antique, or cabinet that ornamented some palace hall before the land on

which this one stands had been discovered,--and herein is the argument

that this is the only one in the world. The others boast of their

‘especially made’ appointments, while these were made before the land

was discovered.

“The rotunda is a grand assembly hall with its polished floors, rich

carpets and hangings, antique vases and bric-a-brac, divans and

luxurious lounges, as little like a hotel office as the ‘east room’ of

the White House is like a railway station. The apartment is

seventy-eight feet square and is thirty feet from the floor to the

ceiling. The massive doors are of Spanish mahogany, highly polished,

encasing heavy plates of bevelled glass, the frames are carved in

designs of great beauty. Thirteen marble columns support a balcony that

looks over from the second floor, around which is a carved rail, also in

Spanish mahogany.

“The Moorish and Spanish styles which prevail in the architectural work

do not always obtain in the decorations and furnishings--the divans in

the rotunda were once in the Tuileries salons, and there is an original

portrait in oil of Louis XIV. of France, also a clock of the same

period. The paintings are varied in design, as they are in age and

history, and every one, every antique and cabinet, has its history. On

one wall is a beautiful canvas, the _Return from the Masquerade_, on

another, _Wine, Woman, and Song_, these suggest the gay side of life,

while some of the old faded examples of the school of long ago carry one

back to the old masters. Two dwarfs in bronze that suggest the Black

Forest legends guard the entrance to the hall of the grand salon, and

near them are two Japanese vases, six feet high, which were exhibited at

the Vienna exposition.

“Mirrors in antique frames rich in gilded carvings are on the walls,

massive doors in bevelled glass lead to parlors, halls, libraries, and

writing rooms, electric lights are imbedded in the ceilings and walls,

and hang down in chandeliers. This is the rotunda. The business office

occupies the smallest corner, as if it was of the smallest importance in

a hall so replete with ornament and so devoted to comfort and luxury.

The telegraph and ticket offices are also in the rotunda, and everything

that pertains to the more prosaic business ideas--but they do not

intrude upon the dreamy existence that obtains from the antique

surroundings.

“The grand parlor is magnificent. Every nook and corner has some dainty

bit to show a woman’s hand has been here, and in all the grand

apartment shows what might have been done by a princess in her own

house. It was a woman’s design that this divan should have growing

flowers from its centre, and between the seat-arms, that roses and

calla-lilies should mingle their perfume where beauty holds sway. Her

idea that this cabinet, three hundred years old, should be brought from

some castle in Seville or Salamanca to ornament this salon. It is an

exquisite piece with inlaid woods, ebony, pearl, and ivory, with quaint

little paintings under marvellously clear glass in the carved panels.

The bronzes, gildings, and inlaid woods of the cabinets contrast with

the white and gold of the surrounding decorations in pleasing effect.

The white and gold of the upholstery and the hangings have their beauty

enhanced by the shaded electric lights in ground glass, softly tinted,

that are set in the arched dome above; the light falls on these

cabinets, tables inlaid in a hundred woods and pearl and ivory,

bric-a-brac and candelabra from every land. Paintings not from this shop

or that, but from the old masters to salon celebrities of modern times.

One is a portrait of Marguerite de Valois and another of the Duc de

Savoy. On the mantels and cabinets are some beautiful, exquisitely

chased ewers and drinking cups in silver, and busts of Elizabeth of

England and Mary, Queen of Scots, in very rare silver bronze.

“There is marble statuary in exquisite designs from the chisels of the

best sculptors--some Sedan chairs with the eagle of France in their

decorations.

“The drawing-room is a museum of beautiful things, embracing fine

contrasts, rich harmonies, and pleasant innovations that render it

indeed ‘a joy forever.’ Here, there is an inlaid table which once graced

the Tuileries, as did also three ebony and gold cabinets. On the table

is a rare bit of sculpture, ‘The Sleeping Beauty,’ in Carrara marble.

There, are a sofa and two chairs that were owned by Marie Antoinette. A

set of four chairs may be seen that belonged to Louis Philippe. Then

there are numerous French and Japanese cabinets, and above each is

suspended a dazzling crystal mirror.

“There are eight cabinets of antique pattern that have been brought from

this or that province of old Spain, gathered in their travels by Mr. and

Mrs. Plant, and _not_, as I have said, ordered from this factory or

that, in the ordinary way of the modern hostelrie.

“The carpet--scarlet, with its black lions rampant, made in France--is a

replica of one of Louis XIV., and covers the entire floor of this

splendid salon, in which are chairs of gold and silk and plush of the

same era--as there are also tapestries of incalculable values and

richness that have hung in palaces before they came to this one. The

writing and reading rooms just off the rotunda are furnished in the

same unique manner--one which might be called ‘the Louis XIV. room’ has

all its decorations and appointments of the era of that monarch; these

are replicas, or in some cases originals.

“In the grand chambers the style is not less regal; in magnificence

these surpass anything I have ever seen; no two of them are alike. They

range in size from the grand suite of complete living apartments with

parlors and libraries, to the chamber for two, with silken hangings of

gros-grain watered silk, in white and delicate rose color; a canopied

dressing-case, as dainty as the bride who may stand before it to attire

her pretty self for the grand halls outside her door. The guest rooms on

the floors above have every convenience known to modern inventive

genius, including telephone connection with the office and through a

‘central’ to every other room in the house. A grand hall-way extends

from south to north seven hundred feet, passing through the rotunda.

Just south of the rotunda is the grand staircase, with its life-size

bronzes, holding groups of electric lights, and near by are the

elevators to the upper floors. The north hall passes from the rotunda by

the grand parlors to the gracefully rounding curve of the solarium till

it ends, where shall I say it ends?--in modern parlance at the

dining-hall, but what might be the banquet-room of a Moorish king, with

its lofty dome and arches that rest on fluted pillars.

“There is no more striking feature than the table porcelain. These are

exquisite works of ceramic art. The plates are of infinite variety. You

may have your beef on a very charming bit of French porcelain, your

salad on a reproduction of an old Vienna plate of semi-Saracenic

pattern, your ice on one of the little plates designed by Moritz Fischer

and copied elsewhere, your coffee in a very perfect repetition of one of

Wedgewood’s simple and lovely bordered cups. In fact, there is no end to

the variety of these lovely porcelains. And just here I may add that the

cooking and the service are unexceptional. The table is of the very best

class and equal to that of any hotel in the world.

“The room may not be faithfully described in its frescoes and its lights

and pictures, any more than I could satiate your appetite by copying the

menu here--it can’t be done.

“Just at the end of this hall and very near the entrance to the

dining-room is a grand orchestrion, which, with interchangeable rollers,

plays the latest music, from the popular airs of the day to the classic

productions of the great composers.

“Just off the rotunda is the music-room with its waxed floor for

terpsichorean uses. There is a perfect stage suitable for concert,

lecture, or tableau, there are foot-lights, and overhead, the electric

fire gleams in a star and crescent group. The room is circular in form

with broad galleries extending around it, so the company may sit in the

open air and listen to the music or look in upon the dancers. These

broad galleries extend on the west and east side, forming a grand

promenade for the gay company such a place attracts.

“The interior scenes under the brilliant glow of the lights is

entertaining, but I remember in more dreamy way a stroll by moonlight,

down by the river under the palmettos. The moon shone bright and made a

wide silver ribbon far up the broad river and across it, and here came

to me the idea of Ponce de Leon’s dream.

“The arched and towered façade, the silvered dome, again silvered by the

moon’s rays, lifted up more brightly against the star-lit sky, the

crescented minarets, the electric-fired crescent on the color-staff, the

lights from a hundred windows, the soft patter of the water in the

fountains falling on the lily-pads, the perfume of the flowers, the

splash of an oar and the half murmur of a love song from him who

splashed the oar. Think you this is not an Alhambric picture? Then you

have not read of the Alhambra nor seen Tampa Bay.”

[Illustration: text decoration]

[Illustration: text decoration] CHAPTER XV.

Programme of Plant Day Ceremonies--Ringing of the Liberty

Bell--Presentation of Addresses to Mr. Plant in the great

Auditorium--His Reply--Resolutions from the Different Departments

of the System, from the Savannah Board of Trade, etc.--Mr. Morton

F. Plant’s Acknowledgments.

Knowing that all employees would be unable to attend the celebration in

Atlanta, President Plant requested the superintendents of the railways,

steamship, and express interests to allow such men as could be spared

from duty without detriment to the operative departments to be present,

and also requested that special train service should be provided for

their accommodation. This request of the president was so heartily

carried out by the superintendents, and so willingly accepted by the

employees, that three special trains of the Plant System, carrying

several thousand employees, rolled into the Union Depot in Atlanta at an

early hour Monday morning, October 28th. In order that all might be

fully informed of the movements of their worthy president, and of the

programme of the day, the following notice was published in the Atlanta

_Constitution_ of October 28, 1895:

“Mr. Plant will call on Governor Atkinson at 10 o’clock this morning.

“He will be at the Exposition grounds at 12 o’clock, when the Columbian

bell will ring for the first time, in his honor.

“At 1 o’clock all the employees of the Plant System will assemble at the

Auditorium on the grounds, at which time addresses will be delivered by

President Collier, on behalf of the Exposition Company, and Mayor King,

on behalf of the city of Atlanta. Mr. Plant will respond to these

addresses.

“Music will be furnished by Innes’s band, and, after Mr. Plant’s speech,

resolutions, congratulatory and otherwise, will be read on behalf of the

employees of the system and commercial bodies.

“At 3 P.M. Mr. Plant will be at the Plant System Building, which is one

of the most picturesque on the grounds. He will spend some time making a

close inspection of the exhibit that has been placed there and which has

attracted such attention all the while from visitors to the great fair.

“At 8 o’clock this evening a banquet will be tendered Mr. Plant at the

Aragon.”

Mr. Plant placed himself in the hands of his friends for the day, and

carried out to the letter the programme as above set forth, in order

that he might have opportunity of meeting the employees at the

Exposition. Such of us who had the pleasure of being present and of

personally congratulating the gentleman will be pleased, no doubt, to

read the following account of the day’s proceedings, and to those who

were less fortunate it will be interesting to hear what the Atlanta

_Constitution_, of the 29th of October, had to say of “Plant System Day

at the Exposition.”

“Eloquent indeed was the demonstration of affection and loyalty by the

employees of the Plant System to their great chieftain, Henry B. Plant,

yesterday at the celebration of Plant System Day at the Exposition.

“Never was there such an ovation to any living railroad magnate in the

Southern States. The day was beautiful and bright and most auspicious,

and the exercises in the auditorium at the Exposition grounds were

profoundly interesting and impressive.

“Early in the morning Mr. Plant was driven to the Exposition grounds in

a carriage, the rest of his party accompanying him in other carriages.

They drove through the grounds, and at 12 o’clock sharp they stopped at

the Columbian bell, near the Forestry Building, and, in accordance with

the programme as arranged, the bell was rung many times over in honor of

the great railroader. The bell was rung by Mr. and Mrs. H. B. Plant,

assisted by Mrs. Wood, Mrs. B. W. Wrenn, Major O’Brien, and Mrs. Tilley.

“Those present at the ringing of the bell were: Mrs. H. B. Plant, Mrs.

W. A. Wood, Mrs. B. W. Wrenn, Mrs. George H. Tilley, Mrs. Porter King,

Mr. H. B. Plant, Mr. R. G. Erwin, Mr. M. F. Plant, Dr. G. H. Smythe, Mr.

G. H. Tilley, Major M. J. O’Brien, and Col. B. W. Wrenn.

“The party then drove through the grounds, and after a brief glimpse of

the splendid Exposition from the carriages while passing, they went to

the Auditorium, where the regular programme of the day was to be carried

out.

“Long before they arrived at the auditorium the hall was fairly packed

with the employees of the Plant System of Railroads and of the Southern

Express Company, of which Mr. Plant is president. The distinguished

party, consisting of Mr. Plant and his family and a number of friends,

arrived at the eastern side of the auditorium and entered the vast hall

through the doorway to the stage.

“At the first sight of them the vast multitude of people within gave a

round of applause which lasted for a long time, and which was a becoming

greeting from the several thousands of Mr. Plant’s employees to him at

such a season.

“When Mr. Plant and his companions were seated on the stage, the

applause ceased and order was restored in the hall. On the platform,

Mrs. H. B. Plant was seated on the left of Mr. Plant. There were also

there Mrs. W. G. Wood, Mrs. G. H. Tilley, Mrs. B. W. Wrenn, Mr. M. F.

Plant, Mr. R. G. Erwin, Mr. M. J. O’Brien, Mr. S. G. McLendon, Mr. G. H.

Tilley, Mr. A. A. Wiley, Mayor Porter King, Vice-President W. A.

Hemphill, of the Exposition Company; Mr. W. F. Vandiver, Mr. Fleming G.

duBignon, Mr. W. C. Bibb, Judge Robert Falligant, Hon. W. B. Thompson,

formerly Second Assistant Postmaster-General; Hon. W. H. Brawley, U. S.

District Judge; Mr. F. Q. Brown, Mr. G. W. Adair, and others.

“After music by the Innes Band, Vice-President W. A. Hemphill, of the

Exposition Company, acting as president in the absence of President

Charles Collier, arose and addressed the vast audience on behalf of the

Exposition Company, bidding them a cordial welcome to the fair.

“Mr. Hemphill said:

“‘Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen:--I have no doubt that the

welcome that Mr. Collier was to have given you to-day would have been

the most pleasant duty he would have had to perform since the opening of

the Exposition, but he was suddenly called away, and wired me to welcome

you.

“‘This is an hour of thanks and congratulations. The Board thanks you

for the interest you have taken in our Exposition. We thank you for the

magnificent exhibit of the resources along your line that you have made

at our Exposition, and for the competent people you have placed in

charge of it. We thank you for your presence here to-day, and we are

highly honored that so many distinguished people are here with us.

“‘Mr. President, we congratulate you upon the magnificent system of

railroads and steamships that you have builded up. Your life and example

have been a great thing for the young men of this country to profit by

[applause], showing them what it is possible for them to attain. We

congratulate you, sir, upon your birthday, and we wish that you may live

to observe many happy birthdays and that each one may be brighter than

the one preceding it. [Applause.]

“‘What an opportunity this Exposition has given to the States of this

section! The State that has neglected to be represented here has missed

the opportunity of its history. I am glad, sir, from your side, that

Florida is represented here. Her grand resources of factory, of mines,

of forest, of rivers, her fruits and flowers, are here to show our

visiting friends from the North what a great country Florida is.

[Applause.]

“‘We thank you, sir, for being such a friend to the South. You have

spent more money and developed more territory in this section than any

other man in the Union. [Great applause.] We thank you and honor you for

it, and we hope you will live to see the day when your railroad lines

will extend all over this country [applause]; when your steamships will

plow the Atlantic Ocean and reach the ports of Europe. We hope, sir,

that you will live to see the building of the Nicaragua Canal; when your

steamships shall go through that canal, and, crossing the Pacific Ocean,

reach the ports of China, Japan, and Australia--all these lines pouring

immigration and wealth into this section, making it the most powerful,

most populous and richest section of this Union, and your System the

greatest upon the face of the earth. [Continued applause.]

“‘I now have the honor and pleasure of introducing to you Mayor King,

who will welcome you for the city of Atlanta.’”

“Mayor Porter King was greeted with applause and spoke as follows:

“‘Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen:--On the part of the city of

Atlanta it is to me a matter of peculiar pleasure and pride to welcome

in our midst that broad-minded, grand, glorious, golden-hearted

gentleman and the splendid men who come with him. [Great cheering and

applause.]

“‘I but re-echo the sentiment so beautifully expressed by Colonel

Hemphill, who preceded me, that if Georgia, the South, and Atlanta owe

aught to any man, it owes as much to Colonel Plant as to any one whose

name I could call. I speak a truth which is perhaps not generally

known, so modest is this gentleman, that to-day he is one of the largest

real estate owners in the city of Atlanta. [Applause.] We think in that,

he has shown the wisdom of his judgment.

“‘I honor the head of this great System because of the policy that he

has pursued--to build up himself, not by pulling down another, but by

carrying others up with him. [Applause and cheers.] And not alone to

him, but to this vast army of employees, who are themselves but

representatives of the magnificent System of which he is at the head, I

extend a cordial welcome. [Applause.] I am sure it is not in his heart

to detract one bit from any progress, or any forward movement of the

very lowest employee connected with his whole System. [Applause and

cheers.] Rather than to grow up that way, I believe he would rather see

his whole System wrecked.

“‘We thank you for your presence here to-day. We thank you for the

magnificent exhibit which your System has placed upon these grounds. To

you, one and all, Mr. President and gentlemen, we bid you welcome to

Atlanta; all that she has is yours. We gladly turn it over to you.’”

[Great and continued applause and cheering.]

“Colonel Hemphill proposed three cheers for President Plant. The cheers

were given.

“Here the Innes Band gave a splendid rendition of the popular medley,

‘Plantation Echoes,’ including ‘Way Down Upon the Suwanee River,’ which,

was loudly cheered.

“Mr. Plant’s Address was as follows:

“‘Mr. President of the Cotton States and International Exposition

Company, and the Honorable Mayor of the city of Atlanta:--In behalf of

my associates and employees of the Plant System, and friends, gentlemen

and ladies, whom I see around me and before me, I scarcely know how to

thank you for this glorious welcome, this grand reception. I can but say

that we are here to witness a very magnificent Exposition, quite beyond

any conception of mine, and, I believe, of any of the gentlemen who have

come here with me to-day, to examine and make a study of this monument

to the enterprise and energies of the good people of the city of Atlanta

and of the State of Georgia.

“‘When I was called upon in Jacksonville, Florida, in December, 1894, by

a committee of gentlemen of the Exposition Company, and requested by

them to make an exhibit here of interesting products from the country

bordering our lines of roads in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and

Florida, the four States that our rail lines traverse, I was backward to

do so, for the reason that I feared we had nothing that would do credit

to our line, our interests and our patrons; and had I known, sir, of

the extent and the grandeur of this Exposition, I believe that I should

have continued to hesitate.

“‘It has been some years since I have visited Atlanta, and I was hardly

prepared to see the growth, the tremendous growth, that I find has

occurred in my absence. I see you are rapidly going forward; that you

are becoming a metropolis. You represent, sir, the capital of one of the

greatest States of the Union--the Empire State of the South. [Applause

and cheers.]

“‘You never need be backward to represent Atlanta; it appears to me that

within a very short time, without saying anything to the detriment of

any of the other cities in this country, that it will be called The City

of the South. [Applause.] Other cities may advance, and do advance; many

cities and many communities in the South advance rapidly; they advance

in population and in wealth, but, sir, nothing have I seen in many years

to admire like your city of Atlanta.

“‘I hardly know what language to use that will fittingly present to you,

sir, and to my audience, the opinions I hold in regard to this great

Exposition. It is a surprise, it is a marvel, it is to me wonderful,

and, sir, it proves what can be done by people acting in unison, united

in their enterprise, united in their progress and their desires to

benefit their people and their country, and united through their

capital. Without this unity, and without the other qualifications that

have made the representative men of Atlanta and of this Exposition what

they are, this Exposition could never have been what it is. It is a

visible proof of the importance of united action; it shows what may be

accomplished through union. Without union none of us would be what we

are to-day.

“‘To my friends and associates, and to the officers and employees of the

Plant System I desire to express my thanks for the numbers they show

here to-day. I commend you all for your good judgment in embracing this

opportunity afforded by the Cotton States and International Exposition

Company, to come here and witness this great work that has been going on

almost without our knowledge. We have all read in the newspapers about

the Cotton States and International Exposition, but I believe that very

few of us had any idea what we were to see and to meet here to-day. But

we are here, most of us only for the day, and I hope that we will

earnestly avail ourselves of all the time possible, not only for the

gratification of our curiosity, but for our further education as well.

Everything we see should be made useful to us; it is such an opportunity

as some of us may never have again, and I therefore say to you

all--while you are in Atlanta, emulate my example, and make this

Exposition a study. [Cheers and applause.]

“‘As I said before, I am pleased to see such a large representation

here. It is very gratifying to me. It is gratifying to know that so many

could be spared from their duties without disadvantage to the public

whom we serve. You all know the general principles that have influenced

us in the formation of the Plant System. It was to prepare the way to

make as good means of communication as possible with the resources we

had at hand. We have used of our means freely; not only myself, but my

associates have not been sparing in this particular. We have expended

capital and energy in the hope of some day reaping a benefit, which is

proper. As you know, all men seek to benefit themselves; but there has

been behind it, as the President of this great Exposition and the

Honorable Mayor have to-day stated, a desire to do good to our

fellow-man. [Applause.] We have at least been able to furnish good means

of transportation, and I am pleased to say that it is appreciated by our

patrons. I would, however, have you recollect that we are the servants

of the people, who are our patrons, to the extent that we must treat

their property, while in our possession, with all the care we would our

own. We must be careful in our manners and our speech; we must see to it

that no patron of the Plant System ever comes to an officer or employee

for information without getting it to the fullest. [Applause.]

“‘We must also see that our connecting lines of railways receive proper

treatment from us. Be sure that we cannot well serve the public unless

we treat our allied lines fairly, justly, and properly; be sure of this.

Be sure that we are not all for ourselves. We are public servants, and

we must serve all well, and always recognize the rights of our patrons.

We must never take a customer’s money without giving him his money’s

worth. All this is very easy to say, but it is very difficult for human

nature to carry it out, and we must, therefore, school ourselves in the

effort to learn how best to serve our patrons, and at the same time be

just to ourselves.

“‘How are the railroads built? Where does the money come from that

constructs and maintains them? It is through the union of men, and the

combination of means and labor. This is how it is accomplished.

[Applause.] There can be but little success in any effort to accomplish

good, in this age, without union. This Exposition could not have been

created and carried on, could not have presented the grandeur it does

now, except through the combination of capital and the energy of men of

enterprise. Look at the States that are represented here. We see not

only many of the States of the United States, but also many foreign

States as well. I find the Central American Republics are represented

here; those unions that are dependent upon the voice of the people for

their government are here. They are getting in line with us. They are

here to co-operate with us of the South in this great work. Even our

United States Government has made a large appropriation, and has sent

down many of its people and many of its products to illustrate itself

and its people. It is through union that success is attained. Look over

this city to-day, I suppose it is so every day, we see floating from the

house-tops, from the towers, and from the flagstaves, that emblem of

Union, the Star Spangled Banner! [Great applause.] Long may it wave over

us [applause], and we be fit and proper citizens to represent it in this

“Land of the free and the home of the brave!”’ [Long continued

applause.]

“‘We are going to have some resolutions read,’ said Mr. Hemphill, ‘and,

Mr. President, I wish you would commission me a brakeman in order that I

may vote with the boys.’

“‘I do,’ said Mr. Plant.

“In presenting the resolutions passed by the Commercial and Industrial

Association of Montgomery, Alabama, Mr. W. C. Bibb, Jr., chairman of the

committee appointed to convey them to Mr. Plant, said:

“‘Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen: Among the ancient Greeks and

Romans the laurel was the symbol of triumph; the laurel wreath was

second only to a kingly crown. Shafts of stone and marble and statues of

bronze commemorated the deeds of demigods, kings, and conquering heroes.

History teems with names and deeds of men who carved out a niche in the

Temple of Fame with a bloody sword. To raze a fair city, invade,

overwhelm, and destroy a smiling land, hew down and slaughter its

inhabitants, or drag them in chains to slavery, were the only deeds by

which Fame might be won.

“‘In this fair land and enlightened age, he who makes two blades of

grass to grow where was one before; who links new cities with the old by

shining bands of steel; who masters the sea and brings the forces of

nature subservient to the will, the comfort, and the uses of his

fellow-man; who builds up, develops, and makes the land to abound in

plenty, while thousands of happy men and women rise up and call him

blessed--he it is for whom the laurel blooms, he it is who has builded

for himself a monument more enduring than brass and more lasting than

marble. We are gathered here to celebrate the natal day of such a man.

“‘Sir, it is the pleasure of this committee, in behalf of the Commercial

and Industrial Association, of the people of Montgomery, and of Alabama,

to read in the presence of this audience and to present to you the

resolutions I have in my hands, and to wish for you many happy returns

of your birthday.

“‘WHEREAS, The 28th day of October, 1895, has been set apart by the

Cotton States and International Exposition Company, of Atlanta, Georgia,

to do honor to H. B. Plant, the genius and controlling spirit of the two

great Southern enterprises--the Southern Express Company and the Plant

Investment Company; and

“‘WHEREAS, We deem the time and occasion fit and opportune to unite with

other Southerners in paying homage to one so richly endowed with merit

and worth, yet so unpretentious; so eminently successful, yet

unassuming; who has, by his latest achievement on land and sea, given to

the three States of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida a system of railroads,

steamships, and palatial hotels in the interest of commerce, travel, and

internal development unsurpassed in the civilized world. Therefore, be

it

“‘_Resolved_, That we, the members of the Commercial and Industrial

Association of the City of Montgomery, Alabama, by unanimous rising

vote, do most heartily congratulate Mr. Plant upon his continued health

and prosperity upon this his birthday; that we convey to him by these

resolutions tidings that his name and fame are dear to us and to all

Alabamians.

“‘_Resolved_, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to Atlanta,

Georgia, to be publicly read and presented to Mr. Plant on October 28,

1895.’ [Applause and cheers.]

“Colonel Hemphill:--‘I move these resolutions be adopted by a rising

vote. All in favor of the resolutions will stand.’ All present

responded.

“On behalf of the Savannah Board of Trade, Judge Robert Falligant spoke

as follows:

“‘Mr. Chairman: I was spending with my family a season of quiet and rest

amid the mountains of Georgia when we got news of this auspicious

occasion. In former years I had the pleasure of serving under the great

leader whose birthday we celebrate to-day, and I could not resist the

temptation of being present and adding my voice to the universal

acclaim, not only of Georgia, but of all Southern States. As I came in,

these resolutions were presented to me to read and I was requested to

make a few preliminary remarks. I really don’t know what I can say on

this occasion so replete with force and eloquence, both in speech and

resolutions, but my heart is impelled to say something in this

magnificent presence. I feel that not only Georgia is here, but the

entire South and the entire country. [Applause.]

“‘I am proud to see that Atlanta has touched the high-water mark of

civilization in this illustrious display. I feel proud as a Georgian,

and, as the representative of Savannah, I bid her godspeed in the

magnificent tide of prosperity that awaits her. We have no envious

feeling upon the coast, but trust that her future may be as limitless

and as beautiful as the grand ocean that expands beyond her borders, the

image of infinity.

“‘I say this is an occasion for patriotic emotions, and we should all

unite in doing honor to the citizen who has devoted himself to the

public good. Let us honor the man who plants his high purposes in his

native land, who knows no South, no East, no West, no North, but is an

American, heart and soul.’ [Great and continued applause and cheering.]

“Then the following was read:

“‘ATLANTA, GEORGIA, October 28, 1895.

“‘MR. H. B. PLANT, Atlanta, Ga.--My dear Sir:--On behalf of the Savannah

Board of Trade I congratulate you most heartily upon this auspicious

occasion of your seventy-sixth birthday. You have, in the providence of

infinite power, been permitted to dwell among your fellows beyond the

allotted period of man, and it has also been your most favored privilege

in that period to bring to completion undertakings of vast magnitude for

the uplifting of the South especially, and for the whole country in

general, which will stand a monument to your foresight, zeal and

patriotic devotion to our common country long after the shaft or statues

of marble or bronze have lost their significance as finger posts

pointing to martial renown or the triumph of the forum. For your works,

engraven upon the hearts of your generation with the stylus of

commercial probity, will always be recalled with pleasant memory because

free from the painful associations of sanguinary fields or the bitter

words of fierce debates. May the mighty God, in His providence, as He

spares you for the years to come, continue to bless you with bodily

strength to pursue your active career of usefulness, until your eyes can

look upon the full fruition of the great works in the interests of

commerce, with which your name will ever be inseparably associated in

fruitful memory through the multiplying cycles of time. With profound

esteem, very truly and sincerely yours,

“‘D. G. PURSE,

“‘President Savannah Board of Trade.’

“The resolutions were adopted by a rising vote.

“The Plant System employees were represented by Hon. A. A. Wiley, who

spoke as follows:

“‘Mr. President, Mr. Plant, Ladies, and Gentlemen: These men who wear

these badges to-day, whether they come from South Carolina, Florida,

Georgia, or Alabama, are the employees of the Plant System, consisting

of telegraph, express, railway, and steamship lines. They number perhaps

three thousand, but represent more than twelve thousand employees, and

have come from the smoke and the dust of the workshop, from the railway

car, from the locomotive, from express and law offices, to pay their

tribute of respect, and to manifest their love for our distinguished

chief, their admiration and appreciation of him. [Applause and cheers.]

“‘This great day becomes a national day, because it is replete with

mighty consequences to both North and South.

“‘Here we may forget our business cares and worldly contests, for the

soft hand of kindness, friendship, and hospitality smoothes down the

ruffled brow. A quarter of a century ago, ruthless and unpitying war,

with all the devastations that follow in its wake, swept with relentless

fury over our fair and fruitful fields.

“‘When that fratricidal struggle was ended and the soldiers who survived

it returned to their desolated homes to find poverty and want at every

door, Mr. Henry B. Plant, a Union man, who, notwithstanding his loyalty

to the North, had been commissioned by President Davis, because of his

honesty and integrity, to go at will everywhere throughout Dixie, was

also true to the South. He recognized the fact that the war was over. He

had confidence in the reserved energy, loyalty, devotion, and

patriotism of the men who wore the gray. [Applause and cheers.]

“‘He had faith in the magnificent possibilities of this land of golden

summers. He knew that we would never again renew hostilities against the

Union of our fathers; and he was right.

“‘Mr. Plant began anew with us the battles of life. He poured out his

wealth like water, to build up and beautify our waste places. He put

activity and intelligent direction into the industrial life of the

South; and his confidence was not misplaced. He has built grandly and

well--wiser, perhaps, than he knew--and has rolled onward the car of

progress and prosperity. The whole South has felt the touch of his

magical hand, and recognized in him a potential factor in the

advancement of commerce and civilization. To-day about fifty thousand

people owe food, shelter, and raiment to his bounty and munificence.

[Applause and cheers.]

“‘He has carried happiness and plenty to many a fireside, and poured the

sunshine of peace and gladness into many a weary heart. [Great cheering

and applause.]

“‘We, his servants and employees, have now assembled here, not only to

do him honor on this, his birthday, but we desire to keep his name and

memory forever fresh and green in our heart of hearts; and no more

fitting method, it seems to me, can be devised, than by setting apart

the 27th day of October, in each succeeding year, as a memorial day, to

be commemorated by appropriate services and the planting of trees. With

this object in view, I offer the following resolutions, and move their

unanimous adoption by a rising vote:

“‘WHEREAS, It is meet and proper that we, the employees of the Plant

System, should in some appropriate manner observe the birthday of Mr.

Plant, our worthy and honored President; therefore, be it.

“‘_Resolved_, 1. That the 27th of October in each and every year

hereafter shall be set apart and observed and duly celebrated in honor

of the life and character of Mr. H. B. Plant.

“‘_Resolved_, 2. That on said 27th day of October, water-oak trees shall

be planted at all station grounds and about all section houses on all

the lines of the Plant System, this tree being the favorite of our

much-loved chief.

“‘_Resolved_, 3. That the general superintendent and the division

superintendents are hereby created a permanent board, with the request

that Mr. Plant’s birthday be honored as herein set out.’

“These resolutions were adopted unanimously by a rising vote and with

great enthusiasm.

“The Tampa (Florida) Band then furnished music.

“Mr. M. F. Plant addressed the crowds as follows:

“‘Colonel Hemphill, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Members of our Family, the

Plant System [Great cheering and applause]: I desire to thank you in

behalf of my mother, of my wife, who is absent, and my boy, for the

great compliment you have paid my father. [Great applause.] It is,

indeed, a great treat to me to be here and to thank you for your

kindness, not only to my father, but to the name of the System which, by

your very careful, studious, and painstaking application to its

business, you have built up. Gentlemen, I thank you.’ [Great applause

and cheers.]

“Mr. Hemphill announced that at 3 o’clock P. M. Mr. Plant would hold a

reception in the Plant System Building.

“This reception was most pleasant. Mr. Plant sat beneath the tropical

foliage of the Plant Building display and shook hands with all his

employees, who passed him by the hundred. He was driven back to the

Aragon Hotel late in the afternoon.”

[Illustration: text decoration]

[Illustration: text decoration] CHAPTER XVI.

Banquet at the Aragon Hotel Ends the Festivities of the Day--Sketch

of the Southern Express Company--Distinguished Callers on President

Plant during the Day--Many Telegrams and Letters of Congratulation

Received--Many Press Notices of the Day, and many Tributes of

Respect and Esteem for him who Called it forth.

“The banquet at the Aragon last night,” says the Atlanta _Constitution_,

“given in honor of Mr. H. B. Plant, was a fitting climax to the day set

apart for the celebration of the seventy-sixth birthday of that

distinguished man.

“The occasion was one that must have been gratifying to the honored

guest, in that he received the warmest assurances of the high esteem in

which he is held by the people of the South from the eloquent

representatives of many of the States. He was the toast of the evening,

and he bore the distinguished honors with his characteristic demeanor.

“When Captain Evan P. Howell called upon the fifty prominent guests to

rise and drink to the health of the guest of honor, Mr. Plant, there was

an enthusiasm and love for the latter inspired in the heart of every

man around the banquet tables, which found vent in the many eloquent

speeches of tribute which followed. Upon Mr. Plant there was bestowed

the highest encomiums of praise, admiration, and love, and he was made

to feel the enthusiasm of the sentiment in the hearts of the speakers.

“The dinner in honor of Mr. Plant was given by the Exposition directors.

It was the concluding honor bestowed upon the South’s benefactor in

connection with the great Plant System Day at the Exposition. About

fifty guests assembled to do honor to the occasion, and among them were

some of the best-known and most influential men of the country. The

South was represented by distinguished men from many States.

“At the conclusion of the dinner, Captain Howell, who acted as

toast-master, arose and proposed a toast to the distinguished guest of

honor. At the request, every guest arose and drank to the health of Mr.

Plant in silence.

“‘I have been offered many toasts and received some honors,’ said Mr.

Plant, in response, ‘but none has ever afforded me more pleasure than

this. I feel that I am among friends to-night, and it is useless to

assure you that I am deeply appreciative of this honor. I have had

something to say to you already to-day, and am almost talked out. There

is so much talent and so many men here to-night who can entertain you

with a ventilation of the English language, and I am so hoarse that I

will yield to them and not detain you. I thank you, Mr. Toast-master,

and gentlemen.’

“Captain Howell, in introducing the speakers of the evening, took

occasion to say many happy things about Mr. Plant and the guests around

the tables. He was in his happiest vein, and with wit, wisdom, and

story, he entertained the assemblage. Each effort of the toast-master

was received with applause.

“‘We are indebted to the distinguished gentleman we have gathered

to-night to honor,’ said Captain Howell, ‘for one of the best exhibits

at our great Exposition. His is an exhibit of which we should feel

proud; one that reflects credit on his effort and the Exposition. He has

shown us loyalty, fidelity, and love for the South by the work he has

done for us. We are pleased and honored to have him among us, and to

call him one of us. This Southland owes to him much of gratitude. He has

benefited every section of the Southeast, and done work which will last

as a monument to his fame for years to come.

“‘We regret that our zealous president, Mr. Collier, is unable to be

with us this evening to extend to Mr. Plant in person the welcome felt

by the Exposition Company, but in that absence we have a man to speak

for him who can do so fittingly. We ask Mr. Alexander W. Smith to

return to Mr. Plant the thanks of the Exposition Company for the

splendid exhibit he has sent us and for the good work he has done, not

only in our interest, but for the State and the entire South.’

“Mr. Smith paid a fitting tribute to the worth of Mr. Plant to the State

of Georgia, the South, and to the Exposition. He thanked him on behalf

of the Exposition Company for the complete and magnificent exhibit sent

by Mr. Plant, and warmly congratulated him on his birthday, which gave

occasion for such a great day as yesterday had been to the Exposition.

Colonel George W. Adair was called upon and he made one of his best

speeches. He entertained his hearers with stories and reminiscences of

his boyhood and manhood days, referring to the time when he first met

Mr. Plant. The speaker had assisted in forming the Southern Express

Company, and he proposed to share the honors with Mr. Plant, for the

evening at least.

“Among the other speakers were Colonel H. S. Haines, Colonel A. A.

Wiley, of Alabama; Speaker Fleming, Major J. W. Thomas, of Nashville;

Judge Falligant, of Savannah; Hon. Fleming du Bignon, of Savannah; Dr.

Smyth, and several others. All of the speakers paid high tribute to Mr.

Plant and his work for the South. He was eulogized in the language of

highest praise, and declared to be a man worthy of all honors that

could be bestowed upon a citizen.

“Some of the speakers referred to the esteem in which Mr. Plant is held

by his twelve thousand employees, and laid stress on that fact as being

the best evidence of the noble character of the man, one who treated all

men with justice, moderation, and kindness. Mr. Plant was made to feel

that the welcome extended him was sincere, and he left the banquet table

honored as perhaps no other man will be honored during the Exposition

period. To him was shown the appreciation of the Exposition Company of

his work, by setting aside a special day in his honor, something that

will not be accorded to any other individual.

“The banquet was one of the most elaborate of the season, and reflected

credit on the committee in charge and Manager Dodge, of the Aragon, who

supervised it in person.”

* * * * *

With the banquet at the Aragon, tendered to President Plant by the

directors of the Exposition Company and the citizens of Atlanta, the

festivities directly incident to “Plant System Day” were brought to a

close. This history, however, would be incomplete without reference to

the Southern Express Company, to which Mr. Plant has been pleased to

allude as his “first love.” It numbers among its officers some of the

men whom Mr. Plant had in mind when he said on Sunday morning, October

27th, “I see here present those who were with me in troublous times and

bore with me the heat and burden of the fight,” and this may be

considered a fitting place to give a brief history of the company as

published in the _Constitution_ of October 29, 1895.

From the Atlanta _Constitution_, Tuesday, October 29, 1895:

“Among the thousands who gathered at the Exposition yesterday to do

honor to Mr. Henry B. Plant, the great ‘man of affairs,’ the officers

and employees of the Southern Express Company formed a notable group,

the central and most prominent figure of which was Mr. M. J. O’Brien,

the vice-president and general manager. It was fitting that this great

enterprise should be represented by its most prominent officials and a

large delegation of its employees on this day, for it was as an express

company employee that Mr. Plant began life, and the history of the

express business in the South is almost identical with Mr. Plant’s great

success. It was also appropriate that the representatives of the great

army of Southern Express Company employees should be headed by the man

whose master mind and admirable executive ability have contributed so

largely to every success of the mammoth enterprise over which he

presides with such marked distinction, for the history of the Southern

Express Company is not only the history of Mr. Plant but of Mr. O’Brien,

since the latter gentleman has been closely identified with the express

business of Mr. Plant for the past thirty-five years, and its

achievements have largely been his own.

“HISTORY OF THE SOUTHERN EXPRESS COMPANY.

“On July 5, 1861, a charter was granted for the Southern Express Company

for fourteen years, with H. B. Plant as President; R. B. Bullock,

Superintendent of the Eastern Division; E. Hulbert, Superintendent of

the Central, and D. P. Ellwood, Superintendent of the Western Division,

who, however, shortly resigned, and was succeeded by A. B. Small, with

James Shuter as Assistant Superintendent.

“As the Federal forces advanced into Dixie the Southern Express Company

abandoned its lines, which were immediately utilized by the Adams

Express Company. In fact, the Southern Express Company was operated

under difficulties throughout those belligerent times, arising from the

changing lines of armies, destructions of railroads, and from the

conscription acts, until express employees were exempted from service in

the army and navy.

“At the close of the war another source of danger presented itself.

Gangs of disbanded soldiery and raiding parties, ever ready to

appropriate portable property wherever it could be found, in many cases

plundered the express offices, their horses being taken and nothing

valuable left. But it’s a long lane that has no turn. A reaction soon

set in, and the marvellous prosperity of the ‘Sunny South’ has been only

equalled by the growth and development of the Southern Express Company.

To-day its service extends from Richmond, Louisville, and St. Louis on

the North; Charleston and Savannah on the East; Springfield, Missouri,

and Houston, Texas, on the West, and New Orleans, Mobile, and Tampa,

Florida, on the South, reaching twelve States and embracing about three

thousand agencies, with a through line to New York and direct

communication with Cuba.

“In 1875, a renewal of the company’s charter was applied for and

granted, and, in 1886, the Georgia Legislature granted the company a

charter for thirty years from December 21st of that year. The little

concern organized at Augusta, Georgia, in 1861, has now become one of

the strongest and most successful express companies in the United

States.

“The _Constitution_ to-day publishes excellent portraits of General

Manager M. J. O’Brien, Assistant General Manager T. W. Leary, Traffic

Manager C. L. Loop, and Superintendent W. W. Hulbert, all of whom have

been intimately identified with the growth and development of the

Southern Express Company.

“General Manager O’Brien began service with the Adams Express Company at

Memphis, in 1859. He next served as way-bill clerk and then as

messenger, being later promoted to the cashier’s office at New Orleans.

Evincing a remarkable aptitude for the express business, he was next

appointed agent at Montgomery, Alabama, and, in rapid order,

successively became President Plant’s secretary, secretary of the

Southern Express Company, general superintendent, general manager, and

vice-president and general manager.

“Assistant General Manager Leary commenced as secretary to General

Superintendent O’Brien and for years was his faithful lieutenant.

Subsequently he was made assistant to the general manager and then

appointed assistant general manager.

“Traffic Manager Loop began his express career as messenger in the Adams

Express Company’s service, and was particularly prominent in express

operations during the war. He was for many years auditor and cashier of

the western department of the Southern Express Company, and upon the

consolidation of the eastern and western departments was made general

auditor, succeeding from that position to his present office.

“Superintendent Hulbert began service as local agent at West Point,

Georgia, in 1858, and with the exception of four years, during which

time he was in the war, has been continuously in the service of the

Southern Express Company ever since.

“To give some idea of the magnitude of the Southern Express Company’s

business, it is only necessary to say that should their employees, with

their families and others dependent for their living upon services

rendered to this great enterprise, move to the State of Nevada, and the

present population of that State should leave it, Nevada would have a

much larger population than she has at present. In other words, the

officers and employees of the Southern Express Company who are in

Atlanta to-day represent a larger number of citizens of this country

than do the two United States Senators who represent the State of Nevada

in the upper House of Congress. Again, the amount of money invested in

horses, wagons, etc., is simply fabulous, while their stationery bill

for one year would make a man independently wealthy.

“The business of the company must necessarily be enormous to support and

justify such an expense. It consists of forwarding freight, money, and

valuables of all descriptions by the fastest passenger trains, in charge

of special messengers. As forwarders of money, bonds, and valuables,

they successfully compete with the government mail service. Absolute

safety is guaranteed in all transactions, and in case of damage to, or

loss of goods, the delay, almost inevitable in government red tape, is

avoided.

“THE HANDSOME EXHIBIT.

“The Southern Express Company’s office on the Exposition grounds makes

one of the handsomest exhibits to be seen. It is not, however,

altogether for show, but the express business in all its branches is

conducted just as it is in the Atlanta office. The pretty, tasty little

office is doing a thriving business, if one can judge from the crowds

which are constantly about it. Mr. M. W. Wooding is in charge of the

Exposition office, and yesterday happily sustained the reputation which

he has earned of being a most delightful host. Mr. Wooding is an old

Atlanta boy, and has been with the Southern Express Company for the past

twelve years.

“Among the well-known gentlemen who called yesterday at the express

office were: H. B. Plant, President, New York City, New York; M. J.

O’Brien, Vice-President and General Manager, New York City, New York; M.

F. Plant, Vice-President, New York City, New York; T. W. Leary,

Assistant General Manager, Chattanooga, Tennessee; C. L. Loop, Traffic

Manager, Chattanooga, Tennessee; G. H. Tilley, Secretary and Treasurer,

New York; F. J. Virgin, Auditor, Chattanooga, Tennessee;

Superintendents--H. Dempsey, Augusta, Georgia; C. T. Campbell,

Chattanooga, Tennessee; O. M. Sadler, Charlotte, North Carolina; H. C.

Fisher, Nashville, Tennessee; G. W. Agee, Memphis, Tennessee; W. J.

Crosswell, Wilmington, North Carolina; C. L. Myers, Jacksonville,

Florida; V. Spalding, Roanoke, Virginia; C. A. Pardue, New Orleans,

Louisiana; Assistant Superintendent Mark J. O’Brien, Chattanooga,

Tennessee; Route Agents--J. B. Hockaday, Greenville, South Carolina; K.

C. Barrett, Florence, South Carolina; S. R. Golibart, Suffolk, Virginia;

P. B. Wilkes, Monroe, North Carolina; J. Cronin, Waycross, Georgia; John

Lovette, Atlanta, Georgia; W. C. Agee, Memphis, Tennessee; Agents--F. L.

Cooper, Savannah, Georgia; W. A. Dewes, Chattanooga, Tennessee; W. M.

Shoemaker, Montgomery, Alabama; F. M. Folds, Messenger, Montgomery,

Alabama.

“It would not do to close this article without giving due meed of praise

to Daniel Davis, the urbane colored boy who, under the direction of Mr.

Wooding, dispensed ‘the hospitalities of the house’ in the most approved

and satisfactory manner.

“Were we to record herein the numerous telegrams and letters of

congratulation received by Mr. Plant from his many friends who were

unable personally to be present in Atlanta, we would have to publish a

second edition to retain a pamphlet form of this little volume. We must,

therefore, content ourselves with saying to one and all who so

thoughtfully remembered Mr. Plant on the occasion of his anniversary,

that their kindly sentiments were highly appreciated by him, and to each

and every one, through these columns, he returns his sincere thanks.

“To our newspaper friends, who so kindly espoused our cause, prior to,

at the time of, and since the festivities in Atlanta, and who are always

ready to deal kindly by us, we return our thanks. To them we would most

heartily accord the space necessary in which to reprint all of the nice

things they have said of us, but for the same reason as given in the

foregoing paragraph, we must abbreviate. However, we feel that it is not

just to them or to ourselves entirely to ignore all quotations from

their columns, and with their permission we give below, in so far as our

limited edition will permit, some of the many pleasant references made

by our journalistic friends.

“Among the many telegrams of congratulation received by Mr. H. B. Plant,

President of the Plant System, we give below two, together with copies

of Mr. Plant’s responses, which were omitted in our report of

proceedings in yesterday’s issue.

“‘MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA, Oct. 28, 1895.

“‘HENRY B. PLANT, Atlanta, Georgia:

“‘Montgomery Division, No. 98, Order of Railway Conductors, tenders

you its heartiest congratulations. It is the uniform hope of all

its members that you may live to see many more years of such

usefulness and happiness, and that your every wish may be realized.

“‘JOHN C. ELLIOTT,

“‘CHAS. J. READ,

“‘_Committee_.’

“‘ATLANTA, GEORGIA, Oct. 29, 1895.

“‘JNO. C. ELLIOTT and CHAS. J. READ, Committee,

No. 98, Order Railway Conductors, Montgomery,

Alabama:

“‘Of the many telegrams of congratulation I have received, none are

appreciated more than the one from you, as representatives of the

Order of Railway Conductors, and my best efforts in the future, as

in the past, will be to deserve the commendation of all members of

your order.

“‘H. B. PLANT.’

“‘TAMPA, FLORIDA, Oct. 27, 1895.

“‘H. B. PLANT, Atlanta, Georgia:

“‘Recognizing in you a friend of Tampa and of Florida, our city

congratulates you on this the anniversary of your birthday, and

indulges the hope that you may live to celebrate many others and to

reap the fruits of your labor and enterprise.

“‘F. A. SALOMONSON, Mayor.’

“‘ATLANTA, GEORGIA, Oct. 28, 1895.

“‘F. A. SALOMONSON, Mayor:

“‘I thank you personally, and through you the good people of Tampa

and Florida, for your hearty congratulations and well wishes. I

shall hope to celebrate many more anniversaries of my birthday, and

as each milestone is passed I trust we may all look back and see

that I have contributed in a measure to the interests of the good

people of your State and city.

“‘H. B. PLANT.’

“A REMARKABLE OVATION.

“President H. B. Plant, of the Plant System, was a happy man yesterday

when he looked into three thousand smiling faces at the Exposition

Auditorium and saw among them about one thousand five hundred of his

faithful employees, who were assembled to celebrate his seventy-sixth

birthday.

“It was a rare tribute to a great and a good man. Probably no railway

president in the world could have commanded such an ovation.

“Mr. Plant was overwhelmed with graceful attentions from his employees,

the Exposition directors, and our citizens generally. The day at the

Exposition was a celebration in his honor, and at night the directors

entertained him at a banquet.

“It goes without saying that this tribute is worth more to Mr. Plant

than presents of silver and gold. It will touch his heart as nothing

else could. That he may long hold his honored place among us is the

earnest wish of all who know him.

“MR. PLANT AND THE NEGROES.

“In addition to what has been said of Mr. Plant and his great System,

the negroes are grateful for what he has done for them. There are over

two thousand negroes employed by Mr. Plant. A great number of them have

accumulated homes, educated their children, and have nice bank accounts,

and they all love him. He has contributed liberally to churches,

school-houses, and other negro enterprises; in fact, he has built

several institutions of learning for negroes. A number of negroes hold

positions of trust, with good pay attached, as is not the case with any

other system the size of his in the United States.

“May the years of Mr. Plant’s usefulness in behalf of the South, colored

and white, be many more.”--Atlanta _Constitution_.

“HONORS TO MR. PLANT.

“Few men have done as much as Mr. H. B. Plant to develop the South, and

the _Journal_ joins heartily in the tributes which are being paid to him

to-day.

“He has reached the age of seventy-six with a record which any man might

envy, and we trust is good for many more years of usefulness. Mr. Plant

is the head of great corporations which have been of incalculable value

to the South. They have been so, not because they are rich and powerful,

but because, under his direction, they have been conducted on broad and

liberal lines. Mr. Plant’s policy has been to build up. His career

presents a splendid contrast to those of the railroad wreckers who have

enriched themselves at the expense of thousands of individual victims

and of great regions of the country.

“Mr. Plant has used his power nobly. He has made it beneficial to

multitudes of his fellow-citizens, and has contributed immensely to the

general development of the South. As the president of a great railroad

system, of steamship lines, and of the Southern Express Company, and the

Texas Express Company, Mr. Plant enjoys, not only the kind regards of a

host of employees, but the respect and admiration of the public as well.

The many evidences which he receives to-day of the good-will and esteem

of his fellow-men must be exceedingly gratifying to him, but we are

justified in saying that seldom have tributes been more richly

deserved. We extend to Mr. Plant our cordial congratulations on his

seventy-sixth birthday, and hope that we shall have the pleasure of

seeing his honored and useful career continued for many years to come.

“Mrs. H. B. Plant, the wife of the distinguished president of the Plant

System, is at the Aragon. She is a beautiful, cultured, travelled woman,

and as such receives everywhere the most flattering social attentions.

She will be the conspicuous social figure of this week, and several

brilliant affairs will be given in her honor. Mrs. Plant is one of the

New York Commissioners, and has proven her interest in Atlanta’s

Exposition in many satisfactory and assuring ways.”--Atlanta _Journal_.

“A splendid banquet was tendered by the Southern Express Company to its

superintendents, route agents, and agents attending the Cotton States

and International Exposition, last evening in the Kimball House.

“The occasion was a most happy one.

“The banquet was held in honor of Plant Day--Mr. Plant being president

of the Southern Express Company.

“Mr. T. W. Leary, the popular and genial assistant general manager of

the Southern Express Company, presided and acted as toast-master. In

this capacity he distinguished himself, and made some of the happiest

hits of the evening. The speeches were of the happiest character, and

befitted the occasion which they commemorated--the birthday of the

venerable president of the express company, who has done so much towards

the building up of this rich and powerful transportation company.

“Among those who spoke were the following:

“Mr. C. L. Loop, traffic manager of the Southern Express Company; Mr. H.

Dempsey, superintendent; Mr. H. O. Fisher, superintendent; Mr. G. W.

Agee, superintendent; Mr. V. E. McBee, general agent Seaboard Air Line;

Mr. J. L. McCollum, superintendent Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis

Railway; Mr. F. H. Richardson, editor Atlanta _Journal_; Mr. C. S.

Gadsden, superintendent of the Plant System.

“The entire occasion was marked by the greatest enthusiasm, and it will

be long remembered by those present. The following is a list of the

guests:

“J. S. B. Thompson, assistant general superintendent Southern Railway;

V. E. McBee, general agent Seaboard Air Line; W. R. Beauprie,

superintendent Southern Railway; J. L. McCollum, superintendent

Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis Railway; D. E. Maxwell, general

manager Florida Central and Peninsular Railway; L. M. Weathers, Memphis,

Tennessee; F. de C. Sullivan, E. M. Williams, George E. Carter, New

York; B. R. Swoope, Virginia; F. H. Richardson, Atlanta _Journal_, and

G. W. Haines, H. A. Ford, C. O. Parker, C. S. Gadsden, W. B. Denham,

Judge Brawley, of the Plant System; M. F. Echols, agent Southern Express

Company, Atlanta, Georgia; W. A. Dewees, agent Southern Express Company,

Chattanooga, Tennessee; F. L. Cooper, agent Southern Express Company,

Savannah, Georgia, and H. M. McCulloch, W. E. McGill, G. A. Wilkinson,

J. A. Cleary and F. M. Folds; C. L. Loop, traffic manager Southern

Express Company; H. Dempsey, superintendent; H. C. Fisher,

superintendent; C. T. Campbell, superintendent; O. M. Sadler,

superintendent; W. J. Crosswell, superintendent; G. W. Agee,

superintendent; C. L. Myers, superintendent; W. W. Hulbert,

superintendent; V. Spalding, superintendent; C. A. Pardue,

superintendent; J. C. Arnold, route agent; S. R. Golibart, route agent;

P. B. Wilkes, route agent; W. C. Agee, route agent; J. Cronin, route

agent; K. C. Barrett, route agent; John Lovette, route agent; H. E.

Williamson, route agent; J. B. Hockaday, route agent; W. M. Shoemaker,

agent Southern Express Company, Montgomery, Alabama.

“The Exposition was crowded to-day with the employees of the Plant

System and the friends of Mr. H. B. Plant, the president of that System,

for it was Plant Day.

“There is perhaps no more interesting figure in American business life

to-day than H. B. Plant, and his employees have for him that feeling of

love that is so rarely held by the employees of a great corporation for

its head. As an evidence of that love and kindly feeling the employees

gathered to-day to do him honor.”--Atlanta _Journal_.

“The _Chronicle_ publishes this morning an interesting sketch of Mr.

Henry B. Plant, by Mr. Clark Howell. The writer has a most excellent

subject for his theme, and he has handled it admirably. Than Mr. Henry

B. Plant there is not a better man to be found anywhere. Starting from

the plain people, unaided by the adventitious circumstances of birth or

wealth, he has, step by step, ascended the ladder of fame and fortune,

until he is now classed among the railroad magnates and the

multi-millionaires of the country. He has been the architect of his own

fortune, and he has done the work in the most artistic and substantial

manner. His work for Florida and the South cannot be exaggerated. He has

been one of the most potential factors in the upbuilding of this

section, and he is still full of hope and faith in the present and

future possibilities of the South. He knows thoroughly the advantages

which we possess, and he is enthusiastic for their full utilization. Mr.

Plant was for years a familiar figure in this community and a valued

citizen of Augusta.

“Speaking of Mr. Plant yesterday, one of our prominent citizens observed

that he had the remarkable gift of always selecting the right man for

the right place. He is a capital judge of human nature. His life has

been a most exemplary and laborious one. He is the personification of

kindness and courtesy in his intercourse with his fellow-citizens, and

his consideration for his employees is most marked.

“Monday was set apart by the Cotton States Exposition in honor of Mr.

Plant. This recognition of his services to the South is well deserved.

In his case it is an honor most worthily bestowed. At the age of

seventy-six, Mr. Plant possesses a sound mind in a sound body. Long may

he live to continue his good work for Florida and the South, and to

wield his influence for good among his fellow-men.”--Augusta

_Chronicle_.

“The employees of the Plant System, who went to the Cotton States and

International Exposition on the invitation of President Plant, returned

yesterday very much gratified with their visit. And Mr. Plant was very

greatly pleased to meet them at the Exposition. The occasion was the

celebration of Mr. Plant’s seventy-sixth birthday.

“Mr. Plant is still a very vigorous man. His mental faculties are as

bright and keen as they ever were. He looks back on a long life of great

activity and usefulness. He has built up a splendid monument to himself

in the Plant Railway and Steamship System. All his life he has been a

builder--never a wrecker. And the speech he delivered to his employees

on Monday shows that he has a just appreciation of the relations he

holds to the public.

“No man has contributed more to the building up of the South than Mr.

Plant. The country tributary to his lines of railroad presents an

appearance vastly different from what it did a quarter of a century ago.

There are thousands of comfortable homes now where there was then only a

wilderness. Plant Day was a feature of the Exposition, as the Plant

System is a feature of the South.”--Savannah _Morning News_.

“On this, the seventy-sixth anniversary of his birthday, we extend our

wishes to Mr. H. B. Plant, the head of the great system of railways

which bears his name. Long life and happiness to him.”--The _Bulletin_,

Savannah, Georgia.

“The ceremonies attending the anniversary of Mr. Plant’s birthday

yesterday in Atlanta were very imposing. There was a large crowd on

hand, and Mr. Plant responded in a very feeling and appropriate speech.

There was a feeling and eloquent address by Judge Falligant. One of the

gems of the occasion was the excellent letter of Capt. D. G.

Purse.”--Savannah _Press_.

“To-day is a great one in Atlanta. The Plant System celebration of the

birthday of its great founder is perhaps the most remarkable event of

its kind that ever occurred in this country. It marks the beginning of a

distinctive era in progress--when the men who are leaders in material

progress are recognized and honored as public benefactors. While Florida

is under vast obligations to statesmen of the past and present, to the

heroes of several wars, to the pioneers who redeemed its lands to the

plow and hoe--it is not too much to say that the present generation owes

fully as much to the group of men who, having acquired large means

elsewhere, are expending and investing them in developing the resources

and advertising the resources of the State. And it is not overstating

the case to say that to no one on this list belongs so much credit as to

Henry B. Plant. He was the first, as he is to-day the leader, to see the

good points of our soil and climate, and to bring them to the notice of

the world. To him, and to his unwavering attachment to Florida, is due,

to a preponderating extent, the surprising and persistent growth of the

State. No pretense is made that he has done it all, but he led the way

and set the pace, and it is a pleasure to the intelligent and

fair-minded people of Florida to hold him in high esteem, and to testify

to it. As long ago as 1853, Mr. Plant saw and appreciated Florida, and

from that day to this he has been its unflinching friend. He has been

the direct agency for the investment of many millions of dollars here,

and the indirect cause of its duplication by others. He deserves the

honors and compliments that are paid him, and more.”--Tampa _Times_.

“The birthday of Henry B. Plant, head of the Plant Railway System and of

the Southern Express Company, was yesterday celebrated in fine and

appropriate style at the Atlanta Exposition. It was Plant System Day.

Mr. Plant deserves such recognition. He has done much for the South, the

section of his adoption. He has brought a great deal of capital and

enterprise into the section, and built up important conveniences that

have proven highly profitable to the Southern country and people. No one

man has done more for the advancement of the South’s material

development. He was seventy-six yesterday, but looks twenty years

younger, in spite of the big load of care and the big amount of work he

has done in the last fifty years. Long may he live to enjoy the fruits

and honors of his good works.”--_Daily Times_, Chattanooga.

“The west coast of Florida, Alabama, and the portions of the country

around the Plant System in Georgia, sent thousands of people to the

Atlanta Exposition for the celebration of Plant System Day at the

Exposition. They have been coming on special trains since yesterday

morning. To-day Mr. H. B. Plant celebrated his seventy-sixth birthday,

and to-day is Plant System Day at the Exposition. Officials and

employees from all the railway, steamship, and express lines controlled

by Mr. Plant, and numbering nearly 5000 men, are here to celebrate the

day. The public exercises occurred in the Auditorium, and the Plant

System people were welcomed by Mayor King. Mr. Plant made a response to

the welcome.”--New Orleans _Times-Democrat_.

“The following invitation for last Monday the _Marine Journal_ regretted

very much not having been able to accept:

“‘The Cotton States and International Exposition, Atlanta, Ga., having

designated October 28, 1895, as Plant System Day, the officers and

employees of the system will meet there to commemorate the birthday of

their president, Mr. Henry B. Plant. You are invited to be present.’

“Advices from Atlanta since Monday announce that the event was a

brilliant success, as befitted such an occasion. Mr. Plant was weighed

down with congratulations, both personal, telegraphic, and by mail, and

presented himself in such an excellent state of health and enjoyment

that no one would have imagined he had so far passed the regulation

threescore years and ten as the day commemorated. Mr. Plant saw much

that must have deeply gratified him on the occasion, not only the result

of his own labor and enterprise, but in the encouraging presentation of

things that give evidence of such a restored measure of prosperity

throughout the South as only men like himself, who have worked so hard

to accomplish such a happy state of affairs, can thoroughly appreciate.

The recognition of the Plant System in such an auspicious manner by the

management of the Atlanta Exposition was a fitting testimonial to the

prominent part that the System is recognized to hold in conducing to the

well-being of the South, not only from a commercial point of view, but

from the excellent reputation among the best classes of people that must

necessarily attach to the places where the Plant hotels for winter

tourists are situated. Thus the day became a fitting compliment to the

true worth of the founder and president of the Plant System and an

additional ray in the glory with which his deeds crown him in the

fulness of his days. Long may he enjoy it.”--_Marine Journal_.

“To-day the anniversary of the birth of Mr. H. B. Plant, President of

the Plant System of Railroads and Steamships, the Southern Express

Company and the Plant Investment Company, is being celebrated by the

officers and attaches of these companies and friends of Mr. Plant at

Atlanta--principally by the Plant System men.

“H. B. Plant is a remarkable man, and though well advanced in years, he

is just as active in business to-day as he was a half-century ago.

Thousands of his employees to-day assemble to pay tribute to his worth

as a man; besides, thousands of acquaintances and admirers extend their

heartiest congratulations.

“No better place or time for such celebration could be had than at the

Atlanta Exposition, where is another, and the latest, monument to Mr.

Plant’s worth as a developer and as a man of enterprise and genius. The

building and the exhibits there of the Plant System are similar to his

good works all over the country, and every Floridian, South Carolinian,

Georgian, and Alabamian must feel proud of these representatives of the

products and enterprise of their States collected and displayed to such

an advantage by the great System that benefits the States.

“The best men in Florida acknowledge H. B. Plant as one of the State’s

truest friends, and willingly in heart, if not in person, join in doing

him honor on this, his seventy-sixth birthday, and all hope he may be

spared many more years to the grateful people.”--Jacksonville

_Metropolis_.

“The reception given to the venerable president of the great Plant

System of hotels in Florida on Monday, October 28, at Atlanta, was a

deserved recognition of the work he has done in developing Florida and,

indirectly, the whole South.”--New York _Hotel Register_.

“As a rule, men of large interests are charmingly simple and unaffected

in manner, and this is eminently true of H. B. Plant, President of the

famous Plant System Railway and Steamship Lines, a millionaire, and the

controlling power of three great hotels, the Tampa Bay, the Seminole at

Winter Park, and the Inn at Port Tampa, all in Florida.

“Mr. Plant resides in New York much of the time, in an elegant home, but

is also to be found a good deal in Florida, while he takes trips to

Jamaica and other places where he has business to transact.

“Personally, he is a delightful conversationalist, and remarkably young

for his years, which are not few. He is quite up to date in every way,

and never lets a business chance go by him. The magnitude of his orders

may be understood from the fact that he has recently given an order at

Newport News for the largest coastwise steamer ever built, 440 feet in

length, and having every comfort and modern arrangement for safety. He

is deeply interested in the Cotton States and International Exposition,

and has a building of his own at the grounds, with a comprehensive

exhibit.”--New Haven _Evening Register_.

“THE ATLANTA EXPOSITION.

“We hardly think the Northern Press has been as generous in its good

offices to the Southern Exposition as it might. We have just returned

from a visit to Atlanta, and were delighted with the beautiful landscape

order of the grounds, the large and elegant buildings, and, above all,

the wonderful exhibits they contained. The farm products will astonish

our Northern visitors. Canned fruits and garden produce are varied,

numerous, and luxuriant. The manufactures, especially of cotton, were

very fine, and their machinery equal to the best in the country--was so

pronounced by the Manufacturers’ Committee from the New England States.

The Art Building; is a model of artistic taste and elegance. The

Industrial Building, in which France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal,

and other nations are represented would require an entire day to

explore. The minerals, fossils, photo plates, gold and silver ores,

coal, salts, lime, and peculiar clays found in the Southern States, will

repay close inspection. I saw beautiful china made from a white clay

found in Florida only four months ago; also great blocks of salt as they

were taken from the mine, that needed only to be crushed to fit them for

immediate use.

“One of the things that has given a great uplift to the Cotton States

has been the improvement of its railroads. A quarter of a century ago

these were in a very depressed condition, crippled, bankrupt, and

unremunerative, and about this time, H. B. Plant, of New York,

interested Northern capitalists in them, bought, combined, reorganized,

and improved them in every way, adding steamboat lines to the West

Indies, and perfecting an express system unsurpassed in any part of the

country, for the whole South. This so increased travel to the South,

especially in the winter season, by health-seekers and pleasure-seekers,

that better hotel accommodations were demanded. These were soon

provided, at a large outlay, giving the South, especially Florida, the

finest hotels in the world. St. Augustine, Palm Beach, and Tampa Bay,

especially the latter, are unsurpassed for healthful, comfortable, and

luxuriant appointments. Hence, Plant Day was one of the great days of

the Exposition, when some two thousand of the more than twelve thousand

employees of the Plant System came to do honor to the man who had done

so much for the Southern section of our country. Receptions, addresses,

silver cup, compass, and flowers, and a grand banquet in the evening at

the Aragon Hotel, were cordially tendered to this benefactor of the

Cotton States. Labor and capital clasped hands in the most friendly

accord, and this problem of the age was here solved, where peace and

good-will abounded among these men. We saw the man of war, the admiral

of the fleet at Hampton Roads, pay his respects to this man of peace,

whose guest we were, and whose power for good has been so widely felt in

our land.”--AN EAST ORANGE DOMINIE, _East Orange Gazette_, East Orange,

New Jersey.

“EXPOSITION ECHOES.

“Mr. A. B. Wrenn, special agent of the Southern Pacific, who has been in

Atlanta for the past few days, returned to the city yesterday, and gives

a glowing account of the Exposition. He says that the number of people

who visited the great show on President’s Day was something over 78,000,

and that on Atlanta Day the number will be considerably more.

“‘One of the prettiest sights I saw while in Atlanta,’ said Mr. Wrenn,

‘was that of the thousands of the employees of the Plant System, when

Plant Day was celebrated. Mr. H. B. Plant, president and owner of the

Plant System of railroads, gave the thousands of his employees, who

could possibly get off duty, a free trip to the Fair, and on Plant Day

there were several thousands of them present. A grand reception was

given, and section bosses, freight agents, clerks, and even negro

laborers who worked on the sections, were given an opportunity of

shaking hands with Mr. Plant, who is now an elderly gentleman. Mr. Plant

made a speech and expressed his satisfaction at meeting so many of his

men, and the affair passed off most pleasantly.’

“Mr. Wrenn says that the Exposition is well worth seeing.”--_Daily

Picayune_, New Orleans, Louisiana.

“THE ATLANTA EXPOSITION.

“BY THE REV. GEORGE H. SMYTH, D.D.

“Coming so soon after the great Exposition at Chicago,--the greatest the

world has ever seen,--and considering the general depression of the

country, and the short time taken for preparation, the Exposition of the

Cotton States, at Atlanta, Georgia, is a marvel. The terraced ground,

selected and laid out with such beautiful landscape effect, the

architectural designs of the buildings, the artistic skill displayed in

locating them, together with the drives, walks, ponds, fountains, lawns,

and ornamentations of the whole Fair grounds, reflect great credit on

the committee of distinguished gentlemen who had the matter in charge,

and who spared neither pains nor expense to make the Exposition a great

success. Atlanta alone contributed $1,000,000 to the enterprise.

“Plant Day was the great day of the Fair thus far. It was set apart by

the Committee of Management in honor of Henry B. Plant, who has done so

much for the progress, prosperity, and welfare of the Southern States.

More than a quarter of a century has passed since he began his

patriotic, not to say philanthropic, work of uplifting a prostrate

section of our country. Up to this time the railroads of the Cotton

States were poor, crippled, and some of them bankrupt. In 1879, Mr.

Plant interested other capitalists in purchasing, reorganizing, and

improving the railroads of the South. He organized and perfected an

express system, steamboat system, railroad system--until now, the Plant

System, as it is called, embraces nearly two thousand miles of railway

lines and over twelve hundred miles of steamship lines. Of course, the

facilities for comfortable travel to and through the South brought the

health-seeker, the pleasure-seeker, investor, and permanent settler to

the South; and this influx of population continues with increasing

numbers each year. ‘To-day, the South is universally acknowledged to be

the most prosperous portion of the great Union, and that portion over

which the Plant System ramifies itself is known as the garden-spot. Mr.

H. B. Plant is the mainspring that moved the whole, and he is, in every

sense, a public benefactor.’ This is only the briefest intimation of the

reasons for Plant Day at the Exposition.

“Sunday, October 27th, was Mr. Plant’s seventy-sixth birthday. I had the

pleasure of being one of a party of friends that filled his private car

in going to the Exposition, and occupied one of the large and elegant

rooms of his suite at the Aragon Hotel, Atlanta. On the morning of that

day a few gentlemen--and they were gentlemen in every sense of the

term--representing the more than twelve thousand employees of the Plant

System, adroitly entertained their president in his own room, while the

others took possession of his parlor. When everything was in readiness,

Mr. Plant and his guests were invited into the parlor. He was most

cordially greeted and congratulated on the seventy-sixth return of his

birthday. Then written addresses, couched in choice language, were read

from the three different departments--railroad, express, and

steamboat--of the Plant System, followed by presentation of flowers, of

a silver compass, suggesting the straight and upright course of his

life, and a silver cup, large and massive,--a ‘loving-cup,’--‘filled,

Mr. Plant, with the esteem, affection, and best wishes of your

associates and employees, to whom you have been a benefactor and

friend.’ Mr. Plant’s response was beautiful, tender, and touching, as

kindly eyes looked through their tears at this grand old man whom they

esteemed as a father.

“Next day, the reception given Mr. Plant in the Auditorium, by the

employees of the Plant System, where addresses and resolutions of

appreciation, esteem, and gratitude for what he had done for the South,

were presented to him, was grand beyond description. In the evening of

the same day a banquet was tendered him at the Aragon Hotel by the

managers of the Exposition. Judges, lawyers, merchants, the mayor of

Atlanta, and a large company of distinguished gentlemen sat down to a

sumptuous repast. But it was ‘the feast of reason and the flow of

soul’--the eloquent and patriotic sentiments expressed in the

after-dinner speeches that gave this choice chapter of Plant Day its

chief significance and greatest charm. Never was Southern eloquence more

eloquent or tongues more fluent in giving forth the overflow of heart.

‘No North, no South, but one united, happy country--the land of the free

and the home of the brave.’

“When, near the close, we were most unexpectedly called on for a speech,

what could we say but express the pleasure experienced in all we had

seen and enjoyed this whole day. We had witnessed the solution of the

greatest problem of the age, a problem that many say will never be

solved, that will yet bring on universal revolution. We had to-day seen

labor and capital--employer and employed--clasp hands in mutual sympathy

and most friendly accord. We had seen, everywhere we travelled in the

South, the Plant System men vie with each other in doing honor to their

chief. His presence was the signal for willing hands and happy faces in

any service they could render him. Men felt better for his presence. The

Czar of all the Russias might well envy this modest, quiet, Connecticut

man, the connecting link between North and South, the harmonizer of

differences, and the promoter of peace and good-will among men; and

around whom cluster the respect and manly affection of 12,000 employees

and many more thousands of invalids who find lost health travelling in

the luxuriant cars and dwelling in the luxuriant hotels of the Plant

System. Mr. Plant was first led to Florida in 1854 in search of health

for his invalid wife, whose life he believes was prolonged many years by

her residence in the soft, balmy air of this State. Travel then was so

uncomfortable, and hotel accommodations so poor, that he began to think

what could be done to improve both. Verily, ‘There is a divinity that

shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may,’ and well is it when our own

sufferings lead us to discover means of alleviating those of our

fellow-men.”--_The Christian Intelligencer_, New York.

[Illustration: text decoration]

CHAPTER XVII.

Some Changes that have Taken Place in the Configuration of the

Globe--Islands Born and Buried--French Revolution--Napoleon’s

Influence on Europe--England’s Long Wars--Barbarous Treatment of

Prisoners--Slavery Abolished--English Profanity and

Intemperance--Temperance Movements--Duelling--Penny

Postage--Expansion of the Press--Canals, Erie and Suez--Railroads

in England and the United States--First Steamer to Cross the

Atlantic--First Steamship Line.

The changes that have taken place on the globe itself, and in its

inhabitants during the life of Mr. Plant, are varied, numerous, and

wonderful.

The configuration of the earth has altered to a degree incredible to any

but those observant of such changes. Winchell has tabulated some of

these undulatory movements that have taken place along the Atlantic

shore line of the American continent and elsewhere. “At St. Augustine,

in Florida, the stumps of cedar trees stand beneath the hard beach

shell-rock, immersed in water at the lowest tides. Some of the sounds

upon the coast of North Carolina, which have been navigable within the

memory of living sea-captains, are now impassable bars, or emerging

sand-flats. Along the coast of New Jersey the sea has encroached, within

sixty years, upon the sites of former habitations, and entire forests

have been prostrated by the inundation. In the harbor of Nantucket the

upright stumps of trees are found eight feet below the lowest tide, with

their roots still buried in their native soil.” Similar ruins of ancient

submarine forests occur on Martha’s Vineyard, and on the north side of

Cape Cod, and again at Portland. In the region of the Saint Croix River,

separating Maine from New Brunswick, the coast has been raised, carrying

deposits of recent shells and sea-weeds, in one instance, to the height

of twenty-eight feet above the present surface of the sea. The island of

Grand Manan, off the mouth of the Saint Croix River, is slowly rotating

on an axis, so that, while the south side is gradually dipping beneath

the waves, the north is lifted into high bluffs. Near the River St. John

is an area of twenty square miles containing marine shells and plants

recently elevated from the sea. One hundred and fifty miles east of this

place, the shore is experiencing a subsidence.

The north side of Nova Scotia is sinking, while the south is rising,

insomuch that breakers now appear off the southern coast in places

safely navigable in years gone by. The ancient city of Louisburg, on the

island of Cape Breton, is another testimony to the uneasy condition of

the land. This place was once the stronghold of France in America, and

one of the finest harbors in the world. It was well fortified and had a

population of twenty thousand souls within its walls.

It was destroyed during the French and Indian War, and the inhabitants

dispersed, but Nature had herself ordained its abandonment. The rock on

which the brave General Wolfe landed has nearly disappeared. The sea now

flows within the walls of the city, and sites once inhabited have become

the ocean’s bed. In 1822, the entire coast of Chili was elevated to a

height varying from two to seven feet, an area equal to that of New

England and New York, having been lifted up bodily. In 1831, an island,

since called Graham’s Island, sprang from the bed of the Mediterranean

between Sicily and the site of ancient Carthage. The island is now but a

sunken reef. Another island, as recently as 1866, rose from the bottom

of the Grecian Archipelago, before the very eyes of the American Consul,

Mr. Chanfield, bearing upon its slimy back fragments of wrecks that had

been sunken in the little harbor of Santorin.

“An island in the Missouri River, broken into fragments and washed away,

was the unusual spectacle witnessed by the people of Atchison, Kansas.

For years an island of 600 or 700 acres has been one of the attractions

of Atchison. It was as fertile as a garden, and was known all over the

West for the excellence of the celery, asparagus, sweet potatoes and

melons it produced. It had the appearance of a veritable oasis in a

desert, and its green shrubbery, generous shade trees, velvet lawns, and

cool spring, were a perpetual joy. Upon this island a shooting club had

a home, and the base-ball enthusiasts had their grounds, and grandstand.

Altogether, it was a most pleasant resort. In a single night this island

was dissolved into fragments.

“The big June rise in the Missouri River struck it, and to-day it is

only a reminiscence. What was Kansas’s loss, however, was Missouri’s

gain. With the obliteration of the island the current left the Missouri

shore and struck hard against the Kansas bluffs. The result of this is

that the Missouri banner has been planted a mile westward, and hundreds

of acres of rich bottom land have been added to its domain, while Kansas

mourns the loss of its green island and pleasant park.”

The wonderful changes going on in the configuration of England are

recorded in a well-known London paper (_Tit-Bits_) in the following

words:

“Is England disappearing? Readers may pucker up their lips and ejaculate

‘Absurd!’ but facts, nevertheless, remain and show pretty clearly that

England is positively disappearing, and may in years to come be marked

on the map as a vanished isle.

“On the coast the sea is encroaching upon the land at an astonishing

rate. Seaside towns and villages, holiday resorts, are gradually being

eaten up and the inhabitants driven inland. In many parts the sea runs

up on a beach which was once far inland. In other cases churches which

were at one time far from the sea now stand at the edge of cliffs and

have the sea lapping almost at their doors.

“The Goodwin sands, about five miles off the coast of Kent, were at one

time a portion of the mainland itself and the property of Earl Goodwin.

But the sea has swallowed them up.

“The coast of Norfolk is minus three villages which it once

possessed--Shipden, Eccles, and Wimpwell--all of which have been taken

into the arms of the encroaching ocean. The Cromer of to-day stands

miles inland of the original Cromer.

“Auburn and Harlburn, two Yorkshire villages, once promised to develop

into seaport towns of considerable importance; but, like the will of

Canute, the will of the inhabitants of these villages was ignored by the

rising sea, and Auburn and Harlburn now exist in mere names and

sand-banks.

“Dunwich, on the coast of Suffolk, is gradually being swallowed up.

Every now and then the inhabitants move a distance inland, rebuild their

houses and shops and wait patiently and philosophically for the next

“notice to quit” from the sea. Many other seaside places have suffered

or are suffering a similar fate.

“It may be argued, on the other hand, that some seaside towns are

gradually becoming inland towns by the failure of the sea to ‘come up to

the mark,’ and running out only to run in for a shorter distance.

Winchelsea, Sandwich, Rye, and Southport are all suffering in this way.

Winchelsea and Rye were originally two of our cinque ports, but the sea

has left them standing high and dry. Sandwich was once a highly

important seaport town. It now stands two or three miles inland.

“The sea is leaving Southport quite in the lurch--so much so indeed that

the inhabitants have had to sink extensive lakes down on the beach to

keep the sea from running off altogether and leaving merely an ordinary

inland town.

“But the extension of our island in this way is very much less than the

encroachment of the sea at other points, and while our land is certainly

becoming more extensive in one direction, it is contracting, and with

much greater rapidity, in some other. And the ultimate effect may be

that our mountain peaks may form small islands, and eventually be

pointed out by posterity as ‘the position in which Great Britain is

reputed to have stood.’”

The nineteenth has been the most remarkable century in the world’s

history. It was the most destructive and wasteful of life and property

in the early part of its career, and in the latter half has been the

most constructive and uplifting to the human race of any of the past

centuries. The population of all Europe at the beginning of the century

numbered one hundred and seventy millions, of whom four millions were

engaged in the murderous work of war. The demoralization of society and

the miseries inflicted on the people by these wars are beyond the power

of pen to describe. France had an absolute monarchy. “The King held in

his hands the unquestioned right to dispose, at his will, of the lives

and property of the people. He was the sole legislator. His own pleasure

was his only rule. He levied taxes, asking no consent of those who had

to pay. He sent to prison men with no crime laid to their charge, and

kept them there, without trial, till they died.” Political corruption

was rampant. For sixty years the court of Louis XV. had festered in the

most filthy debauchery. Then followed the bloody Revolution,

unparalleled in history. The guillotine, worn out with its butchery of

more than a million lives stood idle, and peace--rather, the lull of an

unfinished storm, for a time rested upon unhappy France. Then the

tumultuous hurricane burst out anew in the wars of Napoleon, which

terminated only at Waterloo in 1815.

“The influence which Napoleon exerted upon the course of human

affairs,” says McKenzie, “is without a parallel in history. Never before

had any man inflicted upon his fellows miseries so appalling; never

before did one man’s hand scatter seeds destined to produce a harvest of

change so vast and so beneficient. It was he who roused Italy from her

sleep of centuries and led her towards that free and united life which

she at length enjoys. It was he, who by destroying the innumerable petty

states of Germany, inspired the dream of unity which it has required

more than half a century to fulfil.” The progress made by these two

countries during the century, in liberty, education, and all that

conduces to the welfare of the individual and the strength of the

nation, has been great beyond precedent.

England has perhaps outstripped all other nations in the advancement she

has made during this period of the world’s greatest progress. Her long

and terrible wars with France and her allies had wasted her people and

depleted her treasury. Taxes were enormous, food was high, wages low,

and work scarce. The introduction of machinery in some departments

reduced hand-labor a hundred-fold. The power loom threw thousands of

people out of employment. England was badly governed. The laws were all

made in the interests of the rich. Multitudes of the poor were famine

stricken, one in eight being fed on charity, and many died of

starvation. Hunger maddens men, and hence crime abounded. Laws,

numerous and terrible, were enacted for its prevention and punishment.

Capital offences numbered two hundred and twenty-three. Some of the

offences were ridiculous trifles. If a man appeared disguised in public,

cut down young trees, shot rabbits, or stole property worth a dollar and

a quarter, he was at once hanged. The treatment of prisoners was most

barbarous. Young and old of both sexes were huddled together like

cattle. Vermin, filth, and starvation were the common lot of all. John

Howard and Elizabeth Fry inaugurated reforms in the interests of the

prisoners that have since engaged the thought and effort of the best men

and women of the nation.

War was carried on in the most cruel and brutal manner. Conscription and

the press gang forced men from their families, and from peaceful

occupation, and drove them to an unwilling military or naval, bloody

field-servitude. Five hundred lashes was no uncommon punishment for some

trifling offence. “The men who applied the torture were changed at short

intervals, lest the punishment should be at all mitigated by their

fatigue. The doctor stood by to say how much the victim could bear

without dying. When that point was reached, he was taken down and

carried to the hospital, to be brought back for the balance of his

punishment when his wounds were healed. There is record of a soldier

sentenced to one thousand lashes, seven hundred of which were actually

inflicted. In the Crimean war two thousand six hundred British soldiers

were killed, while eighteen thousand died in hospital of wounds and

disease.”

Scientific skill directed by generous-hearted Christian philanthropy has

now mitigated these horrors, reducing them almost to a minimum. The same

may be said of the brutality endured by women and little children

working in mines from twelve to sixteen hours a day.

Slavery, which was almost universal at the beginning of the century, has

been abolished. Forty millions in Russia, four millions in the United

States, and many more millions in other lands have been made free.

Nor has this freedom been confined to the chattel slave. The courts of

Europe were debauched beyond description. Even in England among the

higher classes, “the supreme crowning evidence that an entertainment had

been successful was not given till the guests dropped one by one from

their chairs, to slumber peacefully on the floor till the servants

removed them.”

The temperance movement belongs to our present century, and while it has

not yet accomplished all that could be desired, it has done much to

lessen some of the grossest evils of society, and is full of promise

for final triumph. The first temperance society was only eleven years

old when the subject of this biography was born. It was organized in

April, 1808, at Morean, Saratoga County, New York, with forty-three

members. The American Temperance Society was formed at Boston, February,

1826, and, in 1829, the New York State Temperance Society, which in less

than a year had one thousand local societies with a hundred thousand

members. Soon the movement extended to the Old World, and a society was

formed at New Ross, County Wexford, Ireland, and within a year sixty

other societies were formed in different parts of the country. The

Father Mathew crusade began in 1838, and it resulted in the enrollment

of one million eight hundred thousand men and women in the temperance

cause. The wave spread to Scotland, England, Wales, and the Continent.

The Washington movement, started at Baltimore in 1840, doubtless

advanced the cause of temperance in our country, half a million having

signed the pledge. The great progress made in this direction is seen not

so much in the number of temperance societies as in the fact that while

there is difference of opinion as to the moderate use of wines and

liquors, there is but one opinion among respectable people as to the

immoderate use, and any one indulging in orgies such as those to which

we have alluded would be excluded from all participation in decent

society. No man of standing in good society glories in the shame of

beastly intoxication; multitudes do not use liquor at all, and many

others use it only as a medicine or aid to health.

The duel was made a legal way of settling disputes between gentlemen,

and even, “Fox, Pitt, Castlereagh, Canning, O’Connell, and Wellington,

had all attempted the slaughter of a foe.”

Profanity was almost universal. “Erskine swore at the bar. Lord Thurlow

swore on the bench. The King swore incessantly. Ladies swore orally and

in their letters. The chaplain cursed the sailors, because it made them

listen more attentively to his admonition.” Obscene books were exposed

for sale by the side of bibles and prayer-books.

Education was limited in its range and extent, and only the more wealthy

could enjoy its benefits. In 1818, more than one half the children in

England were without school advantages. In manufacturing districts,

forty per cent. of the men and sixty-five per cent. of the women could

not write their own names.

Penny postage, first proposed by Rowland Hill in 1837, adopted by Act of

Parliament in 1839, and followed since then by every civilized country

in the world, has proved to be a great adjunct in the education of the

people.

The freedom and expansion of the press during this century have also

been a great power for the enlightenment of mankind. True, it has not

been an unmixed good, but let us hope the good has been, and will

continue to be in the ascendant.

Canals, before the days of railroads and steamships, did much for the

transportation of merchandise and intercommunication of the people. The

Erie Canal, 363 miles in length, commenced in 1817, and finished in

1825, is said to have been one of the first impulses given to New York

City in its ascendancy over every other city in the United States. On

account of its great cost many of the people were opposed to it; “but in

1866, it was ascertained that besides enlarging many of the principal

cities, and adding to the comfort and wealth of nearly all the people of

the State, it had returned into the public treasury $23,500,000 above

all its cost, including principle, interest, repairs, and

superintendence.”

In this same year, 1825, New York City was first lighted, partially

only, with gas.

The Suez Canal, opened in 1870, was used by only 486 vessels, with a

total net tonnage of 436,609, but its use was steadily increased, until

in 1891, it rose to 8,698,777. When the canal was opened, it had cost

$100,000,000, that is, $1,000,000 a mile, and since then $40,000,000

more have been expended in improvements. These are large amounts, but

the canal pays annually from $4,000,000 to $5,000,000 over the interest

of its bonded debt.

The introduction of railroads into England and the United States marks a

great era in the progress of these two nations, not to say that of the

whole world, though the event is of comparatively recent date, as the

following account taken from a recent issue of the New York _Tribune_

goes to show:

“The Chicago _Record_ says that Edward Entwistle who has lived in Des

Moines, Iowa, for forty years, ran the first passenger engine. He was

born at Tilsey’s Banks, Lancashire, England, in 1815, and was

apprenticed to the Duke of Bridgewater, who had large machine shops at

Manchester. The first railroad for general passenger and freight

business was completed in 1831, between Manchester and Liverpool, a

distance of thirty-one miles. The Rocket, the first locomotive or

passenger engine, was built under the direction and according to the

plans of George Stephenson, in the works where young Entwistle was

serving as an apprentice. Stephenson engaged Entwistle as his assistant

in the engine. The line being opened for general traffic, young

Entwistle was put in charge of the Rocket, and for two years made two

round trips every day between Liverpool and Manchester, one in the

forenoon and the other in the afternoon. He came to this country in

1837.”

When Mr. Plant was nine years old, there were only three miles of

railroad in the United States. They were completed in 1827. Now there

are 173,453 miles, and the speed of trains has been increased from ten

miles an hour to more than seventy miles. The sleeping-and parlor-cars

have made travel one of the great luxuries of this most luxuriant

century. The first ocean steamer that crossed the Atlantic was the

_Savannah_, which made the trip to Europe in the year 1819, the year Mr.

Plant was born, and in 1838, the first regular line of Atlantic steamers

was established.

[Illustration: text decoration]

[Illustration: text decoration] CHAPTER XVIII.

Railroads Established--Engineering Progress--Steel, Iron

Steamships--Horse Railroad--Kerosene Oil in Use 1830--Sewing

Machines--Agricultural Implements 1831-51--Sanitary

Progress--Philanthropic and Christian Progress--Higher

Education--Medical Progress--Humane Care of the Insane--Sailors’

and Seamen’s Home--World’s Fairs--Religious

Reciprocity--Arbitration--Numerous Inventions and

Discoveries--Concluding Remarks.

Engineering skill has greatly improved, and by its daring achievements

has added much to the progress of the world during the last forty years.

This is seen in the construction of railroads of vast dimensions, four

of which span our own continent, and stretch over vast prairies, deep

chasms, and great rivers, penetrating through the Rocky Mountains,

seemingly impassable as they rear their snow-capped peaks to the clouds.

The Mont Cenis Tunnel connecting the railways of France and Italy, on

the direct railway route from Paris to Turin, is a marvel of engineering

skill. It is seven miles, four and three fourths furlongs in length.

Fourteen years passed during its construction, and it cost about six

millions and a half of dollars. It was begun in 1857 and completed in

1871. The Saint Gothard Tunnel which runs through a section of the Alps

to Italy, six thousand feet below the top of these mountains, is another

great achievement of engineering daring. The work consumed ten years’

time, the labor of over three thousand men daily, and cost over eleven

millions of dollars. The Sutro tunnel, in our own Rocky Mountains, was

another grand feat of mechanical progress during the last half of the

century.

In 1830, the first steel pen was made and the first iron steamship was

built. One year before this, the first lucifer match was made; and nine

years afterwards, envelopes were first used. In 1826, the first

horse-railroad was built, and kerosene oil was first used for lighting

purposes. In 1846, Howe’s sewing-machine was given to the public, but it

took eight years’ hard work to convince the public that the new

invention was of any great value. Many other sewing-machines have since

come into use, but all are modifications of Howe’s. They have

revolutionized the whole “make up” of men’s and women’s wearing apparel,

not to mention horse harness, upholstering, and all departments of life

where fine stitching is called for. The delicate services of this

wonderful machine have increased certain industries a thousandfold,

though at first, like all other improved methods of work, it was

supposed to be the destroyer of these industries, and to bring untold

miseries upon all who lived by the needle. The manufacture of these

machines, sales, and repairs have employed tens of thousands of people,

and added millions to the wealth of a nation; to say nothing of the

comfort and betterment of the life of the people.

Agriculture has made great strides during the last half century by

reason of the increasing use of scientific methods. Rotation of crops

and artificial manures have preserved the land from exhaustion and

maintained it at a high power of production. Machinery also has added

largely to the facilities for its cultivation. Ploughing, sowing,

reaping, threshing, and other machines have made it possible for the

farmer of comparatively limited means to produce immense quantities of

food for man and beast, so that starvation in almost any part of the

globe can be averted by the over-production in other parts. In 1855, at

a great trial of threshing-, reaping-, and mowing-machines in France,

the American machines gained a complete victory. In 1862, the United

States Government established the Agricultural Department at Washington.

Agricultural societies and colleges, in many of the States, have greatly

advanced this most important department of the nation’s strength. It is

as true now as when the wise Solomon spoke it, “The profit of the earth

is for all: the king himself is served by the field.” A better knowledge

of agricultural chemistry has contributed much to the more profitable

uses of the soil. The sanitary conditions of living have greatly

improved, especially among the poor, during the last half-century.

Underground sewerage in cities, drainage of swampy grounds, removal of

the cesspool which often poisoned the well which supplied the family for

cooking and drinking, and the introduction of pure water in abundance,

cleaner streets, and better homes for the working-classes, have lessened

the death rate about one half. From McKenzie we learn that “In 1842, the

average length of life among the gentry and professional men of London,

was forty-four years: in the laboring-class it was twenty-two years.

Filth and bad ventilation cost England more lives annually than she had

lost by death in battle or by wounds during the bloodiest year of her

history. The annual waste of adult life from causes which ought to be

removed was estimated at from thirty to forty thousand.” Food is

abundant and of great variety in our favored land, and the canning

industry supplies the luscious fruits of summer at low prices throughout

the entire year.

One noteworthy feature of the progress of the last fifty years is that

it touches all classes; the workingman especially shares largely its

advantages. The general and rapid diffusion of knowledge, by means of

the greatly improved press, is one of the marvels of this most wonderful

age. The “Hoe” octuple press can print 96,000 copies of a newspaper per

hour, or 1600 every minute; the paper travels through the press at the

rate of 32½ miles an hour; is printed, pasted, cut, folded, counted, and

delivered in bundles of twenty-five, automatically. Three of these

presses would be able to print 748,000 eight-page sheets, equal to

forty-two tons per hour of printed matter.

Mr. Plant might stand on the roof of his office at Twenty-third Street

in New York City, and say, “How changed is this city since I first saw

it when a boy.” It had no horse-cars, no trolley-cars, no cable-cars, no

elevated roads, no large hotels, no buildings of more than three stories

in height, few stores more than twenty-five feet wide. It had no

telegraph, telephone, phonograph, or electric lights,--only oil

lamps,--no asphalt pavements. No steam-cars, no photograph galleries, no

sewing-machines or type-writers, or bicycles, or horseless carriages, or

public baths. No time-lock safes, stem-winding watches. No submarine

cables, or Bessemer steel, or great suspension bridges. In 1820, the

population of New York City was only 123,706; now it is over a million

and a half. In the same time he has seen the population of the country

grow from 9,628,131, (of whom 1,528,064 were slaves) to upwards of

70,000,000, and he has seen the inauguration of nineteen of the

twenty-five Presidents of the United States. The territory of the United

States has nearly doubled during his lifetime, and its accumulated

wealth can hardly be measured during the same period. The development of

our coal mines, iron mines, gold and silver mines, oil wells, natural

gas stored up in the bowels of the earth--these, too, have made giant

strides. The great railroad industries of the country, furnishing work

for hundreds of thousands; the increase and enlargement of our

manufactories, the great cities that have been built, some of them

burned and rebuilt, as was the case with Boston, Portland, and Chicago;

all these have added to the enormous wealth of the nation. In 1831, a

dozen families around Fort Dearborn formed the nucleus of the present

city of Chicago. Minneapolis this summer removed its first house, built

in 1849, to a more convenient place, to be kept as an heirloom of that

city of phenomenal growth. With the increase of wealth, large fortunes

have been accumulated and have enabled their earners and owners to build

the large railroads which have done so much for the development and

progress of the country; to lay ocean cables, and work large mines,

providing work and wages for millions of men.

The humane and philanthropic progress of this period is seen in the

reforms instituted in prisons. Up to the present century punishment for

crime seems to have been the leading idea of prison management.

Instruction in the common-school elementary branches of education was

introduced with encouraging results. Then libraries were established,

and moral and religious instruction tended greatly to the reformation of

the criminal. Wholesome rules and regulations were adopted. Various

kinds of work, adapted to the prisoners’ intelligence and strength, were

given. Rewards were apportioned for good behavior, which shortened the

period of confinement. Better classification was made of the inmates,

and generally just and kind treatment was instituted. All this had an

uplifting influence on the crushed and degraded men, and turned many

from being the enemies of society to be its friends, and to appreciate

the efforts made for their recovery from lives of vice. Reformatories

for youthful offenders caused their separation from old and hardened

criminals, and caused many of them to become useful members of society.

The first of these was “The House of Refuge” on Randal’s Island, in New

York City.

The “Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,” established by

Henry Bergh in New York, proved to be the seed from which germinated

hundreds of other similar societies throughout our country. Later, the

“Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children” has saved many an

unprotected child from inhuman treatment, often received from its own

parents. It is by far the best age of the world for children. Many

millions of dollars are invested in the manufacture of toys and in

preparation of books, papers, and magazines especially devoted to the

interests of children. Life-saving stations along the coast of dangerous

seas have rescued thousands of lives from a watery grave, and saved many

millions worth of property. Travel by sea and land has become one of the

greatest luxuries and means of education in this most enlightened

century. The circumnavigation of the globe is no longer the daring feat

of the skilled mariner. The human race is coming closer together, and is

massing into cities. Clubs are being formed for the discussion of

literary, scientific, æsthetic, historic, political, dramatic, musical,

and social topics, and admit to their membership young and old of both

sexes.