The Life of Henry Bradley Plant / Founder and President of the Plant System of Railroads and Steamships and Also of the Southern Express Company

by G. Hutchinson Smyth

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.

It is also an age of conventions,—scientific, political, and religious. Christianity is exerting a mighty influence in various forms. Throughout the world this is shown by the multitudes it has lifted out of barbarism in India, China, Japan, Australia, Africa, and made them law-abiding, peace-loving, and self-governing Christian peoples. Cannibalism and human sacrifice have now disappeared from the earth, with many other practices too horrible to name. For the care of the poor and unfortunate, New York City alone spends annually more than $6,000,000. It has homes for the aged, for orphans and for half-orphaned children, also for crippled, and the deformed. Poor women about to become mothers may go to a suitable institute where medical attendance and trained nursing are furnished free, or they may have both free in their own homes. The advance in the higher education, as well as great improvement in our common-school system, is a marked feature of our times. Most of our colleges have greatly raised the course of study, and several have become fully equipped universities, while other new universities have been added to the number; one in Chicago, two in Washington City, one in California, and one in Baltimore. Probably the most marked feature in the education of our time is the throwing open the doors of so many colleges and universities to women. These have flocked thither to take equal stand with the men, who have had a monopoly of these privileges since colleges and universities were founded: and they have entered the learned professions of medicine, law, and divinity, professions once thought to be forever barred against their sex. Co-education, the higher education of women, and their aspiration to lead a professional life, fifty years ago would have been considered the dream of fanatics only. Some even now doubt the wisdom of the movement, but, good or bad, it is here to stay, and will advance with ever increasing velocity.

There are homes for incurables where their hopeless condition receives such treatment as not unfrequently returns them to their homes restored to a measure of health. The blind, deaf, and dumb are kindly cared for, educated, and made useful members of society. That class once considered hopeless, women fallen from virtue, are sought out, cared for, and restored frequently to society, and often become rescuers of their own sex from like degredation. Discharged criminals are looked after and provided with temporary homes, and work is sought out for them. The children of the street are taken up, taught, and placed in homes in the West, away from the city temptations that were destroying them. For young men, and now for young women, coming from the country to our large cities, the Christian Associations find safe lodgings, work, schools, and churches, and throw around them every safeguard. The reading-room, gymnasium, lecture course, evening classes, and devotional meetings are all intellectual and moral forces in character building, and in preparation for the great work of life.

The higher education of medical science has made rapid progress during the last century, and especially during the last half of it. Health boards have done much in the way of sanitation to prevent disease and protect communities against epidemics and virulent plagues that have scourged the world for centuries. The use of anæsthetics has saved an incalculable amount of agony, and has greatly aided physicians in improved methods of surgery. Operations are now performed, with almost universal success, which would not have been thought of fifty years ago. Improved medical apparatus and instruments for examining the body have proved of great value in the treatment of bronchial and internal affections. The Roentgen Ray, which can bring to light the whole inside of a man, is the latest and greatest discovery of the period under consideration. The discovery of disease-producing germs or microbes is worthy of mention in this connection. Pasteur’s cure for hydrophobia has lessened the dread of one of the most terrible maladies that has afflicted the human family.

It might be supposed that humane treatment of those most unfortunate beings who have been deprived of their reason would be found even in the least civilized period of the world’s history, but alas! the opposite has been true. Until within a comparatively recent date it was customary to confine these poor creatures in jail, along with the vilest criminals, a custom still prevailing in some places. “In 1826, a young clergyman, rendered insane by overwork, was found in the Bridewell Prison of New York, herded with ruffians and murderers. At that time there was in the prisons of Massachusetts thirty lunatics. One had been in his cell nine years, had a wreath of rags around his body, and another around his neck. This was all his clothing. He had no bed, chair, or bench; a heap of filthy straw like the nest of a swine was in the corner. He had built a bird’s-nest of mud in the iron grate of his den.” Many were chained, kept in cages, “whipped, scourged, ironed, shut in close cells, and left for years in filth, naked, hungry, exposed to bitter cold, frozen,” had lost toes or feet, and suffered torture until death ended their misery. All this is happily changed, and medical skill and intelligent, humane care, have taken its place, with some exceptions perhaps. Sailors were once the legitimate prey of the worst class of men and women the world ever produced, when they landed in large cities, often after most tempestuous voyages, and dangers most terrible to contemplate. In so-called sailor’s boarding houses they were drugged, robbed, stripped naked, and thrown out on the street at midnight to groan and suffer and die.

Seamen’s Friends Societies and Sailors’ Homes, with hospitals, libraries, Christian ministry of godly men, and kindly care for the sick, disabled, or aged sailor until he enters the haven of eternal rest, is now in all Christian countries the provision made for this brave man to whom the world owes so much. Similar provision is made for the old or disabled soldier who has fought his country’s battles. The “Soldier’s Home” is one of the institutions for which America has reason to be proud.

The World’s Fairs, first organized by Prince Albert in London in the year 1851 and continued in different countries until the present time, the last and greatest of them all held at Chicago in the United States in 1893, have done much to stimulate progress in every department of life, and to strengthen the spirit of friendly reciprocity that should bind the human family closer together in mutual helpfulness and good-will. The international congress of all religions held at the Chicago Fair, the first and only congress of the kind ever held, was in the line of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man.

The bitterness of the sectarian spirit among all Christian denominations is happily passing away, and a desire for closer relations, even for a union of all peoples of the Christian faiths, is fast taking its place. The Roman Catholic Church through its head, Leo XIII., and the Episcopal Church through its Bishops have both expressed their desire for the union of all Christian peoples. Arbitration for the settlement of disputes between labor and capital, and even between nations, is advancing towards a blessed consummation, and the day cannot be far distant when peace and good-will among men shall become universal, and Jesus of Nazareth shall reign, Prince of Peace and King of Nations through the whole world. Who knows but that the six hundred and one thousand miles of telegraph in the United States and the one hundred and sixty thousand miles of submarine telegraph in the world, shall soon flash the news round the globe, “The Lord is come.”

The following item taken by permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons from The Last Quarter of the Century, by Andrews, is significant in this connection:

“During the great Electrical Exposition in New York City, May, 1896, a message was transmitted round the world and back in fifty-five minutes. It was dictated by Hon. Chauncey Depew, and read—‘God creates, Nature treasures, Science utilizes electrical power for the grandeur of nations and the peace of the world.’ Starting at eight thirty-five these words sped over the land lines to San Francisco, thence back to Canso, Nova Scotia, where they plunged under the sea to London. A click of the key four minutes later announced the completion of this part of the journey.

“Cannon were fired in honor of the achievement, while the throng on the floor of the Exhibition Building cheered.

“Meantime, the general manager of the Western Union Company had despatched the same message over his lines to Los Angeles, Galveston, City of Mexico, Valparaiso, Buenos Ayres, Pernambuco, across the Atlantic to Lisbon, and back to New York by way of London, a journey of ten thousand miles, in eleven and one half minutes.

“At nine twenty-five, just fifty minutes from the start, the receiving instrument clicked and Mr. Edison, for the nonce again a simple telegraph operator as of yore, copied from it the Depew message.

“It had travelled from London to Lisbon, thence to Suez, Aden, Bombay, Madras, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Nagasaki, and Tokio, returning by the same route to New York, having traversed a distance of 27,500 miles.”

We have thus tabulated, in the briefest manner, a few of the advances made in various departments of life during the period covered by this biography: and we have done so because Mr. Plant loves to recount the progress of the human family. He has kept in touch with it all, enjoyed it all, and has himself contributed no small share to its furtherance. It enhances one’s estimate of the marvellous progress of the age in which we are living when we think how much has been accomplished in the comparatively brief period of one life. It gives ground for believing, too, that the next decade will surpass any that has preceded it, and that the twentieth century will outstrip the nineteenth as far as the nineteenth has outstripped any of its predecessors. It inspires the wish, also, that the subject of this biography may live to enjoy much of the world’s era of peace and progress in science, art, industry, philanthropy, and Christian alleviation and uplifting power. May this very imperfect history of a very instructive life prove helpful to those taking their place in the onward march of the race towards its great and final destiny.

The wish expressed above for the continued health and life of the subject of this biography was written one year ago, and what follows affords strong hope of its realization.

The winter after the Atlanta Exposition found Mr. Plant with signs of failing health, somewhat alleviated by his sojourn in the South; but on his arrival in New York in the spring of 1896, he was taken violently ill and was constantly under the doctor’s care for four or five months. The next winter he passed in the South, resulting in marked evidences of improved health. The next spring, however, another malady developed, greatly impairing health and threatening life for several weeks. Early in the spring he had so far recovered that he went by rail to San Francisco, in his own private car, thence by ocean to Japan and China, and, returning to Japan, spent a large part of the summer there, from whence he sailed for San Francisco and returned to New York early in November, nearly all evidences of past diseases having disappeared, and he has passed his seventy-eight birthday in apparently good health.

It is needless to say that honors, courtesies, and kindnesses were liberally tendered him throughout his whole trip in the East, which he enjoyed to the full.

The following incident is one among many that occurred to Mr. Plant during his very interesting tour in the land of the Rising Sun, and shows how promptly he improved every opportunity that came in his way, not only for learning all about the customs, manners, and ways of the Japanese, but of recalling old acquaintances, and renewing old friendships of his early boyhood in his native State, and town of Branford. On his return voyage via the Hawaiian Islands, the steamer stopped for a few hours at Honolulu. Mr. Plant at once set out to find a Branford lady who had long been a resident in these islands. Soon his search was rewarded by finding Mrs. Mary Parker, widow of a missionary of that name, and now in the ninety-fourth year of her age. Mr. Plant was present at the marriage of this good lady in Branford, Connecticut, when only a boy of seven, and doubtless some of the happy boyhood emotions of that occasion came back to him when he clasped the hand of this aged woman so far away from their native Branford.

HENRY B. PLANT IN WAR AND IN PEACE.

Few men are more blessed with a peaceful disposition and an inborn dislike of the antagonisms that arise so frequently between men and nations than is the subject of this sketch. Nor has it fallen to the lot of many to take such an important part in the two greatest wars of our country. In the former chapters of this biography we have spoken of the valuable services rendered to both sides of the contestants in our Civil War by the Plant System, then only in its embryo state of development. At the banquet given to Mr. Plant at the Atlanta Exposition we heard, from some of the representative men of the South, patriotic speeches full of native eloquence, that thrilled us in every fibre of our being. “Mr. Plant,” said one of the distinguished speakers, “you have done more to bring the North and South together than any other man living.” Mr. Plant has been privileged to have a large part in the present conflict that has completely cemented the whole nation as never before. This is by no means the smallest benefit that has come to our country out of this great conflict, for it is as true now as when it was uttered by one of the greatest American statesmen, “United we stand, divided we fall.” The following description of the facilities afforded for shipment at Port Tampa is from the pen of one who is well acquainted with every foot of land and water about which he writes.

“The war with Spain directed attention more to Port Tampa than any one place in the United States. This was for the reason that the largest military expedition that ever left the shores of the United States was loaded and sailed from the docks there. The work was done in a very short time, considering the lack of experience of the government officials in charge.

“So much has been said and written about the loading of General Shafter’s expedition, with its fleet of thirty-six steamships, that the public will appreciate some detailed information about the immense facilities which are found ready for use at Port Tampa. This was through the foresight and business sagacity of the head of the Plant System, for he built largely for the great business that must pass through that port at no distant day.

“The railroad yards of over thirty-six miles of track, at Port Tampa, Port Tampa City, and Tampa, belong to the Plant System, and have a capacity of over two thousand cars, leaving working room for all the business that this number of cars would bring to the place. The tracks are perfectly arranged, and experienced railroad men say that no railroad yard in the South will compare with this for conveniences in handling a big business. The business is in the hands of railroad men of experience, and no delays were traceable to them. Between Tampa and Port Tampa is a stretch of nine miles. To illustrate the perfect system employed in handling the business, it is only necessary to say that from six o’clock in the morning until 11:40 at night, twenty-six passenger trains passed over this nine miles every day. Besides this, the freight trains numbered more than this, comprising the various sections of regular trains and the large number of troop and supply-trains for the movement. There was no delay and not an accident.

“Of the facilities at the docks, as much can be said. It is the only port in the country where vessels drawing twenty-four feet of water can come alongside and load in such numbers. There is room for twenty-four vessels of that draught, three hundred and twenty feet long, to lie end for end, and receive cargoes at the same time. These steamers are all loaded from the railroad tracks, just twenty feet removed from the edge of the pier, and nothing stands in the way of the quick work. Vessels of less length make it possible to increase the number, and at one time there were thirteen vessels loading end to end at one side of the pier. According to this calculation, thirty-two vessels could be accommodated. At these docks are to be found berths for phosphate vessels where their cargoes are loaded from electric elevators, which are the latest improved. Just across the slip is the government coal dock, and here are electric elevators for handling this business. A large amount of coal is now stored in these docks for the government.

“It was not necessary to provide any of these facilities for the especial purpose of handling the government war business. They were all there and in use before the war, and the government used them in sending off this fleet of thirty-six vessels, under convoy of a large number of war vessels. It was one of the most imposing sights of the age to see this great fleet steaming down the bay; flags flying and bands playing, and sixteen thousand American soldiers cheering as they felt the vessels move over the waters of Tampa Bay, all bound for a victorious campaign against the enemy.

“The Plant System has done well its part in the great modern war, and is equally well prepared to do its part in carrying on the great commerce between the United States, Cuba, the West India Islands, and all of the South American countries.”

The Marine Journal of New York of July 9, 1898, has the following editorial:

“Port Tampa—Phœnix-like Rose and Met the Occasion—Over Thirty Troop Ships Loaded and Departed from its Piers—The Largest War Fleet ever Sent from One Port at One Time in the Nation’s History—The Port’s Immense Facilities.

“It would take the entire reading space of the Marine Journal to describe the great amount of work done at Port Tampa, Fla., in getting Gen. Shafter’s army afloat, and the exhaustive facilities that were found by the government to exist there available for this purpose; in fact, only those who have visited the West coast of Florida within ten years past have any idea of the extensive improvements that have been made at Port Tampa by the Plant System with a view to bringing the commerce of the United States within close communication with the Island of Cuba, Jamaica, and other nearby Gulf ports. Millions of dollars have been expended by Henry B. Plant and associates under the supervision of the best known experts in railroad and harbor improvements that could be obtained for this object, and the work was near completion when war was declared with Spain, and the Island of Cuba became the base of hostilities.

“Fortunately the government was well informed as to the superior facilities already in operation at Port Tampa, and the Quartermaster’s Department of the Army was not slow in recommending this place for the mobilization of troops and their preparation and embarkation to Cuba therefrom. The vexatious delays caused by inexperience in handling such a large body of men and munitions of war, reports of spook Spanish fleets, etc., are more or less familiar to our readers, as well as the detail of the fitting out and embarking of over 12,000 troops and their supplies which were loaded on board over thirty transports at Port Tampa in a very short space of time. The wharf facilities at some times accommodated as many as thirteen of these troop ships strung along end on.

“Let the Marine Journal readers imagine for a moment that the Florida terminus of the Plant System of railroads at Port Tampa extends out into the harbor nearly a mile on two solidly built piers of sheet piling, earth, and rocks between which is a canal or basin with twenty-five feet depth of water its entire length, where a fleet of ships can lie and load or unload from or into cars night and day. The south pier is seventy feet wide, and has three tracks laid upon it, twenty feet of this width is set apart for working cargo from car to ship, and vice versa, also a promenade its entire length, midway of which is the famous “Inn,” built out over the water, where passengers in transit to Cuba and Key West, as well as tourists, can enjoy a cool, delightful rest after a trip by sea or land. One can hardly imagine the amount of transportation facilities afforded at this immense terminus, with its mile in length railroad-yard, and Port Tampa is but twenty-four hours sail from Havana by steamers of fair average speed. The Olivette, of the Plant Line, has frequently made the trip in nineteen and a half hours.

“There is twenty feet of water on the shoalest part of the bar at the entrance of the (thirty feet) harbor of Port Tampa, and a very small expense in dredging, which is now being arranged for, will enable vessels to enter drawing twenty-five feet. Outside of the harbor, in Tampa Bay, is a roadstead where the entire naval and transport fleet of the United States could ride safely at anchor in the fiercest hurricane, thereby adding another valuable argument for Port Tampa as a naval as well as an army base.

“It is a well-known fact to mariners who are familiar with West Indian and Gulf navigation, that after July 15th, it is necessary to keep an eye to windward for hurricanes up to the middle of September; then more or less heavy weather occurs until the middle of March. And here comes in another great advantage in favor of Port Tampa as against all other ports in the United States as regards safety from the elements. With the present able weather bureau, and its complete arrangements for signaling the conditions of the weather from all important points, there is not the slightest danger of encountering a hurricane between Port Tampa and Cuba. The weather reports available make it not only easy to avoid them through reliable information of their coming, but enables the mariner to prepare for them in the harbor of Port Tampa or Key West if there isn’t time to reach Cuba. If the government is wise it will ship no more troops to Cuba or Porto Rico this season from north or south of Hatteras, as there is no need of subjecting them to the risk of hurricanes. Our soldier boys should have as short and comfortable a sea voyage as possible, and that is only obtainable in first-class shape from Port Tampa, following down the west coast of Florida, always under the lee of the land in case of an eastern gale or hurricane.”

The caution contained in the above against storms, and the desire for a safe and comfortable passage for our soldier boys, will find a tender response in many hearts for him who facilitated the embarkation of the brave men going from their native land to fight a foreign foe.

TESTIMONIAL ACCOMPANYING A SILVER SERVICE PRESENTED BY THE OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES OF THE SOUTHERN EXPRESS COMPANY TO MR. AND MRS. H. B. PLANT ON THE CELEBRATION OF THEIR TWENTY-FIFTH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY.

“New York, July 2d, 1898.

“To Mr. and Mrs. H. B. Plant.

“The following officers and employees of the Southern Express Company ask that you accept this ‘SERVICE’ as an evidence of the affectionate regard in which they hold their honored President and his Wife.

“It has appeared to them that upon a day commemorative of the ceremony which twenty-five years ago united in affection your lives, they should give some enduring expression of the esteem in which they hold you both.

“They gratefully recognize the wise direction, the patient forbearance and the friendly counsel of their President, which has done so much to guide and aid them, in their respective spheres of duty, and they are equally sensible of the fact that under advancing years, and multiplicity of duties, only the ceaseless care and affectionate heed of a devoted Wife has made this possible.

“They beg that you accept the testimonial in the spirit which has prompted it, and with the assurance that to your ‘wedded love’ is indissolubly linked their respect, admiration and affection.

“H. Dempsey, J. Cronin, N. S. Woodward, W. J. Crosswell, C. A. Pardue, Mark J. O’Brien, W. A. Dewees, W. W. Allen, F. G. du Bignon, W. A. Blankenship, A. M. Richardson, H. E. Williamson, L. H. Black, J. L. S. Albright, L. Spaulding, A. Montgomery, J. B. Hockaday, G. C. Crom, F. de C. Sullivan, W. Buckner, W. E. McGill, G. A. Wilkinson, S. C. Hargis, G. W. Bacot, G. Sadler, C. C. Wolfe, P. B. Wilkes, W. J. Brown, F. R. Osborne, O. M. Sadler, C. T. Campbell, V. Spalding, H. C. Fisher, M. F. Plant, F. J. Virgin, C. Pink, C. L. Loop, W. C. Agee, F. Q. Brown, J. C. Stuart, L. Minor, R. B. Smith, W. B. Menzies, John Lovette, E. J. Loughman, J. T. James, W. H. Hendee, S. R. Golibart, E. M. Williams, J. C. Barry, W. R. Twyman, E. C. Spence, L. Kuder, C. R. Smith, J. B. Gartrell, M. Culliny, A. Welsh, G. W. Agee, C. L. Myers, W. K. Haile, W. A. Mehegan, R. G. Erwin, C. H. Albright, W. M. Shoemaker, H. C. Mendenhall, G. H. Tilley, A. McD. Mullings, J. W. Gaines, T. W. Leary, C. G. McCormick, W. W. Hulbert, K. C. Barrett, M. F. Loughman, E. F. Gary, J. J. Crosswell, E. J. Michelin, T. T. Weltch, Thomas Grier, R. A. Buckner, H. M. Smith, M. J. O’Brien, W. S. McFarland, E. G. Williams.”

MR. AND MRS. PLANT’S ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF TESTIMONIAL
AND SERVICE.

“New York, July 2nd, 1898.

“Esteemed Friends and Associates:

“Twenty-five years ago, this second day of July, was a very happy one for us, and, to-day, on our Silver Anniversary, we are most pleasantly reminded of the occasion by the unexpected receipt of a handsome token indicative of the affection in which we are held by those who, during the last quarter of a century, have surrounded us as friends as well as business associates.

“The sentiments embodied in the testimonial accompanying the very beautiful ‘Service’ are highly appreciated and accepted by us as an evidence of the sincere feelings prompting your thoughtful recollection of this memorable mile-stone in our lives.

“In returning our deep gratitude for your remembrance and kind expressions, we indulge the hope that we will have many years together to enjoy the gift which your generosity has provided, and that while life lasts we may have the friendship of those whose acts in the past and present have brought them so near to us.

“Very sincerely,
“Henry B. Plant,
“Margaret J. Plant.”