“In recent years he has made his home in New York City, spending each summer in Branford, Connecticut. He is a member of the Union League Club and of the New England Society of New York, a man of commanding appearance, genial of nature, dignified and courteous of manner, and as modest as he is competent.
“Such a man needs no eulogy. His works speak for him. Such a people as those of the South need no incentive to recognize worth wherever they see it. Mr. Plant will be royally received to-morrow, and in the closing years of his life he may well rest satisfied that a people for whom he has done so much will not easily forget it, and that his name will be remembered as one of the men who have served their time and generation, and who deserve the laurel wreath of immortality.
“Forty-one years of his eventful life have been spent in the South; and his great fortune has been made in the South. How many important volumes of history are crowded into those forty-one years! Within that period this man of affairs has seen four million slaves emancipated; he has witnessed the greatest war of modern times; he has practically witnessed the birth of those twin powers—steam and electricity—whose combined forces have created new conditions of life; he has been an eye-witness to the tearing down and the upbuilding of States and the adjustment of the American people to a new environment. And yet, amid all this kaleidoscopic change, this quiet business man has gone on adding to his fortune in peace and in panic, in storm and in sunshine, and his potential force in Southern development will be fittingly recognized and crowned to-morrow, in a day set apart among the great days of the Exposition in his honor.
“What superb judgment and business sagacity make up the background of this picture! Mr. Plant has never sought or held office. His name is not on the roster of military heroes, nor is it emblazoned on the roll of those who have won renown in the evolution of statecraft. But in that great battle of rebuilding States and industrial life in the South he stands to-day pre-eminent. Behind him, and loyally supporting him, is a busy industrial army of 12,639 men, and, counting their families, an army of 60,000 people.
“The lessons of Mr. Plant’s life are simple and should be an inspiration to young men throughout America. He has avoided politics and speculation; he has never bought nor built a railroad to sell; he has never wrecked a property in order to purchase it. He lives, and his companies live, within their income. He is scrupulously exact in keeping his engagements, and always acts within the limits of that truth, which he often quotes, ‘It is easier to promise than it is to perform.’
“The lesson of his life, which the occasion justifies in emphasizing, is this: Faith in the South and her possibilities is the basis of his great fortune. When others have faltered he has gone on investing the earnings of his properties in the South. In his loyal friendship to the South, and his unwavering faith in her greatness and her coming glory, he has proven his faith by his work.
“Mr. Plant is one of those remarkable men who master all conditions and create environment. He is a builder—a creator. A whole State blossoms at the touch of his magic wand. Thousands and tens of thousands bless him that he uses and does not bury his talents. Long may he live—an example to all young men, an inspiration to investors, a true, a loyal, and a royal friend of the South.”
Surrounded by many of his friends and associates, who had assembled to pay their respects, Mr. Plant’s anniversary was most auspiciously ushered in by the foregoing remarks of a representative of the Atlanta people. But it yet needed the remembrance of the officers and employees of the Plant System of Railway and Steamship Lines and of the Southern Express Company to testify the admiration and esteem in which he was held by the men who served under him. This tribute on the part of the officers and employees was an unexpected pleasure to Mr. Plant. In referring to the event, the Atlanta Constitution published the following account of the presentations and of Mr. Plant’s response:
From the Atlanta Constitution, October 28, 1895.
“Mr. H. B. Plant, President of the Plant System of Railway and Steamship Lines, was complimented yesterday as few great railroad kings have ever been complimented by the men who compose the vast army of workers under their direction.