“‘Atlanta, Georgia, October 27, 1895.
“‘Mr. H. B. Plant, President Southern Express Company.—Dear Sir: The employees of the Southern Express Company extend to you on this anniversary of your birthday cordial greetings, fraught with sentiments of highest respect and esteem, inspired by the kindly courtesy and impartial consideration which have ever marked your intercourse with them.
“‘Regarding you not alone as an official superior, but also as a personal friend, sensible to their welfare and the true relationship of the employer and the employee, exemplified by your long career in friendly association with those with whom you have called around you in the conduct of the company’s affairs, they are glad to avail themselves of this auspicious occasion to manifest the interest it inspires within them by an offering in token of their appreciation and good will.
“‘It is, therefore, the privilege and pleasure of the undersigned, in behalf of the employees of the Southern Express Company, to present to you the accompanying testimonial, coupled with heartfelt wishes that as things viewed through its lenses are brought clearer and closer to vision, so with each succeeding return of the day this glass commemorates, may you see the nearer fruition of the unremitting labor of years devoted to the upbuilding of those important enterprises with the history of which your name is indissolubly connected.
“‘Commending this souvenir to your acceptance with the united hope of those from whom it comes that continued health, strength, and success may be granted you in the future, we are, yours faithfully,
“‘F. L. Cooper, “‘W. A. Dewees, “‘W. M. Shoemaker, “‘Committee.’
“After the above letters were read, Mr. Plant addressed those present in substance as follows:
“‘Gentlemen of the Plant System of Railroads and Steamship Lines and of the Southern Express Company, and my Friends: I thank you sincerely for the beautiful presents which you have given me on this the anniversary of my birth, and for the loving words of congratulation which accompany them.
“‘While it reached my ears that there was to be some observance of the occasion, I am wholly unprepared for the magnificence of the gifts and the demonstration of fidelity and affection with which they are accompanied, and I am, therefore, unable to do justice to myself in expressing to you the appreciation I feel. I speak from a full heart, and can more than fill this beautiful loving-cup with affection and esteem for you, and for the employees whose feelings towards me are manifested not only by this testimonial, but as well by their constant and untiring devotion to the trusts confided to them through many years. To them, in a large measure, is due such success as has crowned my efforts in railway construction and management, and I now take pleasure in making this acknowledgment, and in assuring them of my continued confidence in them, and of my gratitude to them; without their unflagging efforts no measure of success could have been achieved. I look to them all with the fall assurance that the future, with their assistance, will result in still greater accomplishments in our railway enterprises.
“‘This compass, the gift of the employees of the Plant Steamship Line, brings to my mind the thought that, whatever may have been my mistakes in life, I have always had one aim, which, like the needle, though oscillating and varying at times in some slight degree, pointed ever to one end, and that was to endeavor to do what was right and just.