“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.