“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.
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.