“‘Up to this time a considerable lot of package freight, express matter, began to be sent back and forth. This was stowed in different places about the boat and not properly cared for, until one day the captain conceived the idea that a big double stateroom forward of the wheel could be used in which to store it, and I was given the duty of looking after it, and a berth was put up there for me to sleep in. As I look back upon my career in those days, the one on which I was transferred from the dingy forecastle to the express room was by far the happiest, and it was there that I took my first lessons in the express business.’” Those who are familiar with the extensive business of the Southern Express Company, of which Mr. Plant was the founder, and which begins at Washington and extends throughout the railroads south of Washington and the Ohio, excepting the Illinois Central, and to Cuba by the Plant Steamship Lines, can understand why it has taken nearly a lifetime of earnest toil to get it up to its present magnitude. It is a monument to the enterprise of the youngster from Connecticut, who got his first idea of the express business on a steamer between New Haven and New York nearly sixty years ago. The other large undertakings of Mr. Plant in railroads, steamships, hotels, etc., that have helped make the State of Florida the garden spot of the United States in winter, were easy as their necessities developed, in comparison to the Southern Express business which was the foundation of this enterprising citizen’s fame and fortune.”