“I went over to the palatial Tampa Bay Hotel, an enterprise of Mr. Plant, and the completion and furnishing of which, preparatory to its opening in two or three weeks, Mr. Plant has been personally supervising. I found him and a portion of his family at breakfast in his private car, in which he was to start north in the afternoon for a brief stay before coming down here for the winter. Mr. Plant is always approachable, genial in his manner, ready to talk about people and their prosperity, but not of himself or his. No one can accuse him of egotism. He said nothing of his massive hotel until I drew him out. I said: ‘Mr. Plant, I learn that no one knows better than you of the beginning and the progress of Tampa and its probable future. In fact, they say that you are the father of Tampa; tell me about it, please.’ “‘Well,’ said the genial railroad president, ‘when I first drove across the country from Sanford, for we are nearly west of that point, and there was no other way of getting here by land, I found Tampa slumbering as it had been for years. This was eight years ago. It seemed to me that all South Florida needed for a successful future was a little spirit and energy, which could be fostered by transportation facilities. There were one or two small shops and a population of about seven hundred in Tampa. I made a careful survey of the situation, calculated upon its prospects and concluded to take advantage of the opportunity, and we who made early investments have proved the faith in our own judgment. Tampa was really unknown to the commercial world until the South Florida Railroad introduced her there. This was in 1885, and it brought to the town a new life, and breathed into it all the elements of push, progress, and success. Tampa at once began to spread itself, and ever since has been fairly bounding along the road to greatness. It has now a population of about ten thousand, and is rapidly increasing. Hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars have been invested in business, and instead of a few scattered and unpainted storehouses, there are now many magnificent brick blocks, handsome private residences, cosey cottages, large warehouses, mammoth wholesale establishments, busy workshops, comfortable hotels, two newspapers, a phosphate mill, cigar factories, first-class banking facilities, telegraph and telephone communications, two electric-light establishments, ice factories, a complete system of waterworks, eight lines of steamships and steamboats giving communication to Key West and Havana, Mobile, places on the Manatee River, etc.’