business, and deeply immersed in material pursuits, has never lost the courtliness of manner and genial whole-heartedness which are Nature’s choicest gifts to her favorites; and among all who know him he ranks as the loyal friend and elegant gentleman.” _Railroad Topics_ says: “In this day of vast individual fortunes, it is no special compliment to say of a man that he is rich. If the public takes any interest in his wealth, there is generally more concern manifested in the manner in which he made his money, than in the mere fact that he has it. But conspicuous success and marked prominence do, and will always, command attention and challenge admiration. The spirit of the American people is to applaud achievement and honor distinction wherever they are observed, and when found combined in one man, they make him a popular object of praise and an interesting subject for biographical sketch. Such a case we have in the person of Mr. Henry B. Plant, whose record we attempt to outline in the following brief story: “Mr. Plant was born at Branford, Conn., in October, 1819, and is consequently now in the seventieth year of his age. It is indeed a pleasure to contemplate the record of a man who has fulfilled the sacred tradition of his allotted time, and stamped that rounded life with innumerable evidences of steadily growing strength, constantly increasing usefulness, continually widening reputation, and vastly expanding possessions. The personal history of H. B. Plant, if shorn of all details, would stand complete in that one paragraph. “He has thus far lived to excellent purpose, and in the run of that existence has accomplished in fullest measure all that is comprehended in the descriptive suggestion. “If we wrote not another line, we would feel that we had made a practical analysis of his life and set forth the salient truths of it. But when a man has attained Mr. Plant’s prominence, and compassed achievements such as his, people are interested in the details of his career, and naturally inquire as to his distinguishing characteristics. In deference to that reasonable curiosity, and likewise for the pleasure that there is in it to ourselves, we gladly make this sketch of him. “It is nothing remarkable to say that he was born poor. Most men who have ever amounted to much were. Hence in that particular he is not exceptional. Neither would we be satisfied simply to class him with that great multitude, popularly termed, “self made men.” He does belong in that catagory, but is so far above the average, that we incline to think of that descriptive fact more as an accident than as a cardinal virtue.