It was to be expected of such a man that he should fulfil his destiny
by working out some great problems at a time when most men want to
retire to a comfortable life of ease. This would not appeal to my old
friend. He undertook, single handed, the task of building up the East
Coast of Florida. He was not satisfied to plan a railroad from St.
Augustine to Key West--a distance of more than six hundred miles,
which would have been regarded as an undertaking large enough for
almost any one man--but in addition he has built a chain of superb
hotels to induce tourists to go to this newly developed country.
Further than this, he has had them conducted with great skill and
success.

This one man, by his own energy and capital, has opened up a vast
stretch of country, so that the old inhabitants and the new settlers
may have a market for their products. He has given work to thousands
of these people; and, to crown all, he has undertaken and nearly
completed a remarkable engineering feat in carrying his road on the
Florida Keys into the Atlantic Ocean to Key West, the point set out
for years ago.

Practically all this has been done after what most men would have
considered a full business life, and a man of any other nationality
situated as he was would have retired to enjoy the fruits of his
labour.

I first knew Mr. Flagler as a young man who consigned produce to Clark
& Rockefeller. He was a bright and active young fellow full of vim and
push. About the time we went into the oil business Mr. Flagler
established himself as a commission merchant in the same building