Taken from a 1901 Supplement to The (Illiopolis) State Center Record Newspaper
To The Public.
In giving this brief review and illustration of Illiopolis’ advantages to the public, it is with a knowledge and appreciation that such an undertaking would ho purely chimerical were it not for the generous cooperation and material support of those whose portraits and sketches appear within its covers. To these individuals the compiler and publisher desire to return thanks, and wish them the reward and prosperity which their enterprise, public spirit and home pride, so richly deserves. For, believing with the poet, Dryden that: “Every man is the maker of his own fortune, And must be, in some measure, the trumpet of his own fame.” There is wisdom in trumpeting our own advantages to the world, no matter in what manner viewed, whether from a business, social or economic standpoint. So, with plain and grateful acknowledgement of the assistance received, “Illustrated Illiopolis” leaves the press to be distributed to the homes of the inhabitants of this and the surrounding country.
J. B. H.