can party. He wielded a vigorous pen and possessed a very
irascible temper. I have often seen him perform some Horace Greeley
antics in the composing room of the old Minnesotian. At the time of
the execution of John Brown for his attempted raid into Virginia, I
remember bringing the Chicago Tribune to the doctor, containing the
announcement of the execution. I had arranged the paper so that the
doctor could take in the contents of the heading at the first glance.
The doctor looked at the headlines a second and then exclaimed, loud
enough to be heard a block, "Great God! In the nineteenth century, a
man hung for an idea!"

At another time the doctor became very much enraged over some news
that I had laid before him. In the early 50's Galusha A. Grow, of
Pennsylvania, introduced into the house of representatives the first
homestead law and the Republican party soon afterward incorporated
the idea into their platform as one of their pet measures. After
superhuman effort the bill passed the house of representatives, that
body being nearly tie politically, and was sent to the senate. The
Democratic majority in the senate was not very favorably impressed
with the measure, but with the assistance of the late President
Johnson, who was senator from Tennessee at that time, the bill passed
the senate by a small majority. There was great rejoicing over the
event and no one supposed for a moment that the president would veto
the measure. When I laid the Chicago Tribune before the excitable
doctor containing the announcement of Buchanan's veto the very air was
blue with oaths. The doctor took the paper and rushed out into the
street waving the paper frantically in the air, cursing the president
at every step.

* * * * *

From 1854, the date of the starting of the three St. Paul daily
papers, until 1860, the time of the completion of the Winslow
telegraph line, there was great strife between the Pioneer,
Minnesotian and Times as to which would be the first to appear on the
street with the full text of the president's message. The messages of
Pierce and Buchanan were very lengthy, and for several days preceding
their arrival the various offices had all the type of every
description distributed and all the printers who could possibly be
procured engaged to help out on the extra containing the forthcoming
message. It was customary to pay every one employed, from the devil to
the foreman, $2.50 in gold,