t. Paul incident
that, immediately after his return to Washington, he opened negotiations
with the Russian government for the purchase of Alaska, and persistently
carried them on, until he succeeded in acquiring that vast empire for a
mere bagatelle of seven or eight millions of dollars. This remarkable
prevision of Mr. Seward has stamped its effect on our present and future
destiny and relations with England, Canada, Russia and perhaps all the
nations of the Orient. Had not Mr. Seward visited St. Paul on that exact
day, would this great change have been made in the map of North America?
It certainly would not after the discovery of gold in Alaska. So I claim
that Minnesota played an all-important role in the purchase of Alaska.

Having spoken of my dear old friend, James W. Taylor, I cannot omit to
mention a most touching tribute paid to his memory by the people of
Winnipeg. The municipality has placed upon the walls of its city hall a
fine portrait of the faithful consul, under which hangs a basket for the
reception of flowers. Every spring each farmer entering the city plucks
a wild flower, and puts it in the basket. The great love of a people
could not be expressed in a more beautiful and pathetic manner, and no
man was more worthy of it than Consul Taylor.

A PRIMITIVE JUSTICE.

The lands west of the Mississippi river, in Minnesota, were the property
of the Sioux Indians until treaties were made with them in 1851, by
which they ceded them to the United States, but these treaties were not
fully ratified until 1853, on account of amendments which deferred final
action. But immigration was pouring into the territory, and it naturally
found a lodgment on the west side of the river, from the Iowa line up to
Fort Snelling, and gradually extended up the Minnesota river to Mankato.
Of course, all the settlers on the Indian lands were trespassers, and as
the lands were unsurveyed, no claim rights could be acquired, but the
settlers did the best they could to mark their claims, and gain what
right they could by possession. The usual and best way of marking claim
lines, was by running a plow furrow around the land. When the prairie
was once broken, the line was indelible, because an entirely new growth
would spring up in the furrow that never could be eradicated.

In 1854 a law of congress was passed, by which settlers in Minnesota
were given rights in unsurveyed lands, their claims to be adjusted to
the surveyed l