When the boats reached the bend below the river they were
abreast of each other, and as they reached the levee it was hardly
possible to tell which was ahead. One of the passengers on the Gray
Eagle had a copy of the Dubuque Herald containing the Queen's message,
tied up with a small stone on the inside of it, and as he threw it to
the shore a messenger from the Minnesotian caught it and ran up Bench
street to the Minnesotian office, where the printers were waiting,
and the Minnesotian had the satisfaction of getting out an extra some
little time before their competitors.
* * * * *
In the summer season the newspapers had to rely, to a considerable
extent, on the steamboats for late Dubuque and Chicago papers for
telegraph news. There were three or four daily lines of steamers to
St. Paul, and every one of them could be distinguished by its whistle.
When it was time for the arrival of the boat bringing the newspapers
from which the different papers expected to get their telegraphic
news, messengers from the different offices would be at the levee, and
as the boat neared the shore they would leap for the gangplank, and
there was always a scramble to get to the clerk's office first.
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