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, and every printer in the city was notified
to be in readiness for the approaching typographical struggle. One
year one of the proprietors of the Minnesotian thought he would
surprise the other offices, and he procured the fastest livery team In
the city and went down the river as far as Red Wing to intercept the
mail coach, and expected to return to St.
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