Wages were low and there was absolutely no money to
speak of. When a man did occasionally get a dollar he was not sure it
would be worth its face value when the next boat would arrive with
a new Bank Note Reporter. Married men considered themselves very
fortunate when they could get, on Saturday night, an order on a
grocery or dry goods store for four or five dollars, and the single
men seldom received more than $2 or $3 cash. That was not more than
half enough to pay their board bill. This state of affairs continued
until the Press was started in 1861, when Gov. Marshall inaugurated
the custom, which still prevails, of paying his employes every
Saturday night.
* * * * *
Another instance of the lack of enterprise on the part of the daily
paper of that day:
During the summer of 1860 a large party of Republican statesmen and
politicians visited St. Paul, consisting of State Senator W.H. Seward.
Senator John P. Hale, Charles Francis Adams, Senator Nye, Gen. Stewart
L. Woodford and several others of lesser celebrity. The party came to
Minnesota in the interest of the Republican candidate for president.
Mr. Seward made a great speech from the front steps of the old
capitol, in which he predicted that at some distant day the capitol
of this great republic would be located not far from the Falls of St.
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