One of the
editors connected with the Minnesotian had an old acquaintance in the
pressroom of the Pioneer, and through him secured one of the first
papers printed. This had been going on for some time when Earle S.
Goodrich, the editor of the Pioneer, heard of it, and he accordingly
made preparation to perpetrate a huge joke on the Minnesotian. Mr.
Goodrich was a very versatile writer and he prepared four or five
columns of bogus telegraph and had it set up and two or three copies
of the Pioneer printed for the especial use of the Minnesotian. The
scheme worked to a charm. Amongst the bogus news was a two-column
speech purporting to have been made by William H. Seward in the senate
just previous to the breaking out of the war. Mr. Seward's well-known
ideas were so closely imitated that their genuineness were not
questioned. The rest of the news was made up of dispatches purporting
to be from the then excited Southern States. The Minnesotian received
a Pioneer about 4 o'clock in the morning and by 8 the entire edition
was distributed throughout the city. I had distributed the Minnesotian
throughout the upper portion of the city, and just as I returned to
Bridge Square I met the carrier of the Pioneer, and laughed at him for
being so late.
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