hour's duration, and Mr. Colfax was to follow for an equal length of
time. After Mr. Colfax had spoken about ten minutes an alarm of fire
was sounded and in less than fifteen minutes the entire structure was
burned to the ground. This happened about 9:30 o'clock in the
evening, and, strange to relate, not one of the morning papers had an
announcement of the fact the next day. The morning papers at that time
were something like an evening paper of to-day. They were set up and
made up in the afternoon and generally printed in the early part of
the evening. The result of that election was very gratifying to the
Republicans. I can see old Dr. Foster now writing a double column
political head for the Minnesotian, the first two lines of which were:
"Shout, Republicans, Shout! We've Cleaned the Breech Clouts Out!"

Dr. Foster was the editor of the Minnesotian and was quite a power in
the Republican party. He wielded a vigorous pen and possessed a very
irascible temper. I have often seen him perform some Horace Greeley
antics in the composing room of the old Minnesotian. At the time of
the execution of John Brown for his attempted raid into Virginia, I
remember bringing the Chicago Tribune to the doctor, containing the
announcement of the execution. I had arranged the paper so that the
doctor could take in the contents of the heading at the first glance.
The doctor looked at the headlines a second and then exclaimed, loud
enough to be heard a block, "Great God! In the nineteenth century, a
man hung for an idea!"

At another time the doctor became very much enraged over some news
that I had laid before him. In the early 50's Galusha A. Grow, of
Pennsylvania, introduced into the house of representatives the first
homestead law and the Republican party soon afterward incorporated
the idea into their platform as one of their pet measures. After