Constitution, in the town of Stanton, in Kandiyohi county. The bill was referred to the appropriate committee, where it still sleeps the sleep that knows no waking. (See also page 23.)

CHANGES OF THE FIRST CAPITOL.

From the time of its completion in Territorial days, no change was made in the Capitol building until 1866, when gas was introduced, and candles ceased to shed their lustrous light upon legislative dignity. Old settlers will well remember the huge iron box stoves, one in each of the four corners of both Senate and House, large enough to take in sticks of cord wood length, modifying, if not wholly warming, the almost zero temperature which often prevailed in the chambers. In 1871 the stoves were dispensed with, and a steam heating apparatus was installed, rendering the whole building warm and comfortable. At the same time city water was introduced, so that the occupants of the building began to enjoy some of the comforts of civilized life. Each legislature, however, still continues to elect its firemen, who wander through the chambers and halls of the Capitol in a vain search for the ancient stoves, while the per diem is still gathered in by their willing hands.

In 1872, the increased representation required an enlargement of the building, and a wing fronting on Exchange street was ordered. To preserve, as far as possible, a symmetrical appearance of the building, changes were then also made in the roof and cupola, all being completed at a cost of about $15,000, (See Plate IV.) Other changes were made in 1878, by the erection of an extension or wing on Wabasha street, accommodating the House of Representatives, and adding space for the use of the administrative affairs of the State. This work was completed in 1878. at a cost of $14,000, making the total cost of the building about $108,000. (See Plate V.)

The dimensions of the Territorial building had grown from the original size of 139 feet front, and 532 feet deep, to 204 feet front, and 150 feet deep, with about fifty apartments. The business of the State was conducted in the enlarged building with more or less discomfort and inconvenience until the first of March,' 1881, when during an evening session of the legislature the building was discovered to be on fire.

BURNING OF THE FIRST CAPITOL.

Notwithstanding the most heroic efforts of the fire department, the flames spread with such rapidity that it was only possible to save some of the contents of the building. The most valuable records and papers of various offices and of the legislature were carried out, but the valuable law library, the supply of state laws, documents, reports, and stationery were destroyed. Fortunately, the Historical Society's library was mostly saved. No lives were lost, although a large crowd of spectators and visitors was in the building, and several very narrow escapes by members occurred.

The origin of the fire remains unknown. The flames were first discovered bursting from the dome, to which they had probably found their way through the partitions from the lower part of the building, but no one has ever been able to give any reasonable explanation of the mysterious disaster.

HISTORIC REVIEW TO THE TIME OF THE CAPITOL FIRE.

Thus passed away, upon its own funeral pyre, the first official home of the Territory and State. Within its walls were laid the plans and projects of the mighty State whose prosperous borders now compass great cities, thriving towns, fertile farms, and happy homes. Upon the face of the State the names of many of its founders happily remain stamped to remind us of the work they did so well. The names borne by the counties of Ramsey, Sibley, Rice, Marshall, Wilkin, Stevens, Becker, Olmsted, Freeborn, McLeod, Murray, Kittson, Faribault, Goodhue, Mower, Brown, Swift, Hubbard and others will remain to recall the work of these sturdy pioneers as they laid deep and solid the foundations of the government we enjoy today. Many of their contentions were sharp and bitter, but the end they patriotically sought was the welfare and development of the new State.

While the building no longer remains, history preserves the record of the work done within its walls. The Constitution itself, the labor of the dual Republican and Democratic conventions sitting in separate chambers, yet whose work was identical in every letter and line of its provisions, still remains the fundamental law of the Commonwealth.

The lines of railroad projected by the early legislators over the prairies of the new State, whose only roads then were the trail of the Indian and the march of the buffalo, are the very lines over which now move in every direction the commerce of our people and the restless multitudes of travelers. And in the dark and troublous days of the civil war, out through the doors of the old Capitol, with unfaltering steps, came our gallant officers, bearing their commissions from the Governor and in their hands the muster rolls of our brave soldier boys, ready to lead them in the long hard fight for the preservation of the nation. After the contest was over, returning through the same portals of the old building, came the victorious survivors, clasping the precious colors of their regiments, riddled and battle-stained, that they might rest under the dome of the Capitol as a shrine of devotion for all patriotic hearts.

The steps of the Old Capitol will always be famous as the spot upon which Senator William H. Seward stood, when, on that delicious September day, in 1860, in addressing the assembled multitude, he gave expression to that wonderfully prophetic declaration which at the time seemed like the extravagance of rhetoric, but in these later days more like foreknowledge of the future when he said:

In other days, studying what might perhaps have seemed to others a visionary subject, I have cast about for the future of the ultimate central seat of power of the North American people. I have looked at Quebec and at New Orleans, at Washington and at San Francisco, at Cincinnati and at St. Louis, and it has been the result of my best conjecture that the seat of power for North America would yet be found in the valley of Mexico; that the glories of the Aztec Capital would be renewed, and that city would become ultimately the Capital of the United States of America. But I have corrected that view, and now I believe that the last seat of power on this great continent will be found somewhere within a radius not very far from the very spot where I stand, at the head of navigation of the Mississippi river, and on the great Mediterranean lakes.

To realize how rapidly this is being fulfilled, we have only to look upon the multitudes pressing into the Northwest in our own country, and the greater numbers finding their homes in the Canadian Northwest, far away towards the Arctic circle.