The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-07-24
GOV. FOSTER, OF LOUISIANA, AND
PARTY ENJOY NORTHERN
HOSPITALITY.
TALK WITH THE SOUTHERNER.
CONVINCED THERE rs NO LONGER
A MASON AND DIXON
LINE.
A TRIBUTE TO THE NORTHWEST.
His State, He Says, Needs Such Blood
as Is Here-POlitics Down
South.

His Excellency, Murray T. Foster,
governor of Louisiana, and party
were the guests of the city yesterday.
and during the few hours of their
stay were the recipients of every at
tention which could be shown them
Gov. Clough was out of the city, and
could not be found, but in his absence
Mayor Doran, County Auditor Sulli-
van, Comptroller McCardy, City Treas
urer Horst, and other city officials,
Theo. Schurmeir, of the Jobbers'
union; Maj. Espey, of the Commercial
club, and others constituted them
selves a committee on entertainment,
and showed the visitors the principal
points Of interest in the city. Gov.
Foster was accompanied by his two
daughters, the Misses Rose and Bes-
sic Foster, two very charming South
ern girls; Col. Charles E. Hester wife
and son, of New Orleans; A. ]. Ellet, a
prominent manufacturer Of Kansas
City, and j. F. Merry, assistant gen
eral passenger agent of the Illinois
Central Railroad company. The party
is under the direction of Mr.. Merry,
and is travelling in one of the private
cars of that line.
The party left New Orleans a week
ago Tuesday, and the first stop was
at Memphis. From that city the party
went to st. Louis, Dubuque, Chicago,
Storm Lake, Madison, Marshaltown
and Sioux City, and arrived in st.
Paul over the Omaha road. The party
left at $3.50 o'clock in the afternoon
over the Great Northern for Lake
MinnQfnnl9 Wh will
several days at the Hotel Lafayette
Gov. Foster is a distinguished look
ing man, and a typical southerner,
polished, genial, chivalrous and an ex-
cellent conversationalist. He is with
al decidedly diplomatic and discreet,
and handles political questions with
suavity which rather prohibits a re-
petition of leading inquiries. Yet the
governor does not hesitate to say that
he will support the nominee of the
Chicago convention. He and Col.
Hester, however, are looked upon as
advocates of sound money. Yet Gov
Foster believes silver will win in his
state. The cotton men are, as a rule,
silver men, and the sugar men are
advocates of gold, but the former are
stronger in numbers.
1--WE have an extremely cosmopoli-
tan population said the governor to
reporter for the G l o b e, ''and it so
complicats the situation that forecasts
in our state are very unsatisfactory
affairs. The negro vote this year can
not be foretold. But I expect silver
will win. Personally I was opposed
to the 16 to l plank in the Chicago
platform, but I shall support the NOM
1nees of the party. 1 look for a vie
tory of the party next November"
Il think the state Of Louisiana has
great future before It, I have only
one ambition as governor of the state.
That Is. to induce large numbers of
you ambitious, thrifty enterprising
Northwestern people to come to my
state and settle. We need just such
blood as has made this Northwest
what it is. A few Minnesotans and
Iowans have found their way to
Louisiana, and have made wilderness
blossom as garden. 1t is wonderful
what they accomplish. They take up
land that a native of Louisiana would
not take for gift, and turn it into
profitable farms.
Il am surprised the welcome our
party has received everywhere. Be
fore l left home I was fully convinced
that there was no longer a Mason and
Dixon line, and now 1 am still more
sure of it. AS governor of the state
OF louisiana, 1 am proud to say that
In my state at least, there is no longer
any sectionalism, and 1 do not believe
there is any in the South. Those who
continue to stir up ante-bellum feel
Ing, do not represent the true senti-
ment of the great South. We are a
united country, a great country. a
patriotic country" and as the COVER
nor so expressed himself, his piercing
black eyes sparkled with the intensity
OF his feeling. Then turning in his
seat In the private car, he saw the
Mississippi river gliding on its way
south.
1T seems odd to think that that Is
the same mighty stream we have at
home, 1000 miles south of here. 1t
is the link which binds the north and
south together in commercial and fra
terna1 bonds
Col. Hester, who is secretary of the
New Orleans Cotton exchange, the
greatest institution of Its kind in the
world, is a man nearly every cotton
merchant and broker knows well. He
is called the cotton prophet, and his
predictions as to prices, crops and
trade are looked upon as almost in
falible.