Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1909-11-02
THRONGS GREET TAFT
ON MISSISSIPPI TRIP
Thousands Travel All Night to
See the President at Cape
Girardeau, Mo.
WELCOME BY OTHER TOWNS
Nations Head Stirs East st. Louisans
by Waterway Talk Lays Fed
eral Building Cornerstone.


ship the Oleander as it locked at Cape
Girardeau, Mo-, at o'clock Tuesday
morning That city, the first stop on
the trip from st. Louis by boat to
New Orleans, greeted the President
with prolonged cheers. Thousands of
country people arrived during the
night by rail and wagon. While the
Ievee was thronged, the greatest
crowd was at the State normal school,
one mile from the city, where Presi-
dent Taft was driven in an automo-
bile. In the natural amphitheater the
chief executive was introduced to the
citizens of southeast Missouri by Con-
gresham C. C.. Crow of the 14th Mis-
souri district Mayor NJ. E. Leming
presided at the meeting, one of the
features of which was the planting of
tree The chill October morning air
ceverberated with cheers when a gold
badge was pinned on the lapel of the
Presidents overcoat. The badge was
gift of the citizens. Because the sched-
ule called for only an hours stop, the
Presidents address was brief At
o'clock the Presidential fiotilla depart
ed for Cairo.
down the river Monday night.
Throughout the night cheer would
occasionally come from one bank of
che river or the other as the Presi-
dents boat, the Oleander, passed. Bon
| fires lighted the river at several
places.
What with his strenuous day in st.
| Louis Monday and his strained throat
! President Taft was completely tired
out, and an hour after the boats left
che city he sent word to the govern
ors' boat, the ST. Paul, that he would
nave to be excused from attending the
banquet arranged for him and them
until later in the trip.
| Elaborate plans for the feast had to
be changed in few minutes and there
was much hurrying and confusion
| The viands intended for the banquet
we're put back in the refrigerators and
the governors were given frugal re-
| past Not the least amusing feature
of the incident was the frantic efforts
| of the newspaper men to send out
| kills" on their deliberately detailed
stories of the banquet including sew
eral of the governors speeches. They
begged in vain to get ashore at some
| telegraph station, then called loudly
to people on the bank that the Presi-
dent was ill, hoping that in this way
warning would get to their offices.
All devices were in vain, however, and
the stories of the dinner had to stand.
The proposed deep waterway from
Chicago to the gulf received strong
| Endorsement in East ST. Louis, ILL.,,
Monday afternoon in speeches by
President Taft, Vice President Sher-
man, Governor Deneen and Speaker
4 Cannon. Governor Deneen told 10000
! Illinois citizens that it is his purpose
TO call The Illinois legislature into ses-
sion within five weeks for the specific
purpose of legally initiating the work
of starting the dirt to flying on the
second stretch of the lakes to the gulf
channel. While in East ST. Louis
President Taft laid the corner stone of
the new Federal building there, the
Grafton of the occasion being delivered
by Vice President Sherman Besides
the President, the Vice President and
the Speaker of the House there were
among those present the solid delega-
ton from Illinois in the House of Rep
resentaiyes. Senator Lorimer and a
dozen other United States Senators,
Gov. Deneen, Lieut.-Gov. Oglesby, Sec
rotary of State Rose, State Treasurer
Russell and twothirds of the mem
bers of the Illinois legislature The
Justices of the Illinois Supreme Court,
/ Mayor Kreismann of ST. Louis and a
committee representing the ST. Louis
business interests were also on the
| stage