e whole population of
Sweden with bread from the beginning to the end of each year.

[Illustration: CAPITOL OF MINNESOTA.]

"Our beautiful city of Minneapolis has already a population of one
hundred and sixty thousand, of which at least one-fourth, or forty
thousand, are Scandinavians or their descendants.

"I hope you will all have an opportunity to see our city with your own
eyes before you leave us,--its mills, churches, schools and happy
homes,--and will therefore not consume the time by referring to these.

"As to yourselves, gentlemen, we have heard what has been said to you
so expressively in Chicago by our friends there, and we join them
heartily in their praise.

"When we heard that the soldiers and representatives of Denmark,
Norway and Sweden would honor us with a visit we all rejoiced, and we
have come together this evening to express our joy in a cordial
welcome.

"We have intentionally conducted you to this hall where we may, under
our own roof, pay you our homage in the plain manner of our sturdy
Scandinavian forefathers, and give you an opportunity to see us as we
are in our daily life. We are men of the people; we have come here as
poor immigrants, ignorant of the language and of the customs of
the country. Our sole heritage was our strong arms and our good
cheer,--no, excuse me, another heritage of more worth than gold or
genius have we brought from our old homesteads,--our share of Northern
fidelity, strength, and virtue; and the talent confided to us we have
used in all branches of industry, science, fine arts, in the service
of the community, the state, and the Union, in peace and in war, and
we perform our share in the great national work, the result of which
is a new and powerful commonwealth, the foundation of which lies in
the individual worth and right of man.

"I think I can see a Providential dispensation in this, that when the
time arrived for the new world to take its place among the nations
with a new and powerful cosmopolitan race, the Scandinavian people
were also chosen to contribute a part in that grand work, and that it
was especially reserved for the 'men of the people' to receive in this
country free and equal opportunity for their development. Who can fail
to see the stamp of the Scandinavian people on the entire social
fabric of the new world?

"We would be forgetful if we did not gratefully remembe