The Washington critic., 1886-05-24
w WASHINGTON CRITIC
TOPICS OF THE DAY.


IL Miss Folsom makes as good Mrs.
Cleveland as she made girl and a
young lady, she will add much strength
TO Clcvcland's administration, and
bring many friend to his support.
The marriage of the President will
change the character of his admins
tration In many respects. 1t will ma
terially affect his ambitions, and
whereas, when he was nominated he
said he did not want second term,
the fact Of having a wife may make
him greatly desire II.
President Buchanan's love.story is
historic, says Sydney" in the Chicago
Ne,os. but 1t will do to tell over again,
especially when well told. 1t reads
more like the conventional novel of
fifty years ago than plain fact. But 1t
happened just as tragedies happen
every day that arc many times stranger
than fiction. When he was poor
young lawyer he became engaged to
Miss Colemen, who belonged to one of
the richest, staidest, and, IL may be as.
sumed, narrowest. minded and most
purblind families in Philadelphia. The
Colemans by no means approved of
the match, but nevertheless the young
couple became engaged. Mr.. Buchanan
was then practicing law in remote
part of Pennsylvania, and In those
days of stage. coaches and saddle bags
correspondence was liable to Interrupt.
tions. Miss Coleman's letters became
irregular and then stopped altogether.
He wrote repeatedly, but got no reply.
At last he determined to go to Phila.
delphia, but at Lancaster the stage met
with an accident and Mr.. Buchanan
suffered broken leg He wrote
again as soon as he was able,
but still heard nothing. Laid
up in country tavern, in
the midst of phenomenal snow storm,
for six weeks, embittercd him, and he
wrote Miss Coleman a letter of fierce
reproaches and then wrote no more
Now for Miss Coleman's part. Her
eminently respectable family from the
beginning intercepted all of her letters
and all of Mr.. Buchanan's She made
all the appeals to him woman could
make, but she never had line from
him after he left Philadelphia, except
that last cutting letter-and as, un
fortunately, 1t contained nothing but
his renunciation Of her, she could
know nothing of what had preceded
1t. The eminently respectable family
were satisfied-the match was broken
off by means that would have landed
them all in the penitentiary in these
days. A year or two afterward Mr..
Buchanan was in Philadelphia and at
ball came face to face with Miss Cole
man. Neither spoke, and Mr.. Blu.
chanan paid marked attention to an
other girl present. That night
young friend who was staying
with Miss Coleman said to
her, while the two girls were
alone in their room: Ibid you see
Mr.. Buchanan's attentions to Miss
New they might have been yours had
you recognized him." Miss Coleman
began to sob violently. She would not
be soothed, and her friend, becoming
alarmed, called the family. OF what
next happened two accounts have been
given: One was that she had taken
poison and her sufferings afterward
came from that-but those who were
near her said that she was simply suf.
fering from uncomfortable mental
anguish. Toward morning, when her
pulse had got so low that it was
scarcely perceptible and her nervous
excitement had changed into pro-
found stupor, the doctors were sent
for. But she was past help. They
never reused her, and she died the next
day of what the doctors called nervous
exhaustion, but which goes by the
name of broken heart. Then the
truth came to Mr.. Buchanan ears, and
from that day his bachelorhood was
assured.
~
u A correspondent of the New York
Star, referring to the alleged purchase
of the Green property by Mr.. Cleve-
land, says: "There is no special signif-
cance in this, however. Every public
official here who has any surplus money
on his hands, invests in Washington
property. There is no safer or more
profitable speculation. TIE fact throws
not the faintest glimmer of light on the
marriage rumor." The writer then
goes on to wonder why the rich and
speculative men who come to Wash.
these suburban properties. Lin
u
lying just outside the city limits-not
an hours drive, In fact, from the Presi.
dents house--and yet from the south.
ern portico of the house you look down
into valley as tangled and wild and
beautiful as is to be found in the heart
of the Adirondacks. The dwelling
crowns hill which rises so abruptly
that the road has to be arranged in
spiral form, winding several times
around the eminence in order to make
the ascent practicable. do not re-
call prettier spot. The top of the
hill looks as though it had smoothed
away to form plateau of some four
acres, and on this stands very pictur-
esque old house of gray stone, sur.
rounded by grand primeval trees. No
one lives there now. 1t used to be oc-
cupied by the Klingle family, and
twenty years ago, when Mr.. Klingle
had brought home his bride, the beau
tiful Miss Laura Tiernan of Baltimore,
LinnTan Hill was the centre of as
bright and joyous a circle as has ever
gladdened society. Mr.. Klingle is q
widower now, and his only child, a
daughter, was married some time ago
and went to New York to live. So the
beautiful old gray house is closed and
there are no eyes to gaze from its de
serted portico across that gracious
landscape. Why nobody has seized
upon this property | cannot imagine.
1t is the ideal country seat and refuge
for an overworked public man.
Nv
The New York 7ribune'S hotel gos-
slipper is informed by Mr., ID. II. Moifat
of Colorado, who is at the Fifth Ave
nue., that he was the only one of the
executors Of the estate of ex.Sena
tor Chafree, who qualified. The Sena-
tnr's brOtbar and hrothar.in law la