Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-06-02
PRESIDENTS MARRIAGE.

The papers are filed with matters re-
speeding the marriage of the President to
Miss Folsom which will take place this
evening. From letter from the Washing
ton correspondent of the Baltimore Sun,
under date of Sunday last, we extract the
following -
THE PRESIDENT HAPPY.
Now that the President has opened his
heart and taken the people into his con-
fidence he seems much happier and con-
tented. He is sensbly and feelingly i'm
pressed with the kind, tender and unob-
trusive solicitude which is manifested for
him and his affairs, so entirely different
from the manifestations of eager curiosity
and want of proper consideration which
embarrassed and irritated him while he was
endeavoring to keep the fact of his ap-
preaching marriage secret. This is what
was to be expected. The announcement
made by authority has stilled the tongues
which wagged loosely, and the sense of
American chivalry now comes forward to
protect the President from unseemly pry-
ing and intrusions upon his private affairs.
1t is now said that there were reasons
which prompted the President to his long
maintenance of silence in this matter,
which can be fully appreciated by all we'll
thinking people, but that now, respecting and
recognizing the public Interest, he will not
object to such details going forth as are
properly of general consequence and not
inconsistent with the private character of
the wedding and antecedent circumstances
which have been determined upon in con-
sequence of the recent death in the near
family of Miss Folsom. Of course the
President has no power to put stop to the
fanciful statements which sensation mon
gers of the press have been rioting in for
weeks past, and which, undoubtedly, they
will continue to indulge in until long after
the wedding feast. He said this morning,
in speaking on this very point, that he had
full trust that the American people held his
common sense in too strong esteem to be-
lieve him capable of some of the asburdities
attributed to him. He looks with reverence
and with deep feeling of responsibility up
on the step which he is to take, and believes
that while it will add SO much to his
own personal happiness, it will also be
the means of helping to more faithful and
broader discharge of his public trusts.
PROGRAMME FOR THE CEREMONY.
The first wedding of President in the
White House will have the additional
novelty of kingly surroundings. which it is
scarcely necessary to say is the result of
accident, not design. The President does
not go to meet his bride; she comes to him
under the escort of her own relatives and
friends, and he will receive her directly
from them. The wedding party, according
to the arrangements now agreed upon, will
reach here from New York on Wednesday
morning, and will proceed direct to the
White House, and not 10 Secretary Whit
ney's. as was at one time proposed. Mrs.
Whitney, who did not 60 to New York this
afternoon, will remain at her house here
and be ready to'take charge of Miss Folsom
in ;se the plans should be changed 1t is
thought this will not be done, and Miss
Gle veland is to receive the party at the
Whi5y House and escort the bride to the
suite of rooms set apart former accommoda-
ton. AS outlined in The Sun of Saturday,
the wedding is to be comparatively private.
The guests outside of the two families will
be the members of the cabinet and their
wives who comprise the official family of
the President, his intimate personal friend,
Mr.. Bissell, of Buffalo, his private secretary,
and possibly one or two others, but it is
thought not more than thirty in all. Mrs.
Hoyt and Miss Cleveland are the only re-
latives of the President who are positively
to be present. Two other sisters, Mrs.
Bacon, who has been at the White House
several times and Mrs. Yeomans, are not
expected, but may possibly be present
The fifth sister, Mrs. Hastings, is in India,
where heF husband is a.mssionary. The
mother Of the bride and her cousin, Mr..
Benjamin Folsom, who may be selected to
give her away, will be the only ones
present on her side Miss Cleveland will
remain at the White House for few days
after the wedding in the capacity of hostess.
She will then abdicate in favor OF her youth
full successor, whom she has always de-
nominated ''My little school girl" and
leave the White House for her home in
New York. When she next returns to the
White Hodse it will be as guest. The
prolonged absence of Miss Cleveland from
the White House, which has given the Cos
sips SO much trouble and anxiety, is all now
explained. She has kept away these many
weeks because she did not wish to run the
gauntlet of the numberless questions which
would have been fired at her by her own set,
and which would have called into requisition
all of her wonderful tact aud equipoise to
parry.
THE WEDDING SUPPER.