St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-05-17
THE QUEEN OF BEAUTY.
In Her School Days Miss Folsom Was
Thought One of the Prettiest Girls
in Buffalo.
Her Fondness for Society Caused Her to
Fail in Geometry, Chemistry and
Caesar.
President CleveIand's Touching Trib-
ute TO the Father of the w hite
House Bride TO Be.
Talk of Public Demonstration on
the Arrival of the Bride and Groom
From Buffalo.
Miss Folsom,s Schooldays.


BUFFALO, NY, May 16.-Miss Frances
Folsom, President Cleveland's bride-elect,
graduated from Wells college at Aurora,
\. Y, last June, and previous to entering
that institution passed two years OF school
life at the high school here. She was only
Is years old when she entered the central
as the high school was then called. and
lived with her widowed mother at lis
Niagara street, Just four blocks from the
school. She became at once great favor
tie with the teachers and scholars.
and her beauty made her the belle of
the school at once. The big boys in
the senior class We'd With one another in
their attentions to the little beauty. and ii
is said she never had TO carry her books to
or from school so devoted and attentive
were her admirers. She studied physics,
algebra and Latin during the first term, and
passed a creditable examination in all three
at the close of the term. Her weekly
average was 1925 out of a possible 80.
Miss Folsom's second term at the Central
commenced in February, 1880, and that
winter and spring saw the young girl fully
established as the queen of beauty in the
Younger society set in which she moved.
She was
\ BRILLIANT CoNvERSATIONALIST,
a graceful dancer and so fond of gayety that
very few of the numerous invitations she
received to parties and theaters were re-
fused. The result of the too much atten-
ton to society was evident in her school
work, and at the end of her term her marks
were so low that she was not allowed to
try the examinations in geometry, chemis-
try and Caesar. Her composition average
was 15, but several of her effusions i'll the
Lott 70 arriN0 rn1a
tives and friends received the highest
mark. Frankie's reputation as a
letter writer has always been of the
highest, and those of her friends who
have been favored with letters during her
stay in Europe speak enthusiastically of
their interest and their very clever bits of
description of scenes and places visited.
During the first year at the Central. frankie
reviewed geometry and Caesar, and took up
the ssady of physical geography in place of
cheristr3. She passed all three eXamina-
items With an average of 81. She studied
rhetoric, advanced geometry and Virgil
during her second term, and her average
was so. 1t was at this time thai
FRANKIE's FIRST LOVER,
now Rev. Charles Townsend, appeared on
the scene. He afterward married Ian
singburg. y. Y. young lady, and is now
pastor OF Presbyterian church at that
place. When the fall came frankie went
to school during the month of September
only. She commenced the study of French
and physiology. In February, 1881, she
obtained an honorable discharge from ''the
Central" and entered Wells college in the
middle of the freshman year. She obtained
no honors at the Central nor at Wells col
it;;sscc 9!,a! enjoyed the highest esteem of her
associates. and was always regarded as a
bright student, though not a brilliant one
She was chosen to deliver the class proph-
ecy at the graduation exercises last June,
but gave instead a sketch, of which the
following is a very complete outline:
Miss Cynthia Drake and her niece lived to-
gether on the banks Of the Hudson. Miss
Cynthia was 80, withered in body and heart,
sour and narrow. Miss Elizabeth, her niece.
was 49, sunny in disposition, tall and grace
full in carriage, but withal not pretty. Miss
Cynthia adhered to custom in all things, Miss
Elizabeth did not. She desired a personality
of her own,
TO ACT FOR HERSELF.
She would not do things just because other
people did and she was wont to remind her
aunt that Mr.. Mill said: 1.-THE des-
pOtism of custom is everywhere the
standing hindrance to human growth
and that George Eliot found the strongest
wanted contact with the world, and gladly ac-
cepted an invitation from an Albany cousin
to spend winter with her. The cousin, Miss
Annie Van Vleet much perplexed as to
what she could do with q young woman so
original as ITO abhor bangs, snub Anglo
American young men, and have views on
education, politics and even on temperance -
wrote deSpairing letter to her cousin in
New York. Mr. Robert McGregor. begging
him TO help her out of the predcament,
and he helped her by marrying Miss
Elizabeth. Many years later two gentlemen
are talking together in the conservatory of q
fashionable New York lady. The subject
under discussion was Mrs. Robert McGregor.
who had developed into not such woman as
her grlhood predicted. ''She does not care a
snap of her finger for public opinion" says
one of the gentlemen. 1.-The best of it is she
never makes a display OF
HER OWN OPINIONS,
but simply goes to work and does what she
thinks right. You will never find wine on
her table nor hear of her boys drinking it in
other places, and 1 know of several young
friends of hers who have given up smoking be-
cause Mrs McGregor does not like smoke. It
seems to be her great hobby that every one
shall find his or her place in the world, and
then stick to it in the face of everything, -
Soon after her death her husband, now an
Old man, and her granddaughter are talking
OF her influence on those around her at home
and abroad. He closed his talk by saying:
From thoughtful serious girl she became
true and helpful wife; her tender mother
hood crowned this but the secret of it all.
that which sent an electric current throu oh
every stage of her life, making it glow with a
pure and exquisite light, was the all-pervad-
ing pressure OF the weli-developed aud uncon-
ventional woman SOUL
OSCAR FOLSOM,
Frankie's father, was. thrown from his
Er1frf nd Iii ~,
meeting of the Buffalo bar association
called to take action on his death. Grover
Cleveland paid an eloquent tribute of re-
spect to his deceased friend and law part
ner. He said:
Mr.. Chairman: TT is said slight SORROWS
speak; great grief is dumb" and the ann,i.
cation of this would enforce nv silence ~,
this occasion. But I cannot go so far. nor
let tic hours pass without adding tribute of
respect and love to my departed friend. He
was my friend in the most sacred and COM
plete sense of the terms. l have walked
with him, talked with him. eaten with him
and slept with nim,a was he not my friend
/ must not dare not, recall the memories of
our loving friendship;and let ret my brethren
think it amiss if l force back the tho ghts
that come crowdiEg TO my mind It snail
speak cololy OF my friend, but the most sa-
cred tribute of a sad heart believe me- is nm
spoken. In the course of a life not entirely
deVOld Oh starting incident, L can truly say I
never was so shocked and overwhelmed as
when heard on Friday night of Oscar Fol-
SONS death. had an engagement with him
that evening. and was momentariy expecting
him when received the intelligence of his
injury, and before L reached the scene of the
accident was
ABRUPTLY TOLD OF HIS DEATH.
/ shall not attempt to describe my emotions
Death seemed so foreign to this man and the
exuberance of his life was so marked and
prominent that the idea of his dying or of his
death seemed to me homogeneous and out of
place, and before 1 saw him dead found my
self rejecting show strange he would look
dying or Dead / had seen him in every
other part in the drama Of life, but for this
he seemed untitled. His remarkable social
qualities won for him the admiration of all
with whom he came into contact, while his
great kind heart caused all to love him who
knew him well. He was remarkably true in
his friendships. and having made a friend, he