The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-28

land" by Col. w. H. Crook, Disburs-
 ing officer of the White House, in the
 Saturday Evening Post.
 Q during MT. Cleveland. first aa-
 ministration was his wedding to Miss Frances Folsom. which occurred on June ?, 1886; and in this the Presi- dents dislike of show and extravaganza was again manifested. To the great dis appointment of official Washington, and perhaps to the disappointment Of the na- ton at large, the marriage was solemn ized as quietly as possible. The main reason for the private nature of this event lay in the fact that the brides grandfather had died not long before; but even if there had been no such con- dition I am confident that MT. Cleveland would have tried his best to avoid any publicity in connection with 1t.
 It will be remembered that Miss Folsom was the daughter of one of MT. Cleve- lands old law partners, who had died some years before, and that she had been under MT. Cleyeland's guardianship as a ward. At the. time of the wedding the President was mature man, but when she stepped from the train early on the morning of June ?, and was met by the Presidents sister and driven to the White House, the bride-to-be was only 22 years of age, in the full bloom of youth, her beauty and grace and carriage en- hanced and made almost luminous by an aura of spirituality that enveloped her.
 She was accompanied to Washington by her mother and by her cousin, Benja- min Folsom, and as soon as they could alight from the train and step into the Presidents carriage, where Miss Rose Elizabeth Cleveland was waiting, Haw- lxins, the negro coachman, swished his whip and they whirled away at high speed, hoping to evade or elude or out distance the army of newspaper men that had come from New York on the same train When the carriage reached the White House the servants-these who by any excuse could be present-were walt ing around the doors to witness the ar- rival of the bride. AS she almost ran up the steps and swept through the great entrance like a vision of springtime, a gasp of surprise and delight burst from those kindly servitors. and from that in stant every man and woman of them was her devoted slave. and remained such un- til Mrs. Cleveland left the White House for the last time, Il years later, on March 4, 1897, when MT. Mckinley took up his residence there.
 The day of the wedding President Cleveland spent in working as hard as he ever did in his life, although he made two or three short breaks in 1t; once or twice to chat with Miss Folsom and her mother, and once in the afternoon when he went for short drive. During the afternoon an inquiry came from the Postmaster General as to whether he could possibly find time to sign two or three postmasters' commissions that were ready to be sent out; and I recollect the comical expression on President Cleveland's face as he lifted the Post master Generals letter above the pile of papers on his desk and exclaimed: "Yes, I will sign; but tell him to get those documents here as quick as the good Lord will let him"
 | John Philip Sousa and the full strength of the Marine band were wait ing in the place assigned to them in the White House. Fifteen seconds before | 2 o'clock Sousa's baton was poised in the air. Exactly as the hands of the
 White House clocks touched the baton
 descended, and the same instant the band struck up Mendelssohn's Wedding March. and everybody knew that the marriage ceremony was about to begin. | By that time the few guests were in their places, and included in addition to the
 cabinet officers and their wives-with the exception of Attorney General Garland