Norwich bulletin., 1920-06-01
Five Minutes a Day
 With Our Presidents
Copyright 1s2o-Ry James Morgan
xvII.-A BRIDE AND GROOM II
 THE WHITE HOUSE.

LXvHL-A BRIDE AND GROOM IN
 THE WHITE HOUSE.
 1ss4-July 21. Frances Folsom. horn
 in Buffalo.
 1ss5-Graduated from Wells Col
 legs.
 1ss6-June 2. married President
 Cleveland in the White House.
 1913-February 10, married Prof. Thomas J. Preston at Prince ton. T.
 As the democrats had lost power un- der bachelor president, James Bucha- nan, they rcgained it after a quarter of a century under another bachelor presi- 6ens. That strange coincidence was brought to an end by Cleveland's mar l riaee i7 the second year of his admin | istration.
 Rose Elizabeth Cleveland. spinster sister. had ia thfully held her place in the White House by the side of her 1 bachelor brother. But Miss Cleveland's tastes were more literary than social. | By her own confession, she relieved the | boredom of ct least one function by con- | jugating a Greek verb behind her com
 pany smile.
 From the day Cleveland entered the l executive mansion at Albany, gossip 1 busily made matches for him with one 1 after another, of the eligible women who appeared at his receptions special fa- 1 yorite of those persistent rumors was 1 was the pretty widow of one of his old law partners, Oscar Folsom, whose home
 was one of the few homes in Buffalo where this unsocial person had been in the habit of visiting. It was not sus- pected that all along his own choice had been the daughter rather than the mo-
 ther.
 When she was a little girl, Frances
 Folsom used to climb up in the lap of l Uncle Cleve," who became her guardian | at her fathers death and finally her be-
 trothed. This change in her relation ship to him took place so gradually thai it was unseen even by the spying eyes of her sister students at Wells college
 They envied her the beautiful flower; , with which the thoughtful governor anc |, president remembered special occasions ,, in her school life But they did not , dream that she was to have the distinc , tion of being the first college-bred mis
 tress of the White House.
 Mrs. Folsom and her dauChter wer' s1,ests of the president and Miss Cleve Y land in their first month at the Whit f House. Even the wiseacres of Washing I ton did not guess that the beautlfu young girl who was present at recep tion-all in white-would in anotne wear be the bride of her host : Miss Folsom had graduated and va 0 1 travelling in Europe when the countr, = was set in a hutter by the announce h n,Ant of her engagement. She returne' t home to meet such an ordeal as no oth r CT American girl of 22 ever has faced e Her name was on every tongue in Amer h 1 ica; her portrait was in every paper t and the press boats crowded about he S ship from which she was smuggie s aboard a revenue cutter to aVold tn - curious crowd at the New York docf n | While she watched from behind the cur n tains of her hotel window the presiden d reviewing a Memorial Day parade l Y thA souare below; the marching band Is played love tunes.
 s There had been only one marriage o A president, and John Tyler was WIG d over. which took some of the romano IS out of the occasion. For the hrst tlnl " a president was to marry in the wnl' l. House As Miss Folsorns mother ha Ie given LID her home and as her grandfs k 'thAr's house was in mourning for n m recent death, like the afflanced of so' n ereign she went to her husbands non -e to be married.
 ts The wedding in the Blue Room va l. extremely simple, the only guests oeln ,n a few relatives of the bride ana grool "a and the members of the cabinet Att' ., inc cake had been cut in the state dii .d ing room. the bridal pair succeeded ,t.I stealing out the back door under COW in 1 of darkness to waiting train ln
 switch yard They had eluded the e
 l rious crowds gathered in front of u m White House and at the station, but n re the ubiquitous press, whose locomotl' Id was under steam and in readiness Jn nurs,,e them, with trainload Of repor D. CTS. to their honeymoon retreat in u st Maryland mountains. 1g Cleveland, who never had known U he eonnfort of a house of his own, disllk en inc publicity of the White House al s- had bought a suburban dwelling in wh he was then a remote and inaccessible co "a ner of the District of Columbia. ! an president ever has been quite so 1ealo he of his privacy and none has sufter a. more from it's invasion.
 all The continued attention of vigila an uress wherever the presidential couE .es went was indignantly resented by [ d. bridegroom, who hotly denounced t it "ghouiish giee" with which his fam ITS affairs were discussed. More nalicio' IT, more cruel were the imprinted ta nd which were persistentiy circulated he long as he remained in public life. F .ss relations as a husband and even til children were made the subjects of ,at manner of atrocious stories, invented lse malignant opponents, and which h. uuureiudiced and the credulous spre he in whispers over the country. .ds Such attacks were too low to be n no and parried president hardly c @a l nrofesf that he is not | cruel huSba