One more example of the same kind. The President is about to be married. The following is from a London paper, and though not so stated, it is, I trust, only inserted as a picture of the American system of lionizing any celebrity. The name of the bride that is to be is given in full. I substitute an initial. I conceive the article is taken from a New York paper, but this is not clearly stated, only that the source is American.
President Cleveland's approaching marriage is now regarded as a certainty. It is understood that the engagement took place during Miss F.'s last visit to Washington. If Mr. Cleveland is married at the White House, in June, it will be the second marriage of a President during his term of office. Mr. Tyler was married while he was President, but his marriage took place in New York. The best portrait of Miss F. now in Washington is a large one, which hangs in the President's bedroom. Miss F. was very averse to giving a sitting to the photographers when she was here, and has a great horror of publicity. When she was in Washington last, a number of paragraphs were printed about her school life, which she traced to one or two of her school friends. She quarrelled with them for it. It is said that she went away to Europe so as to be out of the range of possible gossip and criticism during the engagement period. Miss F.'s hair (says a correspondent) is soft and brown, of a shade between light and dark. It is combed well back from her full forehead and loose wave tendrils fall away from their confinement against the ivory whiteness of her face. She has violet blue eyes, a well-shaped nose and mouth, and a full, round chin. The warm pallor of her complexion contrasts with the deep red of her full lips, in which all her colour concentrates itself. Her shoulders are broad, and her bust and waist of classic proportions. She has finely moulded hands and feet; not small, but well suited to her height. With one other pupil at Aurora she shared the palm of being "the beauty of the school," the other being Miss Katherine Willard, of Illinois, who was her intimate friend, though not a fellow-senior, and she is now in Germany cultivating her voice. Miss F. has been with her there during much of the past winter. Many of the young ladies have flowers pressed in their albums, labelled "From the White House," these being mementoes given by her from the boxes of flowers weekly sent her by the President from his conservatories here. For her graduation, last June, he forwarded a particularly lavish supply. On that occasion she wore white satin, and, as one of her schoolmates describes her, "looked more like a goddess than a woman." Her student life has been marked by seriousness and deep religious feeling. She is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Buffalo. She was deeply loved by her teachers, more for her solidity of character and amiability of disposition than for exceptionally brilliant intellectual traits, though her average of scholarship was good.
The postal arrangements are good in the States. Postage is cheap, and letters are carried and delivered as safely there as in England. The street post-boxes though are not equal to English ones—they are small in size and fastened against the walls, instead of being prominent objects like ours. In some few towns, owing to the scarcity of labour, letters are not delivered at all. Each resident has a number assigned, and a corresponding pigeon-hole at the post-office, where his or her letters are placed. The letters have to be called or sent for. This was the case at Colorado Springs.
Why I know not, but the rule of the road is different in the States to ours. On meeting we take the left side, on passing the right; there they do just the opposite, as in France.
As a rule the Americans are not good drivers. A very common, not universal, habit is to hold a rein in each hand, and it goes without saying that a person doing so cannot drive well.
Their trotting-horses in the trotting-carriages (very light, four-wheeled vehicles, models of good workmanship, with fore and hind wheels of the same size) perform wonders. I speak under correction, but believe fifteen or sixteen miles in the hour is not an unusual feat. Anyhow, I am sure they can trot much faster than any horses we have.
As foolish as we are in that way, the bearing-rein is used in the States. But it is taken over the top of the head between the ears. I know not if this is better or worse than our plan, but this I do know, bearing-reins, like blinkers, are hurtful, cruel appendages to harness, and in India, where I owned horses, I used neither. Had I horses in England I would do the same.
The roads in the States are far behind ours. Perhaps to this is due the fact that there are not many bicycles and tricycles to be seen.
In the first days of November, 1885, I left the ranch on my way home. It was a trial parting with my sons. Let them even do well, it is pretty certain they will not return to England under fifteen years. I am not young, and I could not help feeling, as I said good-bye, that it was very doubtful if I should ever see them again. Still we parted cheerfully, for they were happy with their possessions and the sanguine hope that they were on the high road to fortune.