A Secret Life_ The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland - Charles Lachman [136]
On Monday, May 24, Frances and the other passengers awoke to a frigid day, and she asked Captain Nickels how it could be so cold that time of year. The Noordland, Nickels explained, was in northern waters, off the coast of Newfoundland, and he in fact had to be alert for icebergs that were too close for comfort. On Tuesday, the weather was warmed by the Gulf Stream, and Frances occupied herself writing a short story for the ship’s newspaper, the North Atlantic Spray. When the story, “Little Moll,” was read to the passengers, she tried to keep a straight face, but everyone knew that she had written the yarn, which had as its main characters Moll, a well-behaved waif, and Bartley, a redheaded and “very ugly” newspaper reporter for a New York daily.
The Noordland was 280 miles from New York harbor, and Frances was on the bridge, having been invited by Captain Nickels, when the Red Star Line’s pilot boat no. 22 pulled along the port side with news from America. Following the captain’s directive, Frances signaled the engine room to come to a full stop, and when the ship came to a standstill, a crewman from the pilot boat climbed on board with a bundle of newspapers. Then Frances, with a gentle nod from Nickels, gave the signal for the engineer to fire up the engines.
When the captain got a chance to read the papers, he called Ben Folsom to his cabin to tell him some distressing news: Colonel John Folsom was dead. According to the accounts, Frances’s grandfather had passed away on May 20 at the age of seventy-three on his two-hundred-acre farm in Folsomdale, the hamlet in Wyoming County, New York, that had been named for him. Folsom had been a colonel in the New York State militia and had died a wealthy man, with a reputed net worth of nearly half a million dollars from interests in milling, trading, farming, and the mining of potash. He also owned real estate in Omaha. Everyone in the family was aware that Frances had been the colonel’s favorite of his five grandchildren. Ben decided to keep Colonel Folsom’s death from Frances and Emma for the time being, and the next day, when the Noordland dropped anchor off Sandy Hook, New Jersey, Ben finally informed the Folsom ladies of Colonel Folsom’s death. Predictably, they took it hard, but after the immediate shock wore off, there were practical matters to think through. One plan under consideration had been for the wedding to take place on Colonel Folsom’s farm, but obviously that was now out of the question.
Now that the ship had reached port, as Frances wondered what would happen next, the United States revenue cutter William E. Chandler came alongside, with Dan Lamont on board.
Ben seized Lamont’s hand. “Why, old man, how are you?” Then he led the president’s emissary to the stateroom occupied by Frances and Emma. The Folsoms were given the full VIP treatment. Frances bid a quick farewell to all her Noordland friends and hurried down the gangplank. Miss Vollopoo, the dachshund, was left behind with the ship’s butcher, who promised to take care of her and keep her well fed until arrangements could be made to reunite her with the Folsoms.
As hundreds of Frances’s fellow passengers watched from the deck, the cutter, after some puffing and blowing, pushed off from the Noordland with Frances and her party on board and steamed to the U.S. Custom House on the tip of Manhattan for processing. They were stunned when an inspector named J. B. Haynes insisted that all their bags and trunks be subjected to routine examination. He dug his hands through everything, looking for dutiable items, and only then did he permit the Folsoms to pass through. When the Custom House