The Pink Slip

MANNERS & MORALS

Algernon George de Vere Capell, bald, pipe-puffing 66-year-old eighth Earl of Essex, was taken slightly aback last week when a Seattle marriage-license clerk told him that he would have to wait three days before getting hitched. The Earl's bride-to-be, 37-year-old, New York-born Mildred Carlson, had come back to the U.S. from Australia to become his third wife, and he was naturally impatient to get the details concluded--he was short of dollars and planned to travel on Mildred's funds until he got to Bermuda and a rapprochement with the British pound.

When the clerk told him the three-day waiting period might be waived, he was delighted. He hurried Mildred to the chambers of Superior Judge Henry Clay Agnew and was given a pink slip. "Is that all?" asked the Earl, obviously rather astounded. "That's all," said the judge. Beaming, the Earl left, told newsmen he was now married, and departed with Mildred for a Tacoma motel which had been chosen as the type of nuptial chamber most suitable for one in the Earl's financial condition. "Her ladyship hasn't enough money for hotels," he explained.

But after darkness fell, complications set in. A reporter checked on the Earl's conclusion that he had been married by the judge--and found it false. A radio station gleefully put the news on the air. Mrs. Rose Musette, owner of the tourist camp, heard the program, narrowed her eyes, and called the State Patrol. The cops diplomatically called the British Consulate.

A little later the motel telephone rang; the consulate was on the line advising the Earl to get married. A little later, minus collar & tie, the Earl hurried Mildred and two hastily aroused witnesses into the home of Justice of the Peace Delbert Bresemann. The J.P. performed what he proudly described as a "candlelight office wedding."

Said he: "That's the first nobility I ever married."

Said Judge Agnew: "I don't see how a fellow could be so dumb."

Said the bride: "Enchanting . . . simply enchanting . . ."

Said the Earl: "All we wanted was a quiet little ceremony with no publicity.'

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