The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1911-04-23
GOTHAM GOSSIP

New York, April 22.-Apparently
afraid to draw the FIRE of the spirited
wife Of his son, Roy Ellsworth Pierce,
H. Clay Pierce, the millionaire Texas
oil man, seems averse to accepting her
challenge to have her indicted for per-
jury. The young woman threatens
reprisals if he does. When she and
young Pierce were secretly married
In the City Hall on November 14th last
they swore at the Marriage License
Bureau to wrong names, and the bride,
in addition to stating that she was %
years old, when as a matter Of fact
she is said to admit being IS, declared
that she had never been married be-
fore. Investigation by the Pierces
show that she was divorced from T..
Irving Chapman, a millionaire OF
Brookline, Mass, in 1904, and that she
has since been receiving small week
ly remittance as alimony. Young
Pierce is now an inmate of sani-
tariun to which his family has had
him committed, and she has been re-
fused admission to him. Convinced
that his son was lured into the mar
rage by the wiles of the pretty dt-
vorcee, who has been furnished with a
large amount of money for several
years from some mysterious source,
H. Clay Pierce is disposed to invoke
the law on her if he can do so with
out stirring up too much Of a mess.
The wife is holding firmly to her po-
sition and defies him to institute pro-
ceedings against her. Various reports
are In circulation imputing to the
father of the young man desire to
have the trouble settled without
scandal by the payment to her of a
substantial lump sum in consideration
of her agreeing to an annulment OF
the marriage. Although the bride dis
avows a willingness to consider any
proposition along this line, it is re-
garded as most probable that she will
eventually accept 1t as the best So
luton of the problem that now con-
fronts her. II she refuses, II. Clay
Pierce will cut off the revenues of
his son and bend his efforts toward
keeping him in the sanitarium indefi-
nitely In this event he would be Of
little help or consolation to the wom-
an who bears his name and to whom
money for the maintenance of her ex-
pensive establishment is as essential
as water to a fish or digestion to an
epicure with an appetite for canvass
back duck.
No More q Ia Carte Marriages.
There will be no more marriages a
Ia carte in the Night Court If the
Magistrates sitting there are allowed
to have their way. Ever since this
branch of the lower criminal courts
was opened for the expeditions dispo-
sition Of police cases, the calls made
upon the presiding judges by couples
who decide to get married over a din
ner at one of the Broadway restau-
rants and want to have the knot tied
before midnight has been steadily in
creasing. The Night Court is open
from 9 to midnight, and from 1890 to
$3.50 a. m, and is usually thronged
with the backwash Of society, the
Magdalenes, pickpockets, 'rummies,"
and disorderlies who fall into the
nightly police dragnet The judges
think it is an atmosphere that is not
compatible with the soIemnity and
dignity of the marriage ceremony and
have been shooing away all applicants
for the last week. Wedlock, they say,
means a long journey in double har-
ness as a rule and a postponement of
the ceremony until morning will not
seriously interfere with the happiness
of anyone. Besides it will give those
who have not thoroughly considered
the seriousness of the step they medi-
tate taking, an opportunity for mature
reflection.