Talleyrand Motel

Talleyrand Model

The heir-apparent to the Van Climber (washing machine) millions elopes with a chorus girl. Parental displeasure is great. Public curiosity is greater. The Van Climbers disconnect their telephones, lock the crested gates of their country estate, refuse to be interviewed. For lack of facts, tabloids print lurid verbal composo-graphs, imaginary interviews, gossip gleaned in the Van Climber garage and scullery. Then the Van Climbers scowl and growl at the inaccuracy of the garbled stories, threaten to sue the offending journals. . . .

Such has been the history of many a U. S. scandal. But such was not the case last month when 19-year-old Howard, Prince of Sagan, son of the Duchess de Talleyrand, who was Anna, the daughter of the late wealthy Jay Gould, shot himself on purpose in his mother's Paris home. The press did not get wind of the story until last week. When the press came, the Duchess was ready with a frank, detailed and--most important of all--entirely literate statement; one that prevented garbling by scandal-monging journals. The statement said: "The Duke and Duchess de Talleyrand regret keenly to announce the critical illness of their son, Howard. . . . He shot himself because we refused him permission to marry until he was 21. ... The shooting took place in our home and our son was taken to a hospital in the Rue Puccini. . . . Our son is now in an extremely grave condition. We wish to emphasize that we had no objection to the girl, but only opposed the marriage because of our son's age."