DENMARK: Clifton &. Their Majesties

Clifton & Their Majesties

Distinctly trying to new U. S. Minister and Mrs. Ralph Harman Booth last week was a mishap to Clifton, their chauffeur.

Although the Booths had only just arrived in Denmark, although Clifton has a long record of safely conveying Mr. Booth to and from his office in the Buhl Building at Detroit, suddenly a sporty young Dane, one Einar, persuaded impeccable Clifton to take out the U. S. Minister’s car after dark, to pick up two young frokener.

Next morning Clifton and Einar sat in a Copenhagen dock. The two young frokener screamed charges that they had been treated worse than roughly. Einar, when he saw how things were shaping, “ran amuck in the courtroom” according to Copenhagen newspapers, and “overpowered by three policemen, was locked up in a cell, howling for drugs.”

Clifton, who had sat quietly through the running-amuck, said in his deferential chauffeur’s voice that of course he had not molested either of the frokener, but he confessed in barely audible tones, “I did take out Mr. Booth’s car … for the evening . . . without permission.”

Indulgent, the Danish judge released Clifton from custody. When the frokener raised a clamor, policemen shushed them. Next day Clifton moped while a Royal automobile flanked by a company of His Majesty’s Guards carried the U. S. Minister to Castle Amalienborg. Afterpresenting credentials to King Christian X, Mr. Booth was presented to Queen Alexandrine.