The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-01-11
THE OPEN WINII(IW.

me to wonder how much they know about
1t. The tango is not vulgar dance
unless it is made so by the dancers. Its
origin has nothing TO do with its present
form. When the tango was first danced
in this country it was danced vulgarly.
probably Just as it was on its native
heath. but II has become very much
modified and Is now. as danced by decent
people, as little vulgar as the minuet
danced BY our ancestors. A woman may
walk down the street vulgarly and at
tract unpleasant attention to herself. but
that Is no reason why walking should be
condemned
1t seems to me tina; the people who
are talking SO violently against the tango
have simply lost their heads and are
not open TO reason. They talk about sex
appeal in this dance. You can find sex
appeal in everything II you are looking
for 1t. in the boxes at the opera as well
as in the dancing at the cabarets. Tn
professional dancing IL sometimes not
what II should be. but in the best places
vulgar dancing is stopped at once. These
anti-tanRoists remind me OF woman who
cancelled her subscription to the Youths
Companion because there was picture
OF "A ballroom in it with ladies' In low
neck dresses She wrote 20 the editor
that she had grown son and that she
could not allow "A paper in her house
which had in 1t so much Of what Is now
called sex appeal
The fact that the Queen of England
fiowns upon the tango has done that
dance great harm In high society. and yet
Mrs. CORVALLIS West. who was formerly
Lady Randolph Churchill. is said to be
one of the most expert tango!sts in Lon
don society. ! don't know how they
dance the tango in England. but ! do
know how II Is danced az tine best places
in New York and ] can see no more harm
in It than in a Virginia reel.
do not wonder that England is aghast
at the great individual wealth of this
country. \ man worth fifty million
dies and until the day of his death and
this announcement is made comparatively
few people ever heard Of him, Some
time ago a man who was virtually un-
known died and left seven million and
that was nine days wonder. Now
Charles Appleby OF Mineola, l.. L..
dies and by his will divides the sum OF
fifty million dollars between two sons
II Mr.. Applehy had held IA conspicuous
social position everybody would have
| known just how much money he had
and his estate would have been discussed
from one end of the country to the other,
for II il be true that he left fifty mill
| ion he was worth very little less than
the late John Jacob Astor. whose wealth
made him famous on two continents.
| Lord Howard de Walden. who WAS the
richest unmarried peer in England is now
| that h. has committed matrimony not
| tho richest peer but At the same time a
| man %. much wealth. Lord Howard has
! literary aspiration. Some years ago !
| read in manuscript play that he had
written. which | do not think WAS ever
| produced. but that apparently did not
discourage him. for he has written the
| libretto Of more than one opera, and that
| these operas have not made "A great sue
cess has no, DISCOURAGED him either. Lord
| Howard Is a man Of simple taste. He
| will attend a fashionable tea arrayed
| in a flannel shirt and soft collar, he wears
no jewelry whatever and his watch chain
| Il. a leather boot lace. That he has lit
I ~rary aspiration is 10 his credit, for the
| aspirations " mosr young peers Of wealth
run in other directions.
| 4 man told M the other day that his
brother. who was an intimate friend OF
| Edgar Allen Poe. said that Poe completed
! '''rhc Raven" while walking up broadway
! one evening. The poet was calling on this
! friend. Cornelius Mathews, to whom he
| read The Raven as far AS he had writ
ten it. They walked uptown together and
Poe becoming suddenly inspired. stopped
! under a street lamp and wrote the con-
GLIDING stanza Of what is certainly among
the three OF four most famous poems ever
written by an American poet. This story
was told me by the brother OF Mr..
Mathews, who got it Al first hand
j. l.. q.