New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-05-26
By Caroline Dawes Appleton

tNAHco Ae mashed across the
already lurid skies Of war with
meteoric brilliancy. The flames which
enwrapped him still burn, lingering to
cast lighv upon the darkness of his
lonely, rowing boyhood, the drab COM
monplaces Of his youth. For there
were drab places in his Kaleidoscope
career, and they lie like shadows across
the vivid page which reads of romance
and adventure, and the nomadic trail
which wound from Cuba to Bombay.
Cairo to Ceylon, Constantinople to
Algiers, and ended in streak of fire
across the skies of France.
While the world gasps at the exploits
Of the hero, the little town of Walling-
ford, in the Connecticut hills, where
lies Lufberys only personal link with
his paternal country, America, grills its
memory to recall significantly the ST.
lent, taciturn youth who lived and
worked there some twelve years ago,
nor showed any especial promise of
forthcoming glory.
Raoul Lufbery's childhood was spent
in France; not in Bonrges, as has been
supposed. but in Blois, near Tour. His
father, Edward Lufbery, the son Of
American parents hailing from New
Jersey, early evidenced the wandering
spirit which marked his son. He trav-
elled far for many firms, and while in
France married a French wife. who
died in few years, leaving behind her
three small sons. Of these was Raoul.
His father describes his childhood
doubtfully, at loss to reconcile his
early traits with his present fame.
He Was a Quiet
Boy-Not Gay
Raoul was heavy bodied and some
what feeble limbed in his babyhood
and later an unenthusiastic, almost mo-
rose, child, with but grave interest in
childish games. Neither was he a stu
dious lad, but an open and positive
enemy to all forms of schooling. His
games he approached with profound
analysis, dropping them abruptly upon
exhausting their possibilities for
amusement. So it was with Raoul in
his pursuit of trades and crafts in
later years. None could hold him
when he had learned the workings of
them.
One would think, observes Lufbery
pore, that Raoul had always been q
hero Of romance. But no-he was a
quiet boy, not gay, not gay at all!
Aftes his mothers death he was sent
to the hill country in France, Cevennes,
and boarded there with a peasant fam
lily for year Or two. The coarse black
bread, sour wine, savory ragouts and
the freedom of the open, sunlit country
strengthened the slim, coltlike limbs
and made muscular the heavy body
Somewhere in the hills the wandering
spirit was breathed into the grave
young soul of Raoul, and when he re-
turned to Blois it was not to remain.
The black apron, cropped head and
dog-eared books of the ecoLe ciarle at
Blois appealed to him not vt all. He
set out upon the smooth, white poplar
skirted roads of France a sturdy, self
sufficient child. He slept in fields and
beneath trees when he was tired,
worked for food when he was hungry
the trail of the petits Safeguards Of
rhyme and story, those ageless little
gamins whose wanderings have made
France pictureful since the Middle
Ages.
SO he roamed, always dutifully in
touch with his home and father at
blois, always within the boundaries
OF France. There are vineyards, for
ests, fields and mountains in the Midi
which could claim that with them Raoul
oweit awhile, passed on, returned and
passed again, leaving likeable but quite
International impressions behind him.
He was steady boy, they could say,
out not gay--not gay at all.
In these years his father married
again, also a Frenchwoman, who died
eventually, leaving him with five more
little ones. the youngest but a year
old. This latter age was a difficult
one, Lufbery pore admits, and too ex-
acting even for his paternal resource
fulnesss. From the other end of
France he summoned the ambulatory
Raoul. then fifteen, and requested his
assistance in caring for his compli-
Gated household. This responsibility
young Raoul assumed casually and
played nursemaid effectually for two
or three years. Then the year-old
difficulty in the form Of his young
half-sister, Berthe. became less diff.
cult; his older sisters, Yvonne, Marie
Louise and Germaine, were growing old
enough to fill this sphere of his use
fulnesss. So he moved on, leaving thi.
particular drab spot in his career, per
ceiving his duty to have been wei
done.
From this time on Raoul secured the
seven seas. Many anecdotes are tole
OF his adventures and many tales have
come to light with his fame. Hi.
father lays especial stress upon hi.
sons sojourn in Egypt. There hi
found the East which ordinary tray
ellers fail to find and he learned t.
love the freedom Of burning sands, tn.
fRaJ n 4 ~