New-York tribune., 1919-05-03
Castle in the Air
Mrs. Vernon Castles Book, MY Hus~
band, Is Vivid Story of Personality

MY HUSBAND. BY Mrs Vernon Castle Illus
r traed. Published by Charles scribner's Sons
Mrs. Castles book about her hus-
band is surprisingly interesting
piece of work The surprise lies in
the fact that an unframed writer has
succeeded in preparing SO good book.
Perhaps this should not be set down
as a sheer accident. After all, while
the book is free Of all witchery of per-
fected style, Mrs. Castle has none of
the annoying faults of people who
know q little about writing but not
mach. 1t is true, perhaps, that most
interesting books come from people
who know the business of writing down
to the last detail or from people who
know nothing. The world is filled with
inaccessible mountain ranges made up
of books by pretty good writer's.
There are occasional startling ef-
fects in "My Husband" because of the
fact that Mrs. Castle acknowledges no
responsibility to provide transition
from paragraph to paragraph. Thus
we may find a paragraph ending,
"Necessity made us dancers, and it
was not until we got ito Paris that
necessity urged u.s." while the next
paragraph begins: at was while we
were playing in The HenPecks' that
| first knew, or came to know, of Ver-
mons boundless love for animals"
No Cares Of Style
Perhaps the lack of all responsibility
IS one Of the attractive qualities of the
book. 1t Is not a piece of work that
has<been planned to death. OF course,
the unframed writer cannot compete
for attention unless she has an in
teresting story to tell. Here there is
no lack in the Castle book. The career
of the Castles is one of those fas-
cinating stories of an express journey
The most engaging part of the story
deals with the life of the dancers in
the days before they won their fame
They seem to have had pretty good
time of it in Paris, in spite of their
financial difficulties.
"We had borrowed from the man.
agement Of the theatre" writes Mrs.
Castle, "till we were afraid to ask for
more; in fact, we were very little
helped by the money that we borrowed
from the theatre, for it invariably had
to be turned over Immediately to our
landlady. She was large, noisy
paid in full Every time we paid the
rent, however, we had one good dinner
and blowout. 1t was usually ut some
little restaurant on the boulevard.
Walter always went with US, for he
was the only person we knew in Paris
and we loved his company We had
champagne on these occasions and more
than we wanted to eat, because there
was so little left from the rent it never
seemed worth saving"
Zowie, the bulldog, usually went
along on these parties and ate large
steaks specially ordered for him. Wal
ter was an old negro servant and
seems to have been useful one in
view of the fact that he drew no sal
ary. He was distinctly an asset, for
Mrs. Castle relates of one occasion,
upon which they were distinctly hard
up. "Walter came to the rescue at the
end of the fourth day. He rushed
into the room carrying many pack
ages. He had taught the valet in the
apartment below ours to play craps.
By risking nine centimes he had won
three and one-half francs"
Joys of Hardup Days
The hardup days must have been
good fun because Mrs. Castle dcvotes
so much attention to them and takes