New-York tribune., 1919-05-03

e'iuehI pleasure IN remembering
details. She tells how they first
danced at the Cafe de Paris, and how
Louis, the proprietor, came over at
the end OF the dance with 300 franc
tip from a Russian nobleman who
wanted an encore.
vernon was most embarrassed"
she writes, land quite proudly insisted
that we could not take the money. I
stepped hard on his foot and col
Jared the 300. did not feel that we
could refuse; primarily because we
needed 1T so much, and then | thought
that we might easily offend the Rus
sian nobleman by doing so. This
seemed to me an especially bad thing
TO 40, as it had been made clear to
US that he was so great friend of
LOUIS. was right, it was the custom
IN Paris to tip all entertainers lavish
~, and we afterward made much more
from tips than through our contracts
MRS. Castle also relates with great
pride that she and her husband always
had table reserved for them. "Be-
tore this cabaret entertainers had not
Deen allowed to sit at table as if
they were guests. They were accus-
toned to appear from the kitchen or
somewhere behind the piano"
With the beginning of the war there
is more material which is amusing
both in subtance and point of view
concerning the difficulties of transport
ing dogs from France to England on
the eve of a great conflict. Vernon
Castle expressed a desire to get into
the fighting, but at first his wife dis
ot ~ l., I,I
to go into aviation he found that Eng
land made enlistment no easy task.
There is an awful lot of waiting
around to be done," Vernon Castle
wrote early in 1916, II feel like bad
actor trying to see Shubert for a job"
Pastimes of an Aviator
The second half of the book is COM
posed entirely of Vernon Castles let
interesting literary material, because
Castle shows himself to have been
painstaking observer of little things.
Unlike so many books about the war,
all the interludes of soul searching are
reduced to a minimum. There are
brief stories Of fights in the sky, but
very much more about what the avi-
ators ate and drank and their favorte
photograph records. We also manage
to follow the career of Mrs. Vernon
Castle very closely, because her aviator
in all her activities. you're in Dayton
to-day" he writes. "Poor darling, it's
such a rotten town."
Castle seems to have had rather a
better time at the front than in London
during his few brief periods Of leave.
The dancing of his countrywomen dis
tresses him. "God! How the people
dance! Five years behind the times,"
is his judgment.
At the front things are more lively.
In accordance with flying traditions,
the antidote for the excitement of the
task at hand is an equal excitement in
the periods Of play.
II managed to get a block of ice
from hospital in a town near here"
Castle writes. "We'd never had ice here
before, and l made cocktails and cham
pagne cup. Most of the boys got fear
fully tight, but they are all very young
and felt all right this morning. l sup
pose it does one good to have a party
once in while, but nothing will make
me happy but you, darling. :"
A little later there is another party
which is recorded as a success. Zone
Of our guests got his face walked on
by a hobnailed boot and it was alto
gether jolly evening"
Castle Is Decorated
These are merely interludes. Castle
describes a number of air battles in
which he took part, and eventually he
received n decoration from the French.
After time he was sent to Canada as
an instructor and later to Texas, where
he met his death by attempting a diff
cult maneuvre in order to save another
machine.
Mrs. Castle is quite justifably re-
sentful Of the newspaper attitude, that
by dying an heroic death Vernon
Castle redeemed" himself. There
seems to have been no great score
charged against him. He pursued fun
pretty hard, finding it in drum playing
and polo and dogs and monkeys and
steeplechases, but for all that he had
time to influence American life very
considerably. Certainly he and Mrs.
Castle were the founders Of modern
dancing. This ought to be set down
on the credit side, we think. 1t has
taken ten years off here and twenty
pounds away there, and has served to
put little grace into modern living
which it might never have gained from
any other quarter. AS the prime movers
in the dance craze the Castles were in
teresting figures and "My Husband"
reflects with good deal of accuracy
two personalities which are pict-
uresque, if not profound. H. B.