19 3 9 
April 6 tii 
Up early, and all trunks and suitcases packed by eleven 
o’clock. With nothing further to do, I sat down and played 
solitaire waiting for news from Bill as to which train he 
planned to take to New York. At noon he dashed in, grabbed 
a raincoat, and we were off for the Argentine. 
New York was under a cloud. Rain poured a s from a dirty bucket, 
and I got out an old black straw hat instead of the white velour 
from Paris with which I had expected to dazzle Fiffa Avenue. 
Mort and DeBarry had the latch string out as usual, ad we 
curled up on their comfortable leather divans, had a. drink, and 
started using their telephone. At six- thi rty we gatherd at 
A1 Muller's (better known as "The Dutchmans") on 50th Street and 
had an e xcellent dinner. Met Beverley Kelly and Frank Braden, 
and were given tickets to the best box in Madison Square Garden, 
where we saw Ringling Brothers and Barnum and 3a.iley ' s Circus until 
nearly midnight. The show is different in many ways this year: 
Gargantua still scowls from his white-barred, air-conditioned 
cage, Ijut Frank Buck is not with the show ; the Wallendas are 
gone, but Dorothy Herbert is back. The featured act is Rosello, 
The Man in the Moon, and toward the end of the circus he climbs 
up eighty feet above the ring, and, shimmering in a white satin 
Pierot costume, goes through the old head-balancing routine on 
a trapeze that swings like a- crescent moon under the girders of the 
roof. Colored spotlights turn the moon and the man into glistenihg 
figures of rose and gold and green. It is a pretty act, and tie 
element of suspense and excitement comes from the dizzy height at 
which it is performed. Rosello has a new and spectacular way of 
coming down from his trapeze. A handle that looks like the 
grip on a skipping rope slides over the rope that dangles from 
the moon to the earth beneath. Holding onto this, to eliminate rope 
burns, the performer slides swiftly down. But to-night he slid too 
quickly. Just as Bill and I started to say in one breath "I never 
saw anyone come down as fart as that", the shining satin-clad figure 
left the rope, with twenty feet still to go, and fell to the platform 
below, a motionless body, crumpled forward on his knees. He was 
carried out unconscious. As nearly as we could tell, he had become 
dizzy at the great height, and had fai nted before he could get down. 
Next de,y we heard that he had fractured both wrists and one ankle. 
April 7 tli. jjew York. 
We spent part of the morning down on the pier arranging to 
have our animals stowed in the most convenient space. All the 
officials were unusually helpful and obliging, and seemed almost glad 
to have buffaloes, civet cats, prairie dogs, eagles, gila monsters, 
Emperor geese, and Texas wolves as passengers. 
We lunched at the Dut chman s , where we joined by Mary Slav in. 
She insists that Ark from Asia is a good book, but needs still a 
bit of work put into it. I am feeling too weary to promise to do 
any work on board ship, but finally cd nsent to take the manuscr ij-'t 
