The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-12-27
ECONOMY AMONG KINGS.


ECONOMY AMONG KINGS.
The Fortune Left by Poor Little Alfonso
Other Money-Saying Monarchs. .
Paris Letter, in London Truth.
Alfonso was not quite eleven years on the
throne. He has left q fortune exceeding 80
OOO0OOf to his family. He was nice little
fellow, but. while not Ounce, was by no
means a head of wit He had weak constitu
ton. If he had been a workman artisan,
or had followed profession for livelihood, he
could not have earned the barest bread and
cheese. The financial position of his widow and
daughter shows that no business is so good as
that of reigning, provided the monarch is of a
frugal mind. l can't think how it was possible,
seeing what are the civil list charges which the
Spanish crown is obliged to meet. for Alphonso
to save couple of millions sterling. He went
back to Spain on money borrowed by his mother,
and when his sister was Regent it was she, and
not he, who benefited by che savings that were
effected. Had his first wife lived, she would
have been very rich. She was not given dowry
at all proportionate to her fathers wealth.
Part Of it consisted in an estate in Estremadura,
require a Ear greater outlay than the
King could afford Queen Christmas relations
also haggled about her dowry and l RENE mber
hearing Spaniards complain that they seemed to
think the matrimonial crown Of Spain was not
worth anything unless wearing it involved an
allowance from the Cortes too handsome for
impoverished country to pay. Where, then did
the great fortune come from9 1t is said that
large part of it arises out of policies of insurance
effected in the United States by Alfonso. But
can't imagine how the doctor Of any American
insurance company could have taken the chance
of a man with little pinched neck living long
enough for the Office to be the gamer Door.
weedy neck means shaky constitution.
Wherever the neck is powerful, the general Or
ganization is one to resist more than the ordi-
mary wear and tear of life. Alfonso was, more
over, obliged when he was in multi to wear
high dog collar. He would not have been ac-
cepted as recruit by any military doctor, no
matter where. 1 handled the suits of clothes or
dered for him after the successful pronuHcia-
mento which made him King was effected. The
English tailor who made them told me that he
was instructed to give his Majesty the volume of
chest and the breadth of shoulders which nature
had denied him. He also informed me that the
saddle on which he was to ride in public was of
peculiar construction and would make the King
appear of better height than he really
Grasping monarchs are not peculiar to any
country. They always existed But frugal SOW
ereigns were. until our time, the exception
Their care for money is a sign that they them
selves feel that the institution which each Of
them represents is attacked with creeping paraly-
sis. Charlemagne was economical without being
stingy, Louis the XI was greedy of his peoples
substance, and miserly. Louis MI was near,
and as he only had daughters he took great care
to increase his private fortune out of the reve-
u.
came the wife of Francis I, and she quickly
dashed away her share Of her fathers savings.
Henri " was economical because patriot and
afraid of the austere Sully. who was the keeper
of his conscience. Louis Philippe was mean in
the sense the Americans attach to the word, and
had no perception of any kind OF grandeur.
He cut down ruthlessly, to make money
out of Them trees in his parks which had
weathered the storms of many hundred years.
His meannsss was the ruin of his dynasty. From
c. d. H.
Athens, thrift now reigns There is hardly
sovereign who feels that the income allowed him
by the nation over which he reigns is not for
him OF her, bat for the dignity of the crown,
and to act as head waiter on national industry.
The Gear and Czarina themselves, colossal as
their private fortune is, are intent on making it
much greater. Stinginess is traditional in the
house of Hohenzollern; but their civil list
allowances have been never great, and they
shrink from no duty, however hard OF irksome.
They have public spirit in a high degree, and
command respect. The late King of Sweden
beaueathed his only daughter the largest fortune
that was ever known or in Scandinavia and it
would have been counted q great one all the
world over. His father was Bernadotte the
son Of Bearnais lawyer of small provincial
practice.
In Belgium the royal family is also pluto
cratic one Although Leopold l was fieeced by
fair harpies in his old age, he left each Of his
three children about a million sterling. Yet NJ.
Etienne Arago remembers when he had to 60 in
debt for some French embroidered muslin,
which he bought to make presents to the sisters
of his i'm 1Sl6) master, the Gear. Empress
Elizabeth is prodigal, and thinks she can never
spend enough on her stables and dog-kennes;
but the Emperor is anxious to swell his invest
ments, and the Crown Prince and Princess pare
cheese. In Italy, the King saves to pay his
fathers debts, and nobody, therefore, complains
of his thrift. Ludwig of Bavaria is not of his
time. His brother of Wurtemberg rs not per-
sonally extravagant like our James |, but is pro-
fuse through favorites The one now dominat-
ing him Is an American, who succeeded an
American. At Lisbon. the King dowager has
amassed so much as to be able to spend millions
of francs on mis- country house near Cintra, and
in furnishing it and the palace where he and his
amiable wife live in winter. Maria Pia. being
passionately fond of dress Dom Luis pinches in
the stables and wherever else he can. He, how
ever onlv saves out of his income