The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-10-28

 pointed keeper of the Alcazar and valet de chambre to the king; he was asked to inspect the royal buildings, and Philip was prudent enough to consult his taste in all things. And he, on his did dignity that We know the minis did dignity that fe know the minis ters and faVorites, the dwarfs and princes, of Philips reign more inti" mately than the friends of any other monarch. The position, doubtless, had it's disadvantages The treasury was not infrequently empty and the cour" tiers pension was paid at long and un~ certain intervals. Now you find him demanding four thousand ducats which are due to him; now you find the royal chancellor making shift to pay the debt by trivial instalments. But Velas- quez was no worse served than the others; and, as he was one of a vast household, as even els of black cloth was served out to him, he cannot have known the bitter disturbance of want. i A more poignant cause of gri. f to these i who esteem royal patronage a disgrace I is the place he occupied at the bull fights and boar hunts. In the Plaza Mayor he sat in the fourth story, among servants, barbers and others of lowly calling. But by this ne ghbor- hood no indignity was inf cted; the last detail of life was ordered by a strict et- iquette, which was far stronger than the will of the monarch or the privilege of art. Even the grandeas themselves obeyed the Strictest laws of honor and precedence, and since they were of many grades, they might not all march in the first rank. And if the name uf Velasquez does occur on the same list with dwarfs and others, to whom were given habits de merci, here again was ] no slight, for a dwarf was not seldom a ! great parsonage, and one at least, the celebrated Antonio el Ingles. had household of his own, with Tomas Pinto 1 for his governor.
 i Such was the life of Velasquez, and it 1 is not difficult to reconstruct his envi- ronment. The Madrid of the seven teenth century differed little from the enchanting capital of to-day. The landscape is unchanged the sky has not lost one touch of it's marvellous blue. If you look beyond the royal palace wou may still gaze upon the background of Velasquez's master pieces and convince yourself again of his astounding realism. The horses which he delighted to paint still prance upon the plains of Castle, and even the aspect of the streets is wholly transformed The Para Mayor is the same in color and design as 1t was in those old days, when the bulls of Anda- lusla died within it's space, and when cavaliers and their ladies looked out from windows hung with eastern tapes tries; while at the Puerta del Sol the bull-fghters gossip to-day with the same easy laziness as heretofore. True, the Buen Retire is no more, the palace which grew in night at a ma gician's word; but to-day the gardens do not disgrace their lavish architect, and at Aranjuez you may wonder in the groves whose shade once sheltered Philip " and his friends Moreover, Veasquez himself is no vague figure
 He painted his own portrait in the Surrender of Breda," that heroical presentation of war. which shames the vulgar clamor of these boastful days
 and in which the conquered general preserves his dignity, being honored even in defeat He stands among the maids of honor in his own splendid 'Meninas," and his features are as im- mortal as his work. His thick and
 bushy hair, his stern eyes, his lofty
 brow, are as familiar as Philips ma jestic figure. Habited always in black
 he seems as grave as the king himself
 and in his person the dignity of Spain
 suffered no diminution. In brief, to realize grandiose ideal of life it's place in history, no less than the win ming of battles, and Philips ambition
 was designed in part and wholly att tained by his fayorite painter.
 While Velasquez for the moment sur rendered his privilege, and permitted
 Rubens to paint his sovereign Rubens half repaid the debt by good counsel
 He urged Velasquez to visit Italy, and in 1929 Velasquez left Spain in the same boat which carried Spinola to Milan. He travelled not as an adventurer nor as beggar student, forced to pick up an unwilling ducat by the way, but as !; the honored representative of great , kingdom Philip " procured him let . ters to all the courts, and gave him for , talisman medal stamped with the royal effigy. At Rome he stayed at tn 2 Villa Medici, where he painted the ex- quisite landscapes now at Madrid; he made copies and bought pictures, and those bographers who complain that at bullfight he sat in the fourth story, f may remember that even in his jour- Z neys he travelled as courier, and re-. } cieved such consideration as might have been paid to his master. His sec ond visit to Rome was yet more glo- rious, for then he was at the zenith } of his fame, and found the doors of the academy instantly opened to him. Then, } too, he painted his masterpiece, the l portrait of Pope Innocent x, for which } he would receive no money saying that
 the king, his master, paid him enough; } and he only returned to Spain at the instant solicitation of Philip, whose let : ters of recall remain to attest the sin cerity of his friendship for the painter who was the serenist glory of his reign.
 So Velasquez grew in years and hon. or, until in 1852 he was appointed apo sentador, or grand marshal of the pal ace. Henceforth he lived in Alcazar, } he decorated the palaces. he set the kings chair at dinner, he devised pro- sessions and arranged the progresses of the king. His duties were onerous,