The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-27
SPAIN'S YOUTHFUL KING
NAMES AND TITLES OF ALFONSO
XIII, THE BOY MONARCH.
House of the BOurbOns a Family OF
Observation-Disclosures of Spaniards
Concerning Their Colonies.

st. Louis Republic.
His Catholic Majesty, the King of Spain,
less than twelve years old, is the possessor
of a formidable string of names and titles.
When one stops to think of the innumerable
family debates involved in supplying the
youthful American Smith, Jones or Robin
son with one or two Christian names he is
absolutely stupefied when he reflects upon
the mental anguish that must have been in
volved in giving to this young sprig of the
house of Bourbon his Christian names,
which are Alfonso Leon, Ferdinand, Mary,
James. Isdore, Pascal, Anthony
But these are not a circumstance to the
young fellows titles. He is King of Spain.
Of CASTLE of Leon, of Arragon, of the two
Sicilies, of Jerusalem, of Navarro, of Gren-
ada, of Toledo, of Valencia, of Galicia, of
Majorca, of Minorca, of Seville. of Cordena,
of Cordova. of Corcega. of Murcia. of Jaen,
Of Algarve, oe Algezire, of Gibraltar, of the
Canary isles. of the East Indies and the
West Indies. of India and OF the Oceanic
continent. Next he is Archduke of Austria,
Duke Of Bourgogne, of Brabant and of Mi
Ian; he is Count of Hapsburg, of Flanders,
of the Tyrol and of Barcelona; he is, fur
Their, Lord of Biscay and of Molina, but
here the judicious chrolicler of the Alma
mach de Gotha stops short, filing the line
out with etceteras, and leaving the mind be-
whdered with the thought OF additional cpl
thets, which doubtless belong to this pluto
crat Of titles
The truth is that the house of Bourbon,
to which young Alfonso belongs, has al
ways made a speciality of titles. In the
course of its long history which reaches
back to the time of certain Robert. the
Strong, Count of Anjou, who fiourished
about S64, its members have at one time or
other ruled over good part of Europe.
Each position Of this kind has meant a
title and when title was conferred upon
a Bourbon it stayed. Other things might
change, but the Bourbon delight in high
sounding names did not change. Indignant
peoples might pitch the members of this
ancient race from thrones, but they We're
powerless to prevent them from carrying
around their disused titles. The present
century has seen a bourbon King driven
from France, another from the two Slci-
lies, and a Bourbon grand duke deposed
from power in Parma, but the BourDonS
only smiled, gathered their titles around
them and became pretenderss which occu-
patton next to that of being King itself is
supposed to be one of the most leisurely
and dignihed known, and exactly hts the
Bourbon temperament
THE ONLY ENTHRONED BOURBON.
Poor little Alfonso. of Spain. is the only
one who is seated on a throne at present.
and. as is well known, his position Is far
from. secure. The Bourbon pretenders DO
rot even respect the claims Of this, the
only one Of their number who actually en-
joys the power denoted by some OF the
titles which they all possess SO plentifuily,
and Don Carlos is sitter the position now
held by his reIgning relative. The claim
OF Carlos has merits. He is the representa-
tive ef the eldest branch Of the bourbon
house Of Spain An American with als
Ideas Of propriety. however, would PC nk ss
y to Conclude that whoever the spanish
people accepted as King had the best Sht