The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-05
THE TOMB WHICH AWAITS
ALEC ONSO---ESCUR URIAL BUILT BY
 PHILIP 1T.
Odd Architecture and Some Local
 Legends.

Several years before the Spanish
 American war a curly haired, dark
 eyed boy about 10 years old, with
 wistful, pinched expression on his girls
 face, was taken from Madrid to the
 Escurial to see his own tomb. A coun-
 cior of state and many grandees and
 ecclesiasts surrounded the child, but
 when he had descended the dark, wind
 ing steps into the chambers lined with
 the collins of the dead he sprang from
 among the dignified throng and fled up
 the stairs shrieking for "Mamita" Qit-
 tie mother, and the queen of span
 took her little boy in her arms and car
 ried him back to Madrid. When Al
 fonso XIII of Spain lays down his
 scepter he will be buried in a gilded
 metal and marble box and lodged on
 shelf with his ancestors under the hlgh
 altar in the church in the Escurial. The
 kings of Spain and their mothers since
 the time of Philip II lie in these vaults.
 Ferdinand and Isabella are exceptions
 for they repose in magnificent tomb at
 the place of their triumph over the
 Moor in Granada.
 A dirty old man in greasy clothes,
 carrying the odor of stale tobacco and
 bad wine, hobbies away to get the keys
 of Spain's Pantheon and requests the
 visitor to remove his hat, flor senor is
 in Gods house and in the presence of the ancient, glories of Spain.' The room Is octagonal and on six of the sides are ranged the sarcophagi one above the other and all alike. An untempered light streams in from above and the showy urns glimmer and shine like mirrors. Gold and tinsel are every where. Madrid calls it 'The little ball. room." The American is irreslstibly reminded of a bar room. In the fourth space of a tier near a little altar is Al fonso's niche, The medallion set into the urn above shows that it contains the body of Ferdinand II. Below is All fonso XIII, who died in 1885. Alfonso's medallion is blank. May 1t remain so forever" says the dirty cicerone grunt- ing up the stairs and holding out grimy paw for peseta and a half "propina' (tip). Thirty cents to see a | collection of Spain's kings!
 The Escurial was reckoned by the | Spaniards as the eighth wonder of the | world The Pantheon is lost in church | which is 110 yards long and Is in turn lost in the immensity of the mass Of | buildings which surround it. The edif1ca l contains in addition to the church mon- | astery, a museum of statuary, gallery | of paintings, a treasury of religious relics, containing nearly 5000 pieces, | convent with square cloisters 2l0 rect on each side, library 200 feet long palace almost as large IS that in which Alfonso lives in Madrid and innumer- able stables, barracks and out build ings Philip IT built the Escurial and stamped his morbid individuality upon it. It is somber, huge and forbidding. The immense facdae is of awful sim- plicity. Philip compelled his architect to build his self-containing little world in the form of gridiron to obtain the favorable intercession of St Lorenso, who is supposed to have suffered mar tyrdom by being slowly roasted to death. The structure contains 16 courts, 40 altars, 5000 running feet of fires coes, S9 fountains and 96 miles of cor riders. In the loft of the church are huge metal clasped hymn books, each page of which is made of an entire sheen skin The notes are as large as dollars in order to be visible to part of the choir which sat at distance from the music leader. A year or two ago. when Alfonso had become fully , developed boy, he bet with comrade that he could lift one of the books, and { the friend won the kings money. h
 The Escurial is 30 miles from Madrid and the kings of Spain have been in the , habit of retiring behind it's walls when z political disturbances threatened their 7 safety in Madrid, "To go to the Es- f ,ural" has become significant phrase f among the bull-fighting. cigaret pufffng, wine rabble of the Madrid suburbs. f During the minority of the king the bit r terness of the populace against the n