The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-12-10
BOY KING's BRIDE-ELEcT.

.r4
 Bourbon Princess Chosen Long Ago by 1 Alfonso's Mother. ~
 People are beginning to talk about finding a wife for King Alfonso, al- though he is only seventeen years of
 age. His father was married at nine-
 teen. Alfonso is a strong, we'll devel-
 oped, vigorous boy, although there has
 been considerable anxiety about his lungs, for they have always been weak,
 and his father died of consumption. It
 is understood that his mother is anx- 1 ious to see him settled in life before he
 acquires any of the bad habits of his ancestors, for they have been wild lot. l No other young man Is so limited in
 his choice of wives, and he must marry
 one of his own relatives. There is mo- | body else to pick from. His wife must | be a Catholic. None but a member of ! that church could sit on the throne of Spain. There may be girls in the Pro- testant or Greek households of Europe
 who would change their religion to be- come Queen of Spain, but Cristina would n, permit her son to marry, an
 apostate, and only two royal Catholic
 families offer him choice of wives.
 He has two or three cousins and sec ond cousins in Austria, and there has
 been some talk about a match with the Archduchess Elizabeth, daughter of the l late prince Rudolph of Austria and the l Princess Stephanie of Belgium, but
 those who know we'll tell me there is
 nothing in it; nor is there anything in 4ha fo1 l., the newspapers about his marrying a South American girl. There is no Ar genuine millionaire's daughter in sight, and the traditions of the state would l not permit such a marriage. Nor could he select wife from among the daughters of the Spanish nobility The other noble families would not per-
 init it. No court except that of Aus tria is so strict and formal in it's eti-
 quette, and the women of the Spanish
 nobility would never bow before one of ! their own class. There is no available young woman in the royal family of
 Belgium, nor in that of Italy, and those are the only other Catholic nations.
 But am told by people who ought to
 know that the queen mother has saved
 us the trouble of hunting up wife for
 her son, and has had one waiting for
 him for these many years in the person i of the Princess Louise, daughter of the late Count of Paris, who served as an aide-de-camp to General Mcclellan during our civil war and was claimant for the throne of France. This family has furnished several royal consorts,
 and they have all turned out well.
 The Princess Louise is said to be a
 charming girl, beautiful in mind, per-
 son and disposition, and has been edu-
 cated for the throne of Spain, like her
 future husband. She is three years older than he having celebrated her
 twentieth birthday shortly after he was seventeen. This, however, is not seri-
 ous matter.
 Louise is half Spanish and second cousin to the king, being the grandniece
 of his grandmother, a relationship much further removed than has been
 usual among the kings and queens of Spain. She has spent nearly half her life in Spain. Her mother has large es-
 tates near Seville, with fine chateau and beautiful park which she occu-
 pies during the winter months, and spends her summers in a. villa among the Italian lakes. In passing through Madrid she invariably stops for visit, sometimes of two or three weeks, at the