New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-11-14
RoYALrY,s LACK OF PRIVACY.

Few people in this country have any idea OF the
suffering which royal personages have to endure
in Europe from the lack OF privacy inherent 10 their
rank An extraordinary illustration thereon was
furnished the other day at Madrid on the occasion
OF the particularly sad death of the King Of Spain
alder sister the twenty-two-year old Princess of
the Asturias who succumbed to failure of the heart
forty-eight hours after giving premature birth to
little infanta.
II ever people yearn for privacy, it is when gath
cred around the deathbed of a dearly loved daugh-
ter wife and sister. receive her last farewell
Queen Christina, King Alfonso. the lnfanta Maria
Theresa and Don Carlos of Bourbon. husband OF
the DYING woman, We're thus assembled after the
princess had received absolutiOn from the rather
confessor of the family, when suddenly the great
folding doors of the apartment were thrown open
and escorted by the halberdiers OF the Royal
GuaYd the grand almoner of the court. followed by
all the canons and dgnitaries of the chapel Royal
some forty in number; by all the grand dgnitaries
of the court and officials of the royal household and
by all the grandees. men and women who hap
nened to be apprsed in time OF the impending cere-
n,onv marched into the death chamber. each bear
ing lighted candle. All dropped on their knees,
the halberdiers we'll as the others and after
administering the viaticum the grand almoner COM
menced to recte the prayers for the dying, to
which the responses made by the attendant
clergy and by all others present Before twenty
minutes had gone by the princess had passed away
While the sceno very solemn, yet the pres
ence of that vast crowd OF people, some or them
comparative strangers and barely known TO the
royal family, at such moment must have added
to the distress of the bereaved husband, mother
and other relatives They would naturally have
preferred that the young princess should have been
left TO them and 10 their old eamily chaplain and
trusted spiritual adviser during those last sad mo-
nents.
Rut the nexorable laws of Spanish court etiquette
REQUIRE that it should be otherwise ard that when
a member of the royal family is about to die-and
sometimes the death agony is terrible TO behold,
though It was not in the of the Princess OF
the Asturas-all the dignitaries OF the court. all
the guards on duty, the servants of the palace and
all the nobIemen and noblewOmen of grandee rank
who may happen to be at the palace should have
the right to put in appearance around the royal
deathbed and to witness the royal demise.
It in keeping with those other barbaric customs
which exact that the corpses Of Spanish royalty
should be reduced to the condition of a mummy by
not merely months but years of exposure to the
dry atmosphere OF the vaults cut in the rock
which the Palace of the Escurial is built before
being laid their last rest in the tombs that form
a feature of the palace nausOleum and church:
which require presence OF all sorts of great dig
nitaries OF state at royal births TO safeguard
against any danger OF superstition. and which at
Vienna at Dresden, at Munich, etc, demand that
the heart the viscera and the brain Of the royal
dead should be consigned TO the of other
dlated body IS laid.
The existence Of royalty IS marred by many
thorns. and one cannot feel astonished that its
members should sometimes express their eagerness
to barter all the advantages of their rank for those
enjoyed by the l.umblest peasantry. namely.
privacy and immunity from the laws Of court ETH
quette