New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1918-03-13

+ traveller on the difficult road of roy
atty.
Il was his most loyal subject said
. King Alfonso: and very gracefully said
on the part of his Catholic Majesty
| have had other talks with his Ma
jesty in the same and other surround
/ ings-among them in those OF the
! Royal Palace in Madrid, perhaps the
| most magnificent of the lnhaohed
! houses of kings. There the Settlng Is
| so elaborate that one could hardly be
surprised to find the man being a little
| Obliterated by the monarch. But II
| was not so in my experience. When
after being passed from hand to hand
! one traverscd along the great cham Der
under the glowing canopy of Tiepolo
| il was the same friendly and unaffect-
cd graciousness that waited for one
and led the way to the little ante
room. where chairs and cigarettes
| were substituted for inclinations and
/ fornaliticS. BY dwelling on what he
has in common with YOU. and seem
| ing to ignore the rest. he throws a
light bridge across whatever CULTS Of
! training, race or estate may separate
YOU from him; and SO makes it pos
! sible for one whose knowledge OF him
| is as limited as mine to form some
living acquaintance with the mind ard
character that lie beneath the smiling
surface.
The first thing that strikes one in
King Alfonso, apart from the fact that
he is a young man Of extremely agree
able manners, is a certain modesty OF
mind. which I imagine is unusual in
ruling mOnaTchs. 1t Is true he is the
King of Spain; but you feel also that
l,x> CHI iyoor
him with the means of his life's work.
rather than as being itself the end;
that he values it much less for the
sake of its privileges than Of its OPP
portunities. In every serious word he
SAYS YOU realize his own sense that
besides being king he is a human be-
ing, in a position of great responsible
ity toward other human beings; that
his lot is cast in a difficult time, IN
which all true men are called upon
to exert their whole strength and pull
their whole weight.
These are not easy times in which
to be a king" he said to me; lone
has to know a great deal more and
work a great deal harder than in any
other time. And if you fail, your fail
urc means q great deal more. I may
not be good enough for the post he
added, but anyhow I mean to try nv
best
[ quote his remark because T believe
it represents no mere affectation, but
a genuine sense of his responsibilities
and Of the difficulty of discharging
them Alright. 1t is not that he has an
ohsession as to the greatness of his
position: rather that he has arrived
at the conclusion along with most men
j
easy q task to fulfill ones whole OBJ
legations in any walk of life, and that
the complications Of constitutional
sovereignty are not exactly things that
make it easier.
His conversation is, ] think, less an
expression of his own mind than a
search and angling exploration into
the mind of the person he is talking
to. He wants to know things, you
feel; to inform himself to fish out aud
extract the note of truth from that
changing tune of voices, all modulate
to one more or less deferential key,
with which it is the royal lot to be
surrounded. And his methods are very
clever. He has a trick Of starting a
subject by suddenly expressing a view,
probably rather a startling view, and
possibly not at all his own view, III
order to hear what you have to say.
He is much moro interested if YOU
disagree with him than if you agree:
and / am sure he takes a sly pleasure
in the embarrassments of those who
desire. but are afraid, to disagree with
him. And he is successful in his
method. At the end of a conversation
he will probably know much more
about you than you know about him.
But there shines through his inter-
course, certainly as I have found it.,
certain clear preference for the
truth even though it may not be
agreeable, which courtiers are perhaps
not very quick to crafty. 1t is diff
cult for an ordinary person, to whom
the sources of information on things
in general arc open and who ap
proaches them by the common access,
to realize the difference between his
views of them and that of a monarch,
to whom they are always interpreted
in the light of his own position. The