Arizona republican., 1918-03-21

whatever gulfs of training. race or estate may separate you from him; and so makes it possible for one whose knowledge of him is as limited as mine to form some living acquaint- ance with the mind and character that lie beheath the smiling sur face.
 The first thing that strikes one in King Alfonso, apart from the fact that he is a young man of extremely agreeable manners, is certain mod esty of mind which I imagine is un- usual in ruling monarchs. It is true he is the king of Spain; but you feel also that he regards that position as furnishing 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 it's privileges than of it's opportunities. In every serious word he says you realize his own sense that besides being king he is human being, in a position of great responsibility towards 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.
 1 These are not easy times in which | to be a king" he said to me; 'one has to know a great deal more and work a great deal harder than in any other time And if you fail, your | failure means a great deal more. I may not be good enough for the post" he added, but anyhow l mean to try my best
 I quote his remark because I be- lieve it represents no mere affecta- tion, but a genuine sense of his re- responsibilities and of the difficulty of discharging them alright. It is not that he has an obsession as to the greatness of his position; rather that he has arrived at the conclusion along with most men of sense and spirit, that it is none too easy G task to fulfill ones whole obligations in any walk of life, and that the complications of constitutional sov- ereignity are not exactly things that make it easier.
 I His conversation is. I 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
 
 that changing tune of voices, all modulated to one more or less de- ferential key, with which it is the royal lot to De surrounded And his methods are very clear. He has :, trick of starting a subject by suddenly expressing a view, probably rather startling view, and possibly not at all his own view, in order to hear what you have to say. He is much more interested if you disagree with him than if you agree; and I am sure he takes 2 sly pleasure in the endorsements of those who desire, but are afraid, to disagree with him. And he is successful in his method. At the end of 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, a certain clear preference for the truth, even though it may not be agreeable, which courtiers are per haps not very quick to gratify It is difficult for an ordinary person, to whom the sources of information on things in general are open and who approaches them by the common ac- cess, to realize the difference be- tween his views of them and that of a monarch, to whom they are always interpreted in the light of his own position. The very minds of men are as difficult for him to know as the streets of his own capital Both are self conscious in his presence, they are turned, as it were, to him, and present the aspect which they deem suitable. He sees everything Tn full face, and nothing in profile. He hardly ever overhears or overlooks; what he hears is spoken to him, what he sees is prepared for him to look | at.
 The king of Spain is perfectly aware of this royal disadvantage, ana does what he can to overcome it. partly by seeing as many different kinds of people as he can and partly by the exercise of his own very con siderable intelligence. It is his char acter moreover, to be sympathetic, and this. too has it's pitfalls. for in matters outside his immediate knowl- edge he is readily open to persuasion Perhaps too open. for he seems some times to be influenced by views and ideas the basis and origin of which cannot ho really congenial to his own card'd mind. It is the weak ness of graceful natures. and in Dor AlfOrso there is an essential grace oi character outwardlv matched by ths gracefUlneSS of attitude and move ment which is remarkable even 1T